Israel's peace deals with its Arab neighbors increase the risk of
airborne terrorist attacks, a study warned.
Published: 03/25/2008
Israel's peace deals with its Arab neighbors increase the risk of
airborne terrorist attacks, a study warned.
Ron Tuegeman, an Israel Air Force lieutenant-colonel conducting
research at Haifa University and the Fisher Brothers Institute for Air and
Space Strategic Studies and Israel's National Defense College, on Tuesday
made public a summary of his thesis about the impact of recent peace
accords on national security.
Tuegeman said Israel did not take into sufficient consideration, when
it made peace with Jordan and Egypt, that it was effectively opening up
its airspace to civilian planes that easily could be commandeered by Arab
terrorists for 9/11-style ramming attacks.
"It seems that today, with the hindsight of the air terror attack on
the United States, these lanes of air travel would not have been opened,"
Tuegeman wrote.
He urged Israeli decision-makers to consider the implications of any
future handover of the West Bank to a Palestinian Authority with
insufficient security provisions.
"It will be enough if the Palestinians acquire an anti-aircraft missile
system -- shoulder-fired missiles such as SA-7 -- to shut down Ben Gurion
Airport and effectively halt the majority of Israeli air traffic,"
Tuegeman wrote. "In any political-security agreement, Israel will not be
able to concede sovereignty over its airspace to any neighboring
Palestinian entity that will be established."
Original article: JTA
Fair Use Notice
BACK
|