Israel Air Force Lt. Col. Ron Tuegeman drafted the report, supported by
the Israeli National Defense College and the Fisher Brothers Institute for
Air and Space Strategic Studies. The air force has been on alert for Al
Qaida-type suicide strikes, particularly from neighboring Lebanon.
The report cited the Israeli southern city of Eilat. Eilat is located
next to airports in neighboring Egypt and Jordan, and close to an air
path to the Gulf.
"The city of Eilat is an example of the complexity of policy-making
following the signing of peace accords," the report said. "The new flight
paths G-183 and 'Trans-Israel,' which opened during a period of positive
trends in planning, are now weak points which put the Israeli air defense
establishment in a very difficult position. 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."
The report said Israel must take into account the vulnerability of its
air space in any accord with the Palestinian Authority. Researchers cited
Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport, located within three kilometers
of the West Bank.
"It will be enough if the Palestinians acquire an anti-aircraft missile
system — shoulder-launched missiles such as SA-7 — to shut down Ben-Gurion
Airport and effectively halt the majority of Israeli air traffic," the
report said. "In any political-security agreement, Israel will not be able
to concede sovereignty over its air space to any neighboring Palestinian
entity that will be established."
To see these two men honored by President Bush with the Presidential Medal of Freedom was shocking.
They both deserved major reprimands and removal from their posts, rather than medals. Their effrontery has no bounds evidenced when each produced a book seeking to absolve themselves of blame. Both have since been hooted off the stage by the reading public.