Israel Has Built A Robot Army (And It Should Scare The Sh*t Out Of You)

Authored by Darius Shahtahmasebi via TheAntiMedia.org,

As Israel prepares for yet another war directly on its border, the truth about Israel’s vast military capabilities has been largely absent in the corporate media.

However, if one were to be fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to be able to travel to Israel’s border with Syria in the north and the Gaza strip in the south, they might see what looks more or less like a scene from RoboCop.

Israel is the first country in the world to use unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to not only patrol its borders but also to replace soldiers on missions, as well. The new Border Patroller model can be armed with remote-controlled weapons, reconnaissance means, and additional components that cannot be fitted on the traditional Guardium model it had been using for years prior.

The robot is also able to patrol underground and gather information for units that are present on the surface. For example, it can help soldiers avoid booby-trapped tunnels.

These robots can be given pre-designated routes for their patrol, making them more or less autonomous.

According to the New York Post:

“The increasing use of robots by the Israel Defense Forces is part of a larger strategy to minimize risk to soldiers when possible. In addition, soldiers require breaks, food and water. All a Guardium needs is a full tank of gas. Other UGVs in use by the IDF include the Segev, which is based on a Ford F-350 pickup truck.”

However, this is only the beginning of Israel’s robotic capabilities. As the Post notes, the same thing is happening in the water, too.

Israeli defense contractor Rafael has developed an unmanned patrol ship that is currently defending Israel’s strategic ports and patrolling the coastline.

Israel also has advanced a “drone that can reach Iran,”  an unmanned aerial vehicle that can stay airborne for 24 hours and is believed to be capable of launching air-to-surface missiles. Israel has also deployed satellites far smaller than American ones that can discern objects as small as 20 inches from hundreds of miles away.

If that wasn’t enough, the small nation has also developed a tank that more or less comes with its own personal missile defense system.

Earlier this year, Defense News reported that Israel is readying its Iron Dome defense system for its first intercept test in the U.S., which is aimed at selecting an interim solution for a medium and short-range air defense system.

Not to mention that according to former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s leaked emails, the country has at least 200 nuclear weapons “all targeted on Tehran.”

So why is Israel going to such great lengths to modernize its army far beyond that of any other country?

As the New York Post explains:

“Due to Israel’s small size and lack of territory, all ballistic missiles deployed in the region — Syria, Iraq and Iran — can reach anywhere within the country and pose a strategic and possibly even existential threat. Israel, the developers argued, needed a system that could shoot down enemy missiles over neighboring countries and provide overall protection for the tiny Jewish state.”

In fact, a top Israeli general has already admitted that the country cannot fight Iran alone and would instead seek to rely on American help to take on the Islamic Republic if a direct conflict should ever arise.

So, are Israel’s advances in military technology purely defensive and for deterrence purposes only, or does the country’s leadership have something far more preemptive in mind in the coming years under the Trump administration?

Only time will tell, but one way or the other, these vast technological developments will be frightening for the civilians caught in the middle, to say the least.

US, Russia Agree On "Iran-Free Zone" In Syria

Multiple Israeli news outlets reported Saturday that the US, Russia, and Jordan have reached a ceasefire agreement over southern Syria which proposes to expel Iran-backed militias from the border with Israel in the Golan Heights. The reports came on the same day presidents Trump and Putin issued a joint statement on Syria after meeting on the sidelines of the APEC conference in Danang, Vietnam, which reaffirmed de-confliction efforts as both countries fight ISIS and underscored willingness to keep Syria"s territorial integrity intact while pursuing the Geneva process.

Though the joint statement references the "Memorandum of Principles concluded in Amman, Jordan", it doesn"t make explicit reference to Iran or Hezbollah, but more broadly to efforts for "the reduction, and ultimate elimination of foreign forces and foreign fighters from the area to ensure a more sustainable peace."

Image source: Getty images

But according to The Times of Israel, the Amman agreement is geared toward preventing a continuing Iranian presence in Syria:

Under the agreement apparently inked Saturday, all non-Syrian fighters, including Iranian proxies fighting on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, would be required to leave the border area and eventually Syria, Hebrew media reports said Sunday, citing an American official.

Currently, there"s been no confirmation of whether or not the deal actually singles out "Iranian proxies" or if Israel had any influence within the negotiations. The deal is based on a previous ceasefire agreement reached in July in Astana, Kazakhstan - a deal which Israel blasted at the time as being too tolerant of Iran"s presence in Syria. 

As part of the Astana talks, Trump agreed to a southwest Syria "de-escalation zone" with Russia, which would necessarily involve Iranian cooperation. The agreement implicitly acknowledged Iran"s troop presence in Syria as legitimate, and as reported at the time further "ignored Israel’s positions almost completely." But analysts have been in general agreement that the US-Russia brokered deal has been relatively successful and a step in the right direction. 

A subsequent Reuters report covering a contentious Netanyahu-Putin meeting in August bluntly acknowledged Israel"s willingness to see the Iranian and Shia allies of Assad expelled from the region, even if that should mean the ascendancy of ISIS. According to the Reuters report: 

In parallel to lobbying Moscow, Israel has been trying to persuade Washington that Iran and its guerrilla partners, not Islamic State, pose the greater common threat in the region.

For this reason, Israel has blamed - seemingly without any pretense of an investigation - each and every border incident on Syria and its allies, to the point that even when anti-Assad groups fire mortars in the direction of Israeli territory, the Israeli military response targets Syrian government forces.  

This phenomenon has been long recorded by United Nations investigative reports. For example, in October 2014 the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which at that time still had a significant presence in the Golan area, reported to the UN Security Council:

On 23 June [2014], Israel targeted nine Syrian army positions with tank fire and air strikes after mortar fire from the Syrian side the previous day killed an Israeli civilian. Israel’s assessment is that most of these incidents are due to errant fire resulting from fighting in Syria. Israel said that armed opposition groups were probably responsible but that its forces fired on Syrian military positions to stress that Syria was responsible for security on its side of the ceasefire line.

Since then Israel has repeatedly struck targets inside Syria deemed to be Hezbollah weapons storage locations - and over the past year such airstrikes have occurred almost weekly - with Israeli jets often firing from over Lebanese airspace. 

And again over the weekend Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reportedly shot down a drone above the Golan Heights, which the IDF claimed was a "Syrian Spy drone" which originated with either Iran or Hezbollah. The incident prompted Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman to once again threaten Syria. “The Syrian regime is responsible for every attack and violation of our sovereignty, and we will not allow the Shiite axis to be established in Syria as a base for action,” Liberman said.

On Friday Israel continued to escalate its rhetoric after a dubious report published by the BBC claimed that Iran has established a military base at a site used by the Syrian army outside El-Kiswah, 14 km (8 miles) south of Damascus. For Israel this would constitute the crossing of a "red line" by Iran: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu recently warned that Iran wanted to establish itself militarily in Syria. "Israel will not let that happen," he said.

Though Israeli media appears to be reporting the latest "deescalation agreement" in southern Syria which would force the exit of Iranian proxies as an Israeli diplomatic victory, it is unlikely that Israel"s heightening war rhetoric will cease.

Israel Threatens To Destroy Syrian Air Defence Systems

Two days after Syria claimed it had shot down an Israel jet over its territory on Friday morning, an incident Israel denied even if it admitted violating Syria"s sovereign airspace by engaging in an air raid near Palmyra, the Israeli defense minister threatened to destroy Syrian air defenses after they shot (but allegedly did not down) at Israeli warplanes, which violated Syrian airspace and bombed targets on Syrian soil.

“Next time, if the Syrian aerial defense apparatus acts against our planes, we will destroy it,” Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli Public Radio on Sunday, in a statement which seemed to lend credence to the Syrian contention that it had taken down an Israel jet.

#BREAKING Israeli minister threatens to destroy Syrian air defence systems

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 19, 2017

It was not exactly clear why Israel was so offended by Syria "acting against" its planes which were located above Syrian airspace at the time of shooting. In any case he warned that “we won"t hesitate. Israel"s security is above everything else; there will be no compromise.”

An Israeli F-15 fighter jet

The minister was referring to the previously reported morning raid of the Israeli Air Force, the latest of several reported over the past few years, in which Israel claimed it targeted weapons bound for the Lebanese militant movement Hezbollah. Israel says it has to protect itself from advanced weapons which the militants try to obtain from the Syrian government. Syria shot surface-to-air S-200 missiles at the Israeli planes as they were flying back from the night mission. As noted above, Damascus claims it shot down one of the planes, although Israel still denies.

The Israeli media said one of the Syrian missiles was intercepted by Israel’s Arrow air defense system. According to RT, it was the first time Israel officials have confirmed combat use of the advanced anti-missiles, which are originally meant to intercept heavy long-range ballistic missiles. The Israeli military is investigating whether the decision to fire Arrow interceptors against the Syrian anti-aircraft missiles was justified, according to Haaretz.

The former prime minister and defense minister, Ehud Barak, said Saturday that the involvement of the system forced Israel to acknowledge cross-border military activity. “It could be that with more thorough thought, it wasn’t worth firing,” Barak said at a community lecture in Be’er Sheva. “We have usually tended to reserve what would be called ‘room for denial’ for Syrian President [Bashar] Assad,” he added.

While Israeli acknowledgment of an intervention in Syria is rare, it is not unprecedented. Last April, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed for the first time that an attack on dozens of Hezbollah targets in Syria was indeed conducted by Israeli warplanes, as speculated by the media.

And, perhaps to give Syria just the opportunity to "provoke" it, on Monday morning, according to several media reports Israel has again bombed a Hezbollah convoy in Syria. It was unclear as of publication time if Syria had retaliated.