| I haven't found a link in English yet. Here is one in French :
http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/20061117.WWW000000454_nouvel_incident_entre_avions_israeliens_et_casques_bleus_francais_au_liban.html
In a nutshell : 2 Israeli F15 overflew at low altitude and high speed UNIFIL French positions while 2 Israeli reconnaissance aircraft were circling the French HQ in Lebanon. Again, French soldiers prepared themselves to shoot down the aggressive planes. Again, they kept enough cold blood not to do it.
What is very troubling is that this is the SECOND such incident (first was 31/10) The first one could be explained away as "some moronic pilots thought they could prove their manhood by risking their aircraft and life, which led to their superiors hanging them out to dry, but privately so, denying the incident in public"
The second such incident proves that either Israeli superiors are VERY stupid (not probable, though not entirely impossible : the operative word would be hubris), either this is a POLICY.
The second possibility would mean that the Israeli government, or at least elements of the military high command, are pushing for an incident to happen, that such a provocation would result in missiles being fired at the seeming aggressors and either an Israeli fighter plus its pilot would be lost (more probable) or at least if the missile did not hit an hostile act would have happened. Play with feelings of some moronic pilots, explain them that the French are hostile and that Israeli fighters are invulnerable, and this is what you would obtain : eventually one of those would get himself fired at, probably shot down, probably dead.
And then what ? This is really troubling because the objective cannot be the usual anti-French propaganda : you do not lose one of your fighters and one of your pilots just for propaganda. Could the objective be to try to terminate the UNIFIL mission by frightening away its member nations ? Could it be to justify new Israeli attacks in Lebanon, aimed at UNIFIL, using the numbers of Israeli armed forces to overcome the well-armed but few in numbers French contingent ? (the other UNIFIL contingents don't have MBTs nor artillery)
That hypothesis would be SO moronic (so much of hubris, to use a more precise word) that one has to retain doubts. However, this series of provocations HAS to have an objective.
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