Israel shows how a civilized country acts when Russia violates their airspace. AFP.

A Russian Su-25 on the runway with two Su-30's flying by. AFP.

In contrast to Turkey, Israel handled an incursion by a Russian jet without any casualties. AFP.  A Russian jet violated Israeli territory in the Golan Heights. The plane was contacted and was turned back by Israeli forces without incident. The pilot apparently made a navigation error and traveled one mile into Israeli airspace before being turned back. Though Israel opposes the rule of Bashar al-Assad, which Russia supports, Israel was able to put aside their differences to establish a hotline between their forces and the Russians. Both sides are coordinating due to the fact that the Israelis occasionally hit targets in Syria as well. The Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon commented on the incident saying "Russian planes do not intend to attack us, which is why we must not automatically react and shoot them down when an error occurs."

My Comment:

I don't often comment on Israel but the contrast here between what they did and what the Turks did is just amazing. That alone makes it worth commenting on, even though I have talked about the Turkey/Russia situation at length already. 

The Israelis could have used the same excuse that the Turks did to destroy this plane but unlike Turkey, they just escorted the plane out. You know, like a civilized country does. They didn't jump at the opportunity to destroy a Russian jet out of a petty sense of revenge. They followed procedures and nobody got hurt. And I am pretty sure that if they plane had been attacked the Israelis would not have shot at the pilots as they bailed out. I can't imagine any Western nation doing so and I am guessing most of the countries in the Middle East would balk at that as well. 

And it's not like the Israelis don't have a reason to be upset with Russia. After all, they hate Bashar al-Assad and his regime almost as much as the Turks do. They also hate Hezbollah, the Shiite terrorist group that has tangled with Israel in the past, and the fact that Syria and Russia are working with them. Indeed, they hate Hezbollah so much that they occasionally send in airstrikes against them. They have many enemies in Syria and can't be happy that the Russians seem to be helping them indirectly. 

But when the Russians joined the war what did the Israelis do? They accepted the reality of the situation. Though they aren't happy with what is going on in Syria right now, they understand that risking a war with Russia isn't worth it. Instead they worked with the Russians and set up a warning and coordination system so that there wouldn't be any unfortunate incidents. This incident shows that it was well worth their time. Thanks to their coordination, nobody got hurt and there was no massive international incident. 

I'm starting to wonder if the Russian's aren't having a bit of trouble with navigation in the region. This is far from the first incident that they have had. By my count this is the fourth, with more being possible. They have violated Turkish airspace three times, two of which resulted in a plane or drone being destroyed. And now they have violated Israeli airspace. Pilots get lost and at the speeds these planes travel it isn't unlikely that some of them could go way off course. Given how easy such problems are, it makes sense for the countries in the region to coordinate to avoid any unfortunate incidents. Flying combat missions in hostile territory is dangerous enough, nobody needs to make it even more dangerous by shooting down any plane that happens to get lost. 

Of course Russia has a very long history of testing other countries borders. It happens so frequently that I usually don't even bother covering it. They often test the air defenses in Europe and the Pacific by sending out their old Tu-95's strategic bombers. These incidents are practically routine and rarely involve anything more then interceptors flying up to meet them and then the pilots waving at each other. Violating the airspace of other countries is not a friendly act by any means but it's completely foolish to treat airspace violations by the Russians as an attack. 

As for the Turks, it just goes to show how far from normal behavior that this attack on the Russian fighter was. They were way out of line and I consider the attack to be a huge mistake for them. People generally consider the Israelis to be paranoid and trigger happy when it comes to national defense. If even they can act rationally when a Russian jet violates their airspace, what does that say about the Turks?

Of course, the Turks were never interested in looking rational. This was a message to the Russians and a deliberate act. They hate the Kurds, and anyone that supports them. And they want to keep their Turkmen allies in Syria fighting against Assad. It backfired horribly on them, but they did choose this course of action. Time will tell how bad the consequences are...