They could go over Turkey rather than over Iraqi airspace.
Turkey is no longer friendly to the Israeli military. the Islamist government is alienating itself from its most critical ally.
“They could go over Turkey rather than over Iraqi airspace.”
Israel apparently did use Turkey’s airspace against the Syrian nuke plant last year but although the military has strong contacts with Israel, the Turkish government is more Islamic and hostile to Israel.
Not sure that’s an option for an operation of this scale. My concern is that there is really no good option. Obama would not allow the US to stand down for Israel to use Iraq’s airspace.
I’m pretty sure about that based on Obama’s yellow inclinations, witness his overriding the military to allow a dinghy to take on a $500 million dollar US warship and crew for four days.
I think this is the more likely scenario. The Israeli bombing of a nuke facility in Syria remains shrouded in secrecy, but Turkey found jettisoned fuel tanks along its border, indicating that the Israelis flew home along this route.
The most likely route would be to fly along the Syrian-Turkish border, cross over a bit of far northern Iraq, and then fly through Iran. It's long, would required tanker planes, but lessens the risk of being detected.
If Israel flew over Iraq, it's likely that Obama would order the jets shot down. That would infuriate Americans, but I don't think that Obama really cares.