[Ancesthntr]

Thanks for posting this - it is an interesting tidbit of history that most of us would never hear about.

I do question whether it was the only instance of Israelis fighting Russians/Soviets. How about the massive air combat in June of 1982, in which the Israelis downed 79 (or 85, depending on sources) Syrian jets without a single loss of their own? The Syrians had the most advanced Russian Migs of the day, and there were undoubtedly Russian pilots - I remember hearing reports that Israeli pilots heard lots of radio chatter in Russian.

FYI, I took a military strategy course from Edward Luttwak (a noted strategist and consultant to the Reagan transition team and the DoD) the following year. He indicated that “big changes were coming” in relations with the Russians. He specifically cited this incident, and reports that the Soviet General Staff told the Politburo that “we can’t beat the West” because of what Israel did, and basically to “cut the best deal that you can.” Shortly thereafter we got Gorbachev and a thawing of relations.

[Jewbacca]

Yes, the Russians were there, too.

Unless Syrians somehow turned into white Slavic-looking guys with blond hair.

[ScaniaBoy]

The Israel-Syria conflict and the Falklands conflict together with the Grenada invasion were extremely important in deciding the outcome of the Cold War. Suddenly the Soviets got to understand that the two main Western Allies, US and UK, were not going to take things on the chin any longer but were able, willing and ready to hit back, and also the western, including the Israeli technology, had surpassed the Soviet one. The SAMs and the MIGs the Israelis downed over Syria and Lebanon (and many operated by Soviet operators) were the mainstay of the Warsaw pact air-defence in Europe.

Fifteen years earlier the Soviets had had advanced plans of amphibious and air attacks on Israel.

Foxbats over Dimona