Yep...tough for me to believe...but apparently based on their intelligence that is how they ran the operation. Makes no sense to me to have a sophisticated anti-air corvette on station in combat with its anti-air systems not operating.
Thank to all for the info and analysis. I think we should also remind ourselves of the possible involvement of political factors in causing this deadly lapse of military readiness.
Israel's military suffers from the same handicap as the American military - politicians all too frequently set the ROE. Those politicians are usually more concerned with their own diplomatic maneuverings than with the lives of their soldiers, and this type of vacillation has frequently cost both the US and the Israelis unnecessarily in lives lost.
I don't know if this was a factor in this case; it may simply have been an error by the ship's captain. However, I don't think we should rule out the possibility of political constraints having played a role.
Israel politically is just as divided and at war with itself as is America, and despite the undeniable military might both possess, when it comes to actually having to exercise that might, both nations resemble the scene from the Steve Martin movie "The Man With Two Brains" where his body lurches and twitches spastically from the attempts of the two competing brains for control. Israel's Leftists have put their nation in mortal danger just as our own Leftists have done here in America. In both cases they are determined to have control even if it means the destruction of the body.