Russia has supplied Syria with air superiority, fighter bombers, and ground support jets. The MiG-31s the SUs are equivalent or perhaps superior to anything the US possesses and have supplied Israel with - including Israeli upgrades. Nothing the Israelis can do to its existing AF will make fundamental changes in performance characteristics; they can only alter various load-outs and software - neither of which will change any stealth characteristics, speed, turning, weight, or thrust among many others.
Syria among others, as time goes by, could and will challenge the IAF: Iran is buying large numbers of advances planes from both Russia and China. Others are buying fourth gen planes from Europe. Read the article.
Russia and Israel have a temporary military working agreement, not a friendship. Russia intends to install multiple S300 systems in Syria, effectively shutting down all secret cross-boarder ops by the IAF - even in Israel.
No planes get within 30 miles of a F-35? Perhaps, but only if the F-35s have F-22s covering them. Most Russian BVR missile ranges are in the 100s of kilometers.
The F-35 “stealth” is not anywhere as good as one might think. And is largely a useless boondoggle. Its BVR missiles have to be strapped on externally as they do not fit internally, thus eliminating what little stealth the F-35 committee-designed plane possesses.
The Mig-31 was/is primarily meant for anti-bomber/cruise missile missions. It’s not really meant for the fighter role. It’s long-range radar/missile capability is pointless in the face of the presence of AWACS and jamming that Israel will have.
While one for one, a Rafale and Eurofighter may be more agile than a Teen-series fighter, a lot of variables will cloud the picture.
The F-35’s BVR missiles (both the AMRAAM and Meteor) can be carried internally. Even a small load-out of AMRAAMs carried in stealth configuration make a huge difference against a fully exposed Mig or SU-30 variant.
“The MiG-31s the SUs are equivalent or perhaps superior to anything the US possesses and have supplied Israel with - including Israeli upgrades.”
Mig-31’s are an old platform based on the Mig-25 Foxbat.