November 11,2008:
The Israeli military recently held a four day exercise, mostly with air
force and civil defense units, on how they would react to a war that involved
both Syrian and Hezbollah rocket attacks, as well as attacking Syrian ground
and air forces. The Israeli forces involved belonged to Northern Command, which
is responsible for the defense of northern Israel. This is the second such
large-scale exercise since the 2006 war with Hezbollah.
Israel has
already revised the organization, training and equipment of ground and air
force units in Northern Command. There is a new rocket attack warning system
being installed for civilians. The new system uses radars that can predict
where incoming rockets will land, and only set off air raid sirens in areas
where the rockets will land. This will avoid alarming large numbers of
civilians, which causes a great deal of stress and anxiety among civilians.
There's also the problem of too many false alarms, which causes many civilians to ignore alarms for
actual attacks.
Israel got a
reality check in 2006. They thought they had figured out how to deal with
Hezbollah and all those short range rockets the Lebanese terrorists had aimed
at them. Israel was wrong, but now they have a better idea of what they are up
against, and are doing a change-up they hope will turn the tables on Hezbollah
if there's another round of rockets from Lebanon. The Israelis have also noted
how the Syrians have reorganized their military and adopted tactics similar to
those employed by Hezbollah in 2006.