For decades now, Israel has enjoyed decisive aerial superiority over all its rivals in the Middle East. There is no doubt that the Israeli air force is the strongest in the region and one of the most advanced in the world. As such, it has benefited for decades from an almost absolute monopoly over all of the other players in the region.

Ever since the signing of the peace agreement with Egypt in 1979 and Egypt’s exit from the circle of hostility, the Israeli air force has had absolute freedom of operation. This reached its climax with the bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor (Operation Opera) in 1981, the bombing of a Syrian nuclear reactor (according to foreign news sources) in 2007, multiple bombings of arms convoys moving from Syria to Lebanon over the past few years, similar bombing runs in Sudan (also according to foreign sources) and other clandestine operations wherever there are Israeli interests of some sort or another.

Over the past few months, however, Israel has woken up to a troubling new reality. That freedom of operation, which its air force once enjoyed with absolute impunity, is now dependent on a foreign factor, which is out of Jerusalem’s control. What began as aid to the Bashar al-Assad regime in its struggle to survive has become a massive Russian military presence along Israel’s northern border.

The Russians have recently tightened their control over the region significantly in all matters concerning control of the air. As of now, Israel lacks any fighter jet that can take off without setting off a flashing light in the Russian aerial defense headquarters in Tartus (a coastal city in Syria) or on a Russian ship in the Mediterranean Sea.

Read the full article at Al-Monitor.