Originally Posted by Dovster

That "little issue", which has absolutely nothing to do with what we are discussing, could only be injected here by someone who is not only trying to be misleading and who is trying to be "technically right" while most likely being "technically" wrong.

To set the record straight: The Libyan jet in question was heading directly for Tel Aviv. It made no radio contact with Israel. It refused to answer Israel's calls. Israeli jets scrambled and flew directly to the plane, trying to reach the pilot on air-to-air radio. He did not answer.

They then flew along side of him and gave visual instructions for the pilot to change course. The pilot ignored them.

Shot were fired at the wingtipss of the Libyan plane. This, too was ignored, and the pilot stayed on course for the heart of the city.

At this point, Israel did, indeed, shoot it down.

(The world, of course, was outraged. After all, it is completely inconceivable that a plane might be used as a weapon and crash into a city, right? It was just another case of those damned racist/tribalist/groupists being racist/tribalist and groupist.)

And now, in the middle of discussing security steps taken to avoid having a terrorist put luggage on a plane which will blow it up, you ask if a Jewish Israeli Chief of Staff didn't give orders to "a Libyan passenger plane out of the sky."

Actually, probably not. Let's face it, if you want to be "technically right" you have to first get the correct details. The plane was not blown out of the sky and the chief of staff probably never gave that order.

The shots were fired at its wing roots and the pilot attempted to make an emergency landing but crashed into a sand dune.

Moreover, as I run that scenario through in my mind, the order given was most not "blow it up" but rather "shoot it down" or the Hebrew equivalent of the military's "splash it" or "take it out".

Now, I am, admittedly nitpicking here -- but isn't that exactly what you were doing when you brought this incident into this discussion?