it seems the iranians are fudging the lines between state- and non-stare actors. hezbollah is a terrorist group that has no "right" to violate the airspace of a sovereign nation like israel. and, contrary to the opinion of the lebanese minister, his country's clear failure to disarm hezbollah IS in violation of unscr 1701. it seems tehran is getting ready to discard the truce in southern lebanon - they are prepared to fight israel, to the very last lebanese.

aeriel pics taken by that drone? Not one on any of their news channels. This seems very out of character, they usually laud it up, "hey look what we did" but NADA! maybe pics of the Med isnt of interest. Could it be hot air again. At least we know it is Iranian and who sent it...thanks for that, any info is good.

Obviously for some reason Israeli air defences are lacking and so hopefully lessons will have been learned from this incident and problems solved so if there is a war we are not vulnerable to drone attacks ( in war they will be suicide drones which they will be in Humiliate us now get a short term propaganda victory but you will have just given away a wartime advantage because you have given us time to discover & fix the problem. Thank you Iran & Hezbollah thanks to this stunt Israel can be made a safer place.

The truth of this Drone achievement for Iran and large deficit for Israel's this is a great lesson important to close all the holes and gaps, you ever don't underestimate your enemy and leave the vanity because it's beginning of fall

-d out before it's too late

Let's be clear, the threat from Iranian drones, while a concern, are not a threat to Israel. Drones are slow compared to missles and their ability to fly low under radar is their sole advantage. With that said, Israel can fairly easily identify these craft before they reach Israeli airspace and adjust their munitions and targeting for this threat. The question I have for the Israelis is patching a hole in a security lapse is one thing....but it does nothing to create a credible deterrent that would make Iran's surrogates think twice about doing it again.

.... I guess Israel can drop something nuclear on Lebanon. That would certainly prove OUR capabilities. Snicker.

To Shep: just a lot of blustering from Iran's surrogate (Hez) and Iran itself. Its like if a drone penetrated US airspace anywhere..and Al Qaeda noted its ability. So what! Drones have their purposes..(Pakistan), where carpet bombings or other attacks are impossible do to politics. Israel has the deterrent..and is picking and choosing its tactics ( Strip, Lebanon/Iran). 500 nukes on F series planes, Jerichos ( conventional/non-conventional), smart bombs, cruise type missiles (nuke and non-nuclear), artillery, commandos with suitcase small nukes, lithium/cobalt coated warheads, other WMD capabilities, vehicles protected with lasers, Dolphin subs (6) with hundreds of tactical nuke missiles, 1m reservists (many with experience), the best electroni warfare arsenal in the world..get my point. This is all PR on both sides. Everyone knows that in a fulll fleged brawl, Iran is wasted and Hez/Hamas are finished, at the current time. That's why the West must knock out Iran's 34 nukes sites ASAP. Under Romney, the USAwillgive deadlines and astrike meaninngullly. Sarah Silverman notwithstanding to the "seniors" in Florida, something about grandchildren not visiting, If I recall. And look what we got, 4yearsof stagnation and regression.

The flight path of the drone was monitored from the point of takeoff, over open water, then over Gaza once it entered Israeli proper the drone was shoot down. The reasons for this are simple. If the drone would have been shoot down over open water, recovery of the drone or what was left of it would be impossible, the same results over Gaza, the only way to recover the drone was to wait patiently until it was over Israel and over open safe from civilians where it would be assured that all of the drone would be collected and examined. The results of what Israel has learned from the downed drone will never be made public. I say let Iran turn this into whatever PR they want the facts on the ground are much different than what they claim.

drone. My grandchildren love it

So, losing a drone and having it shot down is a success? Utter nonsense. What would have been a success would have been for it to enter Israeli airspace undetected, complete its mission undetected, and bring back the intelligence undetected. It did none of these. It was shot down. Doh!!! Israel had monitored the drone prior to it entering Israeli airspace, as it does with every aircraft leaving the runways of all its neighbours. If the drone had been shot down in international airspace, Israel would have been condemned in the international arena. If the drone was allowed to enter Israeli airspace and then shot down, the perpetrators would arrogantly proclaim a success. As they have done. Please, people, get real. If an Israeli or US drone is shot down over enemy territory, it is anything but a success, and proves nothing about so-called capabilities. I can't believe how people are so gullible.

It also spent 3 hours inside Israel and most likely over Demona. The Mission is successful bcse it gathered the information it needed and the Drone being destroyed is not important as it is CHEAP to manufacture. Iran 1 - Israel 0

Excellent post. Who needs drones when you have Google Earth!!

a credible deterent is definitly needed, and it should start with a defense minister who is more interessed in and is dedicated to the DEFENSE of Israel, instead of trying to advance his own washed up, failed political and military career.

When the time comes to smack Iran and her proxies, the job needs to be done with much more force. Good for Israel to be increasingly clear about the enemies capabilities

NO EXCUSES, SAME MENTALITY AS 1973, ARROGANT AND LAZY?

This is an idiot joke. Model aircraft sold to hobbyists in western nations are far superior to this drone. IAF/IDF was watching it for 30 mins before it was blown up. It's no technological marvel at all.

The IAF had no way of knowing what the drones payload was or what the motives of its operators were before it entered Israeli airspace. Do you think they would risk this thing being used in a suicide attack in an Israeli city or against a strategic target like Dimona? There are bigger concerns than can we recover some debris to study? Israel got sloppy either because of a mistake or flaws in the countries air defences so Hezbollah are entitled to have a laugh at us all but as long as we learn from these mistakes we will have the last laugh becase in a war they will not get away with the same trick.

The drone was downed with no harm to Israeli citizens. And the techs are gathering the pieces and doing their jobs. Let hizbolla massage their ego it is all they have

Its not about did the drone harm anybody the problem is they managed to get into Israel airspace and fly around taking picture for three hours. We do actually have to give Hezbollah credit for pulling this off because the military were obviously not expecting anything like this and were not prepared for it which they must be. Fortunately they did not have hostile intention this time but what if they had sent the thing to crash into a city or Dimona, this is not something to laugh about we need to find out how it was allowed to happen and the fix the problem make sure it doesn't happen again.

Your concerns are commendable. However, you miss the points made. The drone could have been shot down at any time by the IDF from the moment they detected its launch. They had their reasons for not doing so. If a missile, travelling at many times the speed of a drone, also with an unknown payload, can be shot down, then so can a drone of this description. The route was also monitored and if it endangered any civilian areas in the manner described, it would have been destroyed sooner than it was. During the monitored flight of the drone a vast amount of additional technological data can also be obtained, including that pertaining to the radio transmissions/signals from/to/controlling the drone. These elements are of immense value in any future conflict, where undoubtedly such drone will again be used for hostile purposes.

Does Iran really believe that should it come to a major dust-up with Israel, Lebanon will be around? Chortle. It won't. So what's the Islamic Republic going to do then? Put up its thirty-year old materiel against Israel? Now THAT is funny. Well, for the Israelis. Not so much for the Iranians.

If isreal was lazy they would have died along time ago think alittle would You??