In July 1970, Israeli Air Force (IAF) F-4 Phantom fighters took off for an apparent bombing mission near Suez City during the War of Attrition (the intermittent but occasionally fierce fighting that continued after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.)  The mission was a ruse meant to draw out Russian pilots of the elite Soviet 135th Air Regiment, which had been deployed to Egypt along with Soviet-operated SAM batteries, both of which had increasingly threatened and harassed Israeli air missions. A Russian squadron took the bait and soon found itself in an unequal dogfight with some of the IAF’s top aces. When it was over, five Soviet MIG 21MF fighters had been destroyed and four pilots killed against no Israeli losses. The battle was but one incident in a long and successful struggle by Israel and the United States to eject the Russian military from the Middle East. But like so much else that has transpired under the Obama administration, that hard fought victory has now been...(Read Full Article)