israels defense capability

[jaster]

in my opinion Israel is capable of defending itself against a possible iran invasion, however only that, it would not be able to sustain a costly offensive war agaisnt its arab neighbors.

[KickMcCann]

Certainly, for Iran to attack Israel from the ground it would have to go through Iraq or Turkey and then through Syria or Jordan, a highly unlikly event but nevertheless it would give Israel enough time to mobilize its forces and counter the Iranians. Iran probably won't hit them with a nuke, because it would mean immediate retaliation with an American nuke, or even an Israeli nuke out of a submarine if they have the capability.
A war between Israel and the Arabs is unlikely, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi, and Lebanon won't strike first for varying reasons, leaving only Syria and Iraq, which neither country could afford or muster. Israel has no pragmatic reason or urgent threat to strike against the Arab states, the US has strong control over the region.
The only action the Israelis will see is artillery barrages and airstrikes against the Palestinian Territories, a sad and one-sided fight.
If there will ever be a big nasty total war in the Middle-East, it will be between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

[Aranthus]

There is already a war going on between Israel and Iran. Iran is funding Hezbollash and other terrorist groups to attack Israeli civilians. A conventional ground war is not possible because the two countries are about a thousand miles apart. An air war is unlile;y for the same reason. So there won't be an Iran invasion for Israel to defend against. Nor would Iran be deterred from attacking Israel with nuclear weapons because of the threat of a nuclear strike by the US. The US is not going to drop nukes on anyone for Israel's benefit.

The Israelis would obviously retaliate, and have land based missles which can reach Iran (and possibly sub launched missles with nuclear warheads as well). The question is whether that would deter the Iranians.

[piet11111]

depends how the attack is planned.

also syria is a very close ally to iran and syria would definitely join in on the fun.
israel has the odds against it as they dont have the land to retreat and reinforce.
also they are heavily dependant on their airforce but iran has been buying a lot of very expensive toys from russia lately.
if iran manages to draw israel's airforce into range of their anti air weapons then israel has a very good chance of getting their airforce destroyed.
(and with in range i mean something like say having a nuclear facility that israel wants destroyed that happens to be heavily defended)

victory or defeat all depends on the air war and we will see soon enough how good iran is against airplanes.
politics will probably lead to sanctions anyway and israel will not tolerate such a weak action and will probably deal with the problem themselves (with or without the USA)