TEL AVIV

“THESE IRANIAN DRONES take hours to reach Israel from Iran, so long that it would be possible to evacuate the whole population of the Jewish state to safety before the first of them arrived there. And no, they don’t need to stop for fuel in Syria or Lebanon.”

So says Middle Eastern expert Dr Moshe Said, who was speaking to the Kookaburra Bugle from a penthouse in Dubai.

“The drones are a first wave, their slowness is part of their effect, it preys on the minds of the enemy for hours. Their arrival is designed not really to effectively strike targets but to overwhelm air defences. Like a boxer’s jabs before he punches. If the Israelis wanted to they could probably move all their people out of harms way before the arrival of the drones.”