To add a little to what JJ wrote:

Originally posted by google
They blew up the hotel yes, with lots of women and children inside.

Good luck trying to back the above claim with evidence, Google. The Kind David Hotel was home to the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and Headquarters of the British Forces in Palestine and Transjordan. Less than a third of it was an hotel proper, and since that section was not targetted in the blast, few of the hotel residents were hurt. The vast majority of victima were British military personnel and their employees, and that carnage could have been avoided had they evacuated the hotel as they had been warned to do prior to the blast.

Still, the Kind David bombing was stupid, which brings us to the next point :

Originally posted by SOC
Which was neither a political nor a military target, yet nobody seems to look at them in the same light as the Palestinians. Why is that?

It was very much a military target, but you’re right, nobody looked at them like the Palestinians. In contrast to Arab attacks against Jews, widely hailed as heroic actions, the Jewish National Council denounced the bombing of the King David. At a meeting of the Jewish Agency Executive in Paris on August 5, 1946, it was decided to terminate the armed struggle against the British in Palestine, and all cooperation between the Haganah (the mainstream Jewish force at the time) and the Irgun (which carried out the bombing) ceased.

IDF/AF 116 “Flying Wing” squadron, perhaps not as famous and illustrious as some of its counterparts, but hard to beat as a cool avatar.

Speaking of the machine gun, the article has a second part at http://www.gavs.it/Speciali/S79%20insabbiato/S79K_MM_23881_2.htm , with a close-up :

Regarding the Lebanese aircraft again, if the planes were indeed last spotted outside Ryak, those that have not left Lebanon may yet exist. Much of the Lebanese air force was stored in Ryak for the duration of the civil war. I believe much in yet in storage, and I don’t think anyone’s quite sure what’s still there.

The photo was taken in the early 1960s, apparently in the Lybian Desert, where the aircraft had been since April 21 1941. It’s all here :
http://www.gavs.it/FotodelNonno/S79K_MM_23881.htm
though anything else would require someone who speaks Italian.

Originally posted by robbelc
Perhaps this is one of the Lebanese AF machines that operated into the early 60’s on transport duties? I do agree that the photo does look dated though.

Any more info available about these Lebanese birds?

This lovely shot was posted on the historic aviation forum a few days ago:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/523358/M/

There was an incident in April 1974, during the skirmishes that followed the Yom Kippur War, in which Israeli F-4s faced Syrian MiG-23s. The Syrians claim two F-4s were downed by a MiG, Israel claims only one was lost (and that possibly to a SAM, they’re not sure). Later on, during fighting in Lebanon in the early 1980s, IDF/AF F-4s would sometimes encouter Syrian MiG-23s. Russian and Syrian sources claims several F-4 kills, but these are considered highly unreliable. Tom Cooper of ACIG claims he can confirm one F-4 kill, but we’ll have to wait for his book on the subject to learn more. Israel claims no F-4 losses to MiG-23s at the time.

Congradualtions Frank! Airliners.net must indeed be going downhill, they’ve recently accepted a pair of mine too 😉

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/527035/M/

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/527552/M/

Regarding that F-15, with the LGBs on the CFTs : I guess it’s pretty safe to assume there’s an automated system that ensures that the bottom one is released before the one slighty above, right?