New Delhi, March 11 -- GENERALS RARELY put themselves directly in the line of enemy fire but on March 6th Major-General Tomer Bar, the commander of the Israeli Air Force, flew an F-15 fighter jet on a strike mission in Iran. Not all his colleagues were enthusiastic about such a senior commander flying deep over hostile territory. "It's a bit of a stunt," said one air-force officer. "But I can understand him. We've been preparing for so many years for this war."

These are heady days for Israeli pilots and generals. For over two decades they have been planning and training for long-range strikes on Iran's nuclear programme. But until very recently they had never imagined doing so in a joint air armada with the world's superpower. Nor had t...