Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu could not have dreamed about better timing for his visit to Israel. He arrived Oct. 16 only a few hours after the especially severe incident that occurred over the Syrian skies between the Israeli air force and the Syrian anti-aircraft deployment. Two days later, Iranian Military Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri threatened Israel that his country won’t accept Israeli attacks against Syria anytime it wants.

Indeed, Gen. Shoigu’s visit could not have come at a better time. He came exactly when the entire Middle East had its eyes on the airspace between Damascus and Beirut — which is crowded with Israelis, Russians, Syrians, Americans, Lebanese and air forces from many other countries. One would have expected that the hotline between the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Air Force (IAF) with the Russian army and its expeditionary force would be burning up. Yet the Russian defense minister himself arrived in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in real time, met with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman one day and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the next day (in Liberman’s presence), and he didn’t even skip the traditional visit to Yad Vashem.

The incident under discussion took place the morning of Oct. 16. IAF planes were conducting a photography mission over Lebanon when they were identified by an anti-aircraft SA-5 battery of the Syrian army. The battery locked on them and fired a missile at them. The Israeli planes were not really under great threat, and the Syrian missile did not endanger them. Nonetheless, Israeli retaliation was swift. According to an earlier decision that was made in March, the last time a Syrian anti-aircraft missile was launched at an Israeli plane, a quartet of Israeli jets took off from an IAF base for a bombing sortie. Four precise bombs were fired at the Syrian battery. The bombs made direct hits. The radar unit and launcher were destroyed, and the battery was entirely disabled.

In March, Liberman promised that the next time the Syrians shot at IAF jets, Israel would respond. That promise was kept the morning of Oct. 16. By the afternoon, the Syrian army made its official response. The Israeli airstrike will have “dangerous consequences,” said the Syrians. And then Shoigu arrived.