The Osirak strike was undertaken by very early model F-16s. The F-16I was given conformal tanks to be able to make this kind of strike, and I'd imagine they've gotten some engine upgrades since then too.
The Syrians are using air defense systems equivelent to the Iranians. They didn't even know they'd been attacked.
You don't have to destroy every piece of a research operation either, just the expensive and hard to replace pieces.
So what pieces are that ?
http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=vjzq9ygxxqb&thumb=4Anyone ever look at a map of the region? From Israeli air bases to Tehran is about 1,000 miles as the crows fly, and thru 3 or 4 other countries that are hostile. One of which, Saudi, has its own operational AWACs that it didn't have at the time of Osirak. So exactly where would you put a tanker aircraft? Where it would be safe? And able to refuel jets? And those Jets would be flying the entire run on the deck which just gobbles fuel. The ranges given on Internet sights usually specify optimum altitudes and fuel burn rates. They sure dont quote burn rates 50' off the grass at mach .9 .
So now you have all these conventional fighter jets crossing all this hostile territory, loaded down with all this fuel which reduces payload. And they have to strike all these sites, or, a lot of them
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles_pdfs/Iran/iran_nuclear_sites.pdfAnd if your going to hit them you may as well hit their other WMD sites. Dont forget Iran isn't only about making nuclear bombs. They are well along the way of producing the entire process of home grown enrichment, weaponization, and delivery. In other words creating an entire Industrial process, from A to Z, of making nukes/WMDs and delivering them onto targets. That means they will have their own assembly lines for weapons, missiles, targeting systems, launch systems, command and control systems...ect The entire shebang!
I dont think the Israelis have the ability to derail this. And they sure dont have the capability to sustain a rolling, 3 day, air offensive. To even suggest that is ludicrous.