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The Israel thing is independent of the main reasons everyone thinks Syria needs to change. Israel would probably happier with a stable Assad than this clusterfuck.
What they don't want is heavy weapons making their way to Hezzbolah, or worse chemical weapons. Adding S-300 systems to the Syrian air defense network (which is already pretty damn formidable) would be a major impedance to Israel attacking weapons convoys.
Also the US isn't happy about S-300 systems going in either. If they want to establish a no-fly zone at any point then this will make it significantly harder to do so. The S-300 is by almost every measure the most capable SAM system ever developed. There is nothing that can compare to it in the US, PAC comes close, but the performance measurements for the S-300 system (which is actually a number of missile types) are still better. The entire system is easily road mobile, can be widely dispersed (meaning you can have the search radars far away from the launchers, and the targeting radars in a totally different location as well, so they are harder to destroy), and can setup and pack up in ~15 minutes.
Depending on the version deployed it can both intercept aircraft, cruise missiles, guided munitions, and in some versions, ballistic missiles. Probability of kill is between 0.85 and 0.95 depending on target.
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