EW is not a cloaking device. Its possible for Israel to avoid detection by using terrain following flight and a small number of aircraft. However, they cannot fly at cruising altitude with a large fleet and a tanker aircraft. The distances involve require a range optimized flight path making stealth nearly impossible. Even hypothetically assuming they made it across undetected, they would give away their presence once they attacked Iran, making it unavoidable they would be attacked on the way back.
I agree EW is not a fantastic cloaking device that would make such a mission a breeze, but the Syrian's have already proven incapable of detecting Israel aircraft using such techniques, as with the 2007 Israeli raid into Syria. Not to say this would not be more involved, as it obviously would be, but it is doable against a very limited Syrian defense threat.
They might get hit on the way back, but they might not. Syria would still have to scramble fighters from bases that are not really along the Northern route to intercept. Maybe they would maybe they wouldn't, if I was an Israeli policy maker seriously considering the airstrike option, it is a risk I would take.
With a seriously hardened site, like a facility inside a mountain, you aren't going to do even minimal damage.
True, but with such a site even an airstrike would not be all that effective either.
Like what? You can either carry more fuel with external tanks or with a tanker aircraft, but that is it.
Tankers would be the best option, but in their absence, or limited availability (since Israel is thought to not have enough to conduct this raid anyway), you have other options:
1) An in flight refueling (IFR) probe could be incorporated into the F-15E to give the aircraft the capability to refuel from drogue configured tankers.
2) Buddy Refueling between F-15Es that can be packaged in an external tank or CFT. This would be useful in an emergency situation when Strike Missions are in Egress from the target area.
3) Larger External Tanks (Dropped Tanks). These tanks would have a fuel capacity of 800 gallons compared to the standard 610 gallons. The F-15E‘s mission radius would then be increased by about 10%.
4) Additional Internal Fuel added to the outer wing of the F-15E. This would increase the mission radius by 2%
5) Larger Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFTs). The F-15E could still carry the air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons and external pods as well as the fuel tanks. This would increase the mission radius by 5%.
Different a bit for the F-16's, but you get the general idea. Perhaps I should have been a little more clear in my initial statement that "it could be done without a tanker" since this is more or less that, just in a different form.
True, but that is because Israel wouldn't fly over Syria if they were conducting the mission properly.
Any other route poses to large of a political risk in my opinion. I could be wrong on that, but that is what I think.