secure the air space.
Posted on 09/15/2002 5:53:50 AM PDT by blam
Army Chief Says Israel Prepared for Iraqi Attack
Sun Sep 15, 7:39 AM ET
By Megan Goldin
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli army chief Moshe Yaalon said Sunday that Israel was prepared for an attack by Iraq as a conflict with Baghdad loomed after Washington said it would act against Saddam Hussein with or without world support.
Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles armed with conventional warheads at Israel during the 1991 U.S.-led Gulf War but Israeli officials fear this time Baghdad could fire non-conventional weapons if it feels the United States is about to oust Saddam.
Yaalon said Israel's armed forces were "very well prepared" to withstand an Iraqi attack and the Israeli homefront defenses were the most advanced in the world.
"We are prepared so that nothing will reach the area at all," Yaalon told Army Radio.
"We are well prepared both in terms of defense and also in terms of an offensive response if there will be a need," Yaalon told Israel Radio in an interview ahead of the Yom Kippur fast day which begins Sunday evening and lasts 25 hours.
Israeli radio stations quoted security officials as saying they had warnings Palestinian militants were planning attacks over Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year.
Armed guards will be deployed at synagogues to protect hundreds of thousands of Jews expected to attend prayers on the fast day.
The army sealed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the duration of Yom Kippur, which brings the country to a halt. Curfews were imposed in five Palestinian cities reoccupied by Israeli forces in June after a wave of suicide bombings.
Ben Gurion International airport will be closed over the holiday and local radio and television stations will stop their broadcasts.
President Bush told reporters at his Camp David retreat after meeting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Saturday that the United States would deal with the problem of Iraq if the United Nations failed to "show some backbone" and resolve the crisis.
But Iraq showed little sign of yielding over the issue of U.N. arms inspectors, with Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz saying they could return only under a comprehensive deal that would prevent a U.S. attack and lift crippling 12-year-old sanctions.
Israel has been trying to keep a low profile in the war of words between Washington and Baghdad. Although Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told a Washington think tank that postponement of a strike against Iraq "is taking maybe the same risk that was taken by Europe in 1939 in the face of the emergence of Hitler."
ISRAELI RETALIATION?
Yaalon declined to say how far in advance the United States would warn Israel of an impending attack on Iraq, expected to take place within the next four or five months if a dispute over the arms inspectors is not resolved.
The Jerusalem Post reported that U.S. officials told Peres in meetings in Washington that Israel would receive ample warning of an attack on Iraq so that its armed forces could prepare for a possible retaliatory strike by Baghdad.
In the 1991 Gulf War, Israel did not respond to salvos of Scud missiles which killed no-one but caused extensive damage, especially in the central suburb of Ramat Gan where several apartment buildings suffered direct hits.
But Yaalon declined to say whether Israel would practice the same policy of restraint if it came under Iraqi fire again.
"I am sure we will have to weigh it. There is no doubt that in terms of the State of Israel's deterrence capabilities, it (a response) would be correct but there are other issues we will need to weigh both Israeli and connected to other issues."
Israel has stepped up the distribution of gas mask kits to civilians and the army has deployed upgraded Patriot missile batteries in several locations in the country. The Patriots scored mixed results in shooting down Scuds in 1991. Israel's Health Ministry has stockpiled 12 million doses of vaccine for smallpox, a potentially lethal virus that Iraq is accused of developing for use as a biological weapon.
Inoculation of some 15,000 health and rescue workers has already begun.
Ha'aretz newspaper Sunday quoted western intelligence analysts as saying Iraq has prepared several long-range aircraft capable of carrying non-conventional payloads for attacks on Israeli cities.
It quoted the western analysts as saying the Iraqi air force had prepared several of its Soviet-made Tupolev-16 and Sukhoi-25 aircraft for suicide missions against Israel. They would be also capable of carrying radiological "dirty" bombs, Ha'aretz said.
I have a suspicion that there is more out there than Patriot missles.
Let's hope so. We can't hold them back this time.
You might call it a portable (air-deliverable) glass factory...
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