Posted on 02/07/2002 7:49:22 PM PST by Bronco Buster
Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer paid a visit to the secretive Ness Ziona Biological Institute yesterday.
The Home Front commander, Maj. Gen. Yosef Mishlav, said recently that the plan to transfer the Home Front to the Ministry for Public Security has been frozen, so defending the population from nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare is still in the hands of the defense minister.
Ben-Eliezer was accompanied to the institute by an unusually small entourage, to keep a low profile. Presumably, the concern about a possible attack by Iraq, with unconventional payloads delivered by either missiles or planes, was one of the main subjects in the briefing given the minister by his hosts.
According to security sources participating in Israeli preparations for a possible American move on Iraq, any decision by President George W. Bush about when to attack Iraq depends on three main elements: building the case against Saddam, including charges and evidence; identifying an alternative ruler to replace Saddam; and building up the forces that will execute the planned attack.
The defense establishment here believes that the Bush administration has given up trying to find an Iraqi version of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, so Washington is busy studying intelligence profiles of top Iraqi army commanders who could take control in Baghdad concurrent with or immediately after the start of an American campaign. In a U.S. attack, Saddam won't hurry to attack Israel, say defense sources, because, among other reasons, he won't want to expose the weaponry that he managed to hide - and deny he had - over the past decade.
The sources note that unlike the spring of 1990, when Saddam was already threatening to "burn half of Israel" (before he invaded Kuwait) if attacked, no such threats toward Israel have been coming out of Baghdad.
However, should Saddam conclude that the Americans are about to topple him, he'll try to attack Israel with a barrage of missiles or airplanes. Topping Israel's worries are a possible ground-to-ground missile attack, with chemical or biological payloads.
The defense establishment reckons that much lower on the list of possibilities would be Iraq sending pilots on suicide missions, whether to drop non-conventional payloads, or to crash their planes. The loyalty of Iraqi pilots to Saddam, and their readiness to die for him, while his regime is crumbling, is not at all the same as that of Japanese kamikaze pilots, who were ready to die for their emperor at the end of World War II.
In contacts between Israeli and American defense officials over the past few weeks, the Pentagon's representatives were asked to plan their operations in Iraq in such a way as to minimize the Iraqi ability to move missile launchers into western Iraq, from which missiles can reach Israel.
The Americans were told that Israel expects them to conduct operations, including on the ground, in western Iraq from the start of a campaign, and not to wait until Iraq starts launching missile attacks on Israel, as happened in 1991. Israeli officials say they believe the Pentagon will accede to this request.
The Pentagon meanwhile is very interested in technologies, weapons systems, and military doctrines developed in Israel over the past few years. In meetings in Washington with top defense officials and representatives of the Israeli defense establishment, led by Defense Ministry Director-General Amos Yaron, and including the head of weapons development and technology infrastructure Maj. Gen. Dr. Yitzhak Ben-Israel, videos were shown demonstrating examples of Israel's policy of "pinpoint targeting" in the territories. The emphasis was on combat helicopter attacks that caused no collateral damage to anything other than the target, even if many civilians were in the area.
American officers, from both the air force and special operations, visited Israel to learn about "pinpoint targeting" from IDF special operations commanders in the territories. Among other things, the Americans wanted to know about long-distance assassinations, along the lines of the operation - to kill Saddam Hussein - that foreign reports said was being rehearsed at the time of the Tze'elim 2 accident. The Americans were offered Israeli assistance in many areas, including inoculations against anthrax.
Along with the focus on Iraq, the defense establishment is keeping a close eye on developments in Iran. According to the latest Military Intelligence estimate, an event at Tarbit Madras University in Tehran a week ago, may be significant. Attended by government officials, including an adviser to Iranian President Muhamed Hatami, parliamentarians, and academic experts, the event was devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Most of the speakers opposed the conservative policy of the Iranian spiritual leader Ali Hamani and demanded moderation of the government line against Israel, a line that is more extreme than the Palestinians.
Military Intelligence's estimate appears to strengthen the position that Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy publicly stated last month when he said that there is hope for moderation in the Iranian regime.
You and your terrorist friends better hope the US keeps on Distracting Israel our the PLO and all the other enemies of Israel will find themselves leveled to the ground
At any hour of the day, the IDF has the ability to destroy the PLO and any other pieces of trash that seek to destroy them.
It's clear he is to me. He thought he was using code.
Israel could expell the arabs or indiscriminately slaughter any assaulant, even those with stones. It hasn't because Israelis want to be better than that.
LAconas responded:
Really? The record speaks for itself. Sure, they're a bunch of tough guys in the mafioso sense, but it takes brains to secure and subdue a group of people.They have been there since 1967, and they have yet to succeed in their quest to create a Greater Israel. They have failed.
If Israel wanted to, it could have expelled the PAlestinans in 1967 or 1973. Instead, in 1967, Israel gave control of the Temple mount to the Arabs. Israel wasn't even expansionist to get its holiest site from Arab-Muslim occupation.
The solution would have been so simple. Create a class of Palestinian janissaries that would have more benefit in Israel's survival, than not. But, since Israel is a mono-ethnic theocratic state in the same league as South African it has to suffer the same fate.
Israel could have expelled the PAlestinains. It didn't. ISrael even has fully equal Arab citizens. Try again!
If the founding fathers of America had the same limited idiotic prejudices, America would not be what it is today.
The US did what Israel didn't. We slaughtered the Indians and took their land.
You spread lies that is what you do.
Refute anything I have said here or on any other thread.
Your name should be lie machine.
Start telling the truth, You will sleep better.
And you think the British haven't made requests? The truth is that allies can disagree over certain matters. Look at divergent policies during WW2. Churchill wanted us to invade through Greece instead of France after Italy. Was the UK a disracation? (Or do you need documentation?)
This should have been quietly handled behind the scenes just like sharon's "Chamberlain" accusation.
And no European or other ally has made a statement we don't like? Whence your double standards?
Lebanon holds elections.
But only Syrian apporved parties can run. Lebanese elections are like Cold War Polish ones.
Their government is the same as Israel. So either Israel isn't the only democracy in the M.E. or Israel isn't a democracy.
Or, as usual, you are making a ludicrous assertion in you anti-zionist electronic jihad.
You mean oh_smart_one, perhaps a future nic.
LOL. I take it back, RightWhale. You remind me of Lenny Bruce. :)
I am crushed! :)
How am I at war with FR?
As for a majority, most Israelis do not believe that giving up the contested terroritories for a Palestinains State will create peace. Yet they are willing to take the chance.
If Israelis are willing to risk suicide for a glimmer of hope, that is their right. But foreign pressure does not help.
The quest and dream of a Greater Israel ended long ago.
Greater Israel? We re talking about the territory granted to the Jews in 1923 + the Golan Hts. An area the size of Long Island is not "great".
The Palistinina dream for a greater Jordan seems very much alive.
You are going against the tide of history, but by all means, your opinions should be heard. I don't mind playing Buckley.
The many in here who refer to peace loving Israelis as commies and lefties,
What would you call people who vote for a Labour or Communist Party?
All Israelis want peace. They disagree on how to do so.
and non-Jews who oppose Israel's policies, Jew haters and and anti-Semites don't really help their cause.
I hope you understand the frustration of those seeing none-Jews push for what they consider the destruction of the Jewish state.
A lost cause, I should add.
Isn't that what the post-national left says of American conservatives?
I do not believ in inevitability. We have freedom.
The survival of Israel in 1948 should point out the flaws of proclaiming lost causes.
I know you see Israel as wearing the black hat in Lebanon. I would agree that Israel acted in its interests, not those of the Lebanses. But I would suggest that you take a little time looking at the lion of Damascus/Butcher of Khama, Hafez Assad.
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