- WASHINGTON -- The US has
a responsibility to ensure Israelis are protected against weapons of mass
destruction before it decides to launch a military offensive to oust Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein, former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said
Thursday.
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- "A central component of any strike on Iraq must
be to ensure that the Israeli government, if it so chooses, has the means
to vaccinate every citizen of Israel before action is initiated,"
Netanyahu told the House Government Reform Committee.
-
- "Ensuring this is not merely the responsibility
of the government of Israel, but also the responsibility of the government
of the United States."
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- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's inner cabinet decided last
month to vaccinate 15,000 first responders for smallpox but has postponed
a decision on any wider vaccination plan.
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- Netanyahu, who is expected to challenge Sharon for control
of the Likud, said the "overwhelming majority" of Israelis support
a preemptive strike against Saddam even though they will be the target
of any Iraqi retaliation.
-
- In an indictment of opponents to a US-led preemptive
attack on Iraq, he said, "We support this preemptive action even though
we stand on the front line, while others criticize it as they sit comfortably
on the sidelines."
-
- Netanyahu echoed many of the indictments of Saddam aired
by President George W. Bush at the UN and stressed above all the dangers
posed by a nuclear-armed Saddam.
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- "A nuclear-armed Saddam will place the security
of our entire world at risk. Make no mistake about it. Once Saddam has
nuclear weapons, the terror network will have nuclear weapons. And once
the terror network has nuclear weapons, it is only a matter of time before
those weapons will be used," he said.
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- Netanyahu added that "even free and unfettered inspections
will not uncover" Saddam's "portable manufacturing sites of mass
death."
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- He said that while Iran is "outpacing Iraq"
in its development of weapons of mass destruction, regime change in Iran
may be possible without outside interference, especially once Saddam is
removed from power.
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- He also warned, as he has repeatedly in the past, that
Saddam could use "terror proxies" to spread weapons of mass destruction
in the US.
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