- JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel
has completed deployment of anti-missile batteries to face any retaliatory
strike by Iraq in the event of a US-led war, but a top commander admitted
for the first time that Saddam Hussein does not have the ability to hit
the Jewish state.
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- Military Intelligence Chief General Aharon Zeevi was
quoted by the daily Haaretz as saying that Iraq had not deployed missiles
in its western territory, the only area from which its now banned arsenal
could hit Israel.
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- Although the threat of a repeat of the 1991 Gulf war
when Iraq retaliated against the US-led operation to liberate Kuwait by
firing 39 Scud missiles armed with conventional warheads against the Jewish
state, the army advised the public to step up war preparations.
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- "Two weeks ago we had told the population to start
acquiring the necessary equipment, but the time has now come to consult
the home front command brochures sent to each home," army spokeswoman
General Ruth Yaron said in a warning broadcast by public radio.
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- "Even though the risk of an Iraqi missile attack
is very low, we should be ready because it is obvious that the start of
the US attack is approaching," she added.
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- Home front command leaflets advise the population to
stock up on water, tinned food and batteries, and buy electric torches
and tape to seal off shelters against a possible chemical or biological
attack.
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- Despite Zeevi's statement and US pledges to destroy any
firepower Iraq deploys in its western desert, Israel has set up US-owned
Patriot-2 anti-missile batteries along the Tel Aviv coast as a new precaution.
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- They will be used as the second layer in Israel's defences,
should the sophisticated anti-ballistic Arrow-2 system developed by Israel
and the United States fail to intercept Iraqi missiles.
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- Pictures of the Patriot batteries deployed by the beach
amidst the cafes and fish restaurants of Old Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, were
splashed on the front pages of all Israeli newspapers Wednesday, although
officials have said that the greatest threat during a war in Iraq is against
Israeli interests abroad.
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- According to opinion polls, most Israelis still fear
Palestinian suicide bombings more than an Iraqi missile strike.
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- The latest attack inside Israel is exactly two-month-old
but people fear a war in Iraq could herald an escalation in Israeli-Palestinian
violence.
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- A mosque and four houses were destroyed in the Gaza Strip
and West Bank overnight Wednesday, but nobody was injured.
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- On Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw issued
a strong rebuke of Israel's latest operations in the Gaza Strip which killed
several Palestinians, including women and children.
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- "The indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli
Defence Force only fuels the cycle of violence, denying both Israelis and
Palestinians the security they deserve," he said in a statement.
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- "Leaders on both sides must show statesmanship and
rekindle hopes for peace, " said Straw.
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- US President George W. Bush also reiterated his commitment
to the so-called "roadmap" which calls for a Palestinian state
by 2005, but peace efforts appeared to be on standby as all eyes were on
Iraq.
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- The newly sworn-in Israeli government is one of the most
right-wing in the country's history and the two ultra-nationalist and pro-settler
parties in the coalition would likely complicate any peace initiative.
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- Commentators have suggested that Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon is waiting for the United States to wrap up its offensive
against the Iraqi regime to move the Palestinian issue back to the top
of his agenda.
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- They say Sharon hopes by then he will have convinced
the Labour party led by dovish Amram Mitzna to join a national unity government,
allowing him to dump the extreme right and tackle the peace demands imposed
on him by the international community.
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