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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: haqihana who wrote (18874)	10/5/2002 1:52:30 PM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27666

LOL very appropriate conclusion! jpost.com Oct. 4, 2002 Ben-Eliezer: US will attack Iraq in November By TOVAH LAZAROFF AND HERB KEINON Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said last night that he expects an American attack on Iraq by late November. "It's possible it will begin toward the end of November," Ben-Eliezer told Labor Party ministers in Tel Aviv. Ben-Eliezer stressed that Israel is ready for any eventuality. He spoke after military sources told Israel Radio they now do not expect Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to launch Scud missiles carrying non-conventional warheads at Israel because this would prove to the world that the Americans are right in claiming he has such weapons. The potential nuclear threat from Iraq is a more serious and immediate danger to Israel than its conflict with the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told the World Jewish Congress biannual meeting in Jerusalem yesterday. Peres said there are only a few years to react to this threat, after which it will be too late. At the same time, he said, the decision to go to war with Iraq can only be made by the United States. Israel has no role in making this decision, nor should it seek one, he added. "It's not for us to appear that we are urging war," Peres said. "We should contribute very little by doing so. By being too vocal we should only harm the US position vis-a-vis the Arab world.... I wouldn't want any American mother to think the decision was taken because we urged them to do so. "What we can do is to pacify the situation here as much as we can and let major decisions have the priority, with all the costs and all the restraints. It's a strategic choice and we have to make it," Peres said. Iraq's decision to readmit UN arms inspectors is a transparent delaying tactic aimed at giving Saddam Hussein time to sow dissension between the US and Europe, a senior Israeli official said yesterday. Saddam's tactic is to play for as much time as possible, the official said, adding: "He wants to stall and sow seeds of discontent in the UN Security Council, and in Europe, towards the idea of an American attack." The official said Saddam believes delaying the attack will also increase voices of opposition in the US itself. Recent comments by Iraqi officials that Iraq has no intention of attacking its neighbors must be seen in the context of Baghdad's not wanting to say anything at this point to give the US a pretext to launch the attack, the official said. "Iraq is now under a microscope," the official added, "and will say anything that will help create the impression that it does not have weapons of mass destruction. If they would now threaten to use chemical or biological weapons against us, it would confirm the worst that everyone believes, and give the US an excuse to attack." The official, closely monitoring the situation in Iraq, said Israel is not keen on becoming involved in the impending war, and that Israel will not get involved if it has no overriding interest in doing so. The Americans also understand this, he said, intimating the US would likely cripple Iraq's capability to strike Israel in the early stages of the war, in order to make IDF military involvement unnecessary. In a related development, diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said a proposed sale of Russian SA-18 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria was high on the agenda of the security-related matters Prime Minister Ariel Sharon discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week during his visit to Moscow. Israel keenly wants this plan torpedoed, concerned the missiles would be transferred from Syria to the Hizbullah and used against IAF planes in the area. Another arms deal that came up during the talks in Moscow centered around the sale of Phalcon early-airborne warning systems to India. Discussions have been going on for months regarding the sale of three or four Phalcons to India. The Phalcon uses a Russian made Ilyushin-76 plane as its platform, and therefore requires Russian approval for sale to third countries. The plane is outfitted with sophisticated Phalcon radar that can detect 60 targets up to 400 kilometers away. Russian approval of the sale has not yet been secured, Israeli officials said yesterday. Likewise, the US has also "not exuded unbridled happiness" at the prospect of the sale to India at this time, one official said. US opposition to the Phalcon sale to China ultimately doomed that project during Ehud Barak's tenure as prime minister.