Palestinians reported distancing themselves from Saddam Hussein
Palestine, Military, 2/3/1998

The tour was designed to explain to Labor Knesset members the threat Jewish settlements pose to the peace process, but all was reshuffled and Palestinian officials found themselves on the defensive trying to explain what their official stand on Iraq is.

A group of four members of Israel¹s parliament from the Labor Party were invited by the Palestinian Ministry of Information to tour a number of Jewish settlements in the surroundings of Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron on the West Bank. Yossi Beilin, Hagay Maroum, Yael Dayan and Yona Yahav arrived at the ministry¹s main offices in Ramallah with some 30 minutes delay and were received literally with an army of journalists who had been waiting for them for more than 40 minutes.

³We came here today to check reports on Palestinian Authority armament projects and to ask the Palestinians not to side with Saddam Hussein should a new military showdown take place in the region,² said Hagay Maroum, one of the leading moderate members of the Labor Party. On his way out of the meeting, Maroum quoted the Palestinian minister of information and culture, Yasser Abed Rabbo, as saying that the Palestinians ³distance themselves from any Iraqi missile attack on Israel using either biological or chemical weapons.²

Ministry sources, however, said that Abed Rabbo insisted on the need to honor all UN resolutions with regard to the Iraqi crisis as well as the Palestinian issue. The sources noted that even back in 1991, the Palestinians did not extend outright support to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and had called for the withdrawal of all Iraqi troops but also demanded that a chance be given to diplomacy to safeguard the withdrawal without any military confrontation. This time, the sources added, Abed Rabbo again insisted on the need to give a chance to diplomacy, arguing that the situation as it is today does not justify the use of military power when a number of western and Arab states are trying to find a way out of the crisis without having to go through military confrontation.

The sources said Abed Rabbo denied the report published in Time magazine earlier in the week which said the PNA had stockpiled weapons in preparation for an upcoming showdown with Israeli troops. Palestinian Minister of Agriculture Abdul Jawad Saleh, who took part in the meeting with the Israeli guests, said the Knesset members ³were told very clearly that we do not stockpile any weapons and that we hold Israel responsible for this wave of disinformation which is meant to cover up for Israel¹s failure to honor the peace agreements with the Palestinians.²

Saleh denied Israeli reports that suggested that Palestine was ready to skip the third redeployment phase of the Israeli troops in the West Bank and said the Knesset members who asked questions on this issue were told ³without any shadow of doubt that we insist on the implementation of the agreements in their entirety.²

Minister Abed Rabbo, sources close to him said, blamed Israel for the failure of the latest visit to the region by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and said the Israeli government has proved it is not interested at all in pushing the peace process forward and is instead looking for pretexts to rid itself of its commitments.

Meanwhile, Israel started a nationwide campaign Tuesday to calm the public, who have gone into a state of panic over the past few days following reports on a possible Iraqi missile attack using biological or chemical weapons against Israel. Army stations that distribute gas masks have been working until very late at night, especially in Tel Aviv, as long queues of people waited to get their updated versions of gas masks.

Tel Aviv is believed to be site number one on Iraq¹s list of Israeli targets. The top brass in the Israeli army, including the major general in charge of the home front held a press conference in the morning to assure the Israelis that their army has answers to all threats posed by Iraq or others. Later in the day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled a press conference to address the nation and calm its worries.

The media campaign by top government and army officials followed a wave of criticism voiced by the Israeli press against the authorities, who have ³left the Israelis in the dark and failed to update them on the state of alert and preparedness in anticipation of an Iraqi attack.² Israeli Chief of Staff Amnon Shahak said the chances of Iraq attacking Israel are next to zero and added that Israel¹s deterrence capacity should be sufficient to prevent Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from taking any decision to launch missiles on Israel.

Retired major general Avihu Ben Nun, who was the commander of Israel¹s air force during the Gulf War, told Israel radio in the morning that the Patriot missile batteries Israel has today are much better than those which served the country during the Iraqi Scud attacks in 1991. But military analysts noted that even today the anti-missile Patriot missiles are likely to fail to provide a sufficient defense against surface- to- surface missiles like the Scud.

After the war, Israeli and US army experts examined the performance of the Patriot missiles and found that they failed as missile defenses against the Scud. The missiles indeed managed to strike a few incoming Iraqi missiles, yet they did not destroy the warheads of these missiles. Those warheads managed to hit their targets in Israel while some of the Patriot batteries, which were located among densely populated areas, caused additional damage to their surroundings because of the impact of their launches.

Since the Gulf War, Israeli military sources maintained, a few improvements were achieved providing better control of the Patriots currently in Israel¹s possession. Israel does not issue any data on its defenses, leaving the matter for the foreign media to assess. According to western assessments, Israel now has at least four Patriot compounds which are operated by highly-qualified personnel from the Israeli air force. During the Gulf War, American teams operated the Patriots which had been flown into Israel only days before the war broke out.

Reports from Washington said that the US army has recently conducted a number of successful tests using model PAC-3 of the Patriots, but development works are expected to continue until the end of next year. The other anti-missile defense system that the US and Israel are working on is the Arrow, whose latest test by Israel a few months ago failed. Besides, the Arrow project faced another setback when a fire broke out last year in one of its maximum security industrial plants. The Arrow anti-missile missile is expected to become Israel¹s main defense system and should become operational in two years, provided future tests are conducted successfully.

Previous Stories:
  No hopes lifted by Albright's visit Saturday   (1/30/1998)
  Albright is coming: no progress anticipated   (1/28/1998)
  The Mass-destruction Weapons Disarmament Committee in the Arab League Holds its Meetings In Cairo   (12/17/1997)

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