-46 Nervously Eyeing Saddam The Israelis say they are ready, while keeping an eye on the east. LARRY DERFNER Israel Correspondent Tel Aviv N ow that there has been a six-week lull in suicide terror bombings in Israel — caused by the Israel Defense Forces' near total takeover of the West Bank and the resultant disarray in Palestinian resistance — the Israeli public is free to turn its anxieties to Iraq. The country's distribution centers for gas mask kits; which previously had few takers, began getting long waiting lines last weekend. "Ever since [President Gerorge W.] Bush started making his threats, I've been very worried," said Etti Cohen, 35, waiting with some 40 other Tel Aviv res- idents to update her kit at the city's distribution cen- ter outside the Reading power station. The kits con- tain gas masks and atropine injections for nerve gas. Cohen, however, doesn't think they'll be of much use if Israel comes under chemical or biological attack — a prospect which she, like Israelis in gener- al, sees as all too realistic. "This is just to keep the public from panicking," she said. In the 1991 Gulf War, Israel was hit by -39 Iraqi Scud missiles, all of which carried "only" conven- tional warheads. . Many fell on Tel Aviv, neighboring Ramat Gan and the northern coastal city of Haifa; others went awry. The most lethal artifact of the war was the plug in Israelis' gas masks — several people suffocated because they forgot to . remove the plug before don- ning their mask. No more than two Israelis died as a direct result of the Scuds. Considerable property damage was sustained, but lives were probably saved because the buildings had relatively low occupancy rates — masses of residents of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area relocated for the six-week duration of the war, many to Jerusalem, which was rightly felt to be off-limits to Saddam because of the possibility that Scuds could hit the city's Moslem holy places or Palestinian neighbor- hoods. Many Israelis, however, sat in their gas masks inside their "sealed rooms" at home — their win- dows and doors sealed with masking tape and plastic sheeting to keep out the gas attacks that never came. These protective rooms proved of no use whatsoever against the Scuds. Neither did the 'U.S.-made Patriot mis- sile batteries set-up around Israel to shoot down the Iraqi missiles. The Patriots either missed their targets or failed to disintegrate them upon impact, leaving the Scuds to fall on Israel in large pieces. Israelis are better protected today. Gas masks now cannot be put on unless the plug is removed. The masking tape and plastic sheeting are a hollow joke from the past; hundreds of thousands of homes built since the Gulf War include "security rooms" with windows and reinforced doors sealed with rubber. People with older homes will be directed to bomb shelters. The atropine injections have been fortified. Some 15,000 emergency workers are being inoculated against smallpox. The Israeli Health Ministry says that if the U.S. attacks Iraq, all 6.6 million Israelis will be inoculated against the disease in a week. Batteries of improved Patriots and the untried but highly-touted Arrow anti-missile system have been set up around the country. The "Green Pine" radar system has been installed, while American and Israeli satellite systems are looking down on Iraq, which promises to give Israelis considerably longer than the 30-second notice they had in 1991 to get ready for an incoming missile. Gen. Moshe Yahalon, Israeli military chief of staff, told Army Radio, "We are prepared so that nothing will reach this area at all. We are well-prepared in terms of defense and also in terms of an offensive response if there will be a need." - ANALYSIS DEALER ANNOUNCES• SUPER SALE VOLVOS IN STOCK 139 MONTH LEASE ALL NEW 2002 C70 COUPE • 13 •XC WAGONS •S60s - IMMEDIATE DELIVERY eTs " SUBARU 15 Mild The working assumption in Israel is that while Saddam has chemical and biological weapons, although no nuclear capability, he has very limited ability left to launch them on a missile that could get through Israel's defenses and reach its target. But in the event that Saddam does get "lucky" with one or two last-gasp, non-conventional shots, the Sharon government has made it very plain that it will not repeat its behavior of the Gulf War, when it acceded to a U.S. request to refrain from retaliat- ing against Iraq, thereby keeping the allied coalition, which included Arab states, intact. In the hawkish atmosphere that's taken over Israel in the last two years of fighting the Palestinians, the restraint shown during the Gulf War is widely seen as having eroded Israel's deterrent power, something the current polit- ical and military leadership is determined to restore. Although Israel is likely to be Saddam's prime tar- get in the event of an American assault, Israeli pub- lic opinion is all for war. A recent poll in Yediot Aharanot, the country's largest newspaper, found Israel's Jewish majority favoring an American attack on Iraq by more than a 2 1 margin. Even Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, formerly the elder statesman of the Israeli peace camp, said in Washington that a failure to strike at Saddam would be comparable to Europe's failure to beat back Hitler before World War II. Israelis indulge in considerable bravado in the face of danger. The warrior ethic is bred into them. Ramat Gan Mayor Zvi Bar is timidly suggesting that in the event of a non-conventional attack, residents of the population-rich center of the country be relo- cated south to the Negev desert until the fighting ends. Etti Cohen, whose apartment had its windows and shutters blasted out by the Scuds in 1991, said she didn't try to flee then, but would in the event of Gulf War II. The danger of chemical or biological attack "is much greater now," she said, "and now I have two young daughters." ❑ LOW AS M O. *39,000 miles, 204 per mile for overage. 5575.00 refundable security deposit. Plus tax, title & license. $1,545 due at delivery. MSRP 538,150. Offer ends 9/27102. 9/20 611590 2002 17