With the specter of a possible US offensive against Iraq looming, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Israel would strike back this time if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein again launched missiles at Israel. In 1991, under American pressure, Israel agreed not to retaliate against Iraq when it bombarded Tel Aviv with Scud missiles. "The situation that could unfold would certainly put us in a position in which we'll have to respond," Ben-Eliezer said he told Rumsfeld.An attack like this would be an interesting test of the ARROW missile defense system. I haven't been able to keep track of the Patriot battalion that got deployed to Israel a year ago in case of just such a scenario, but it wouldn't surprise me to find out that there are still elements of that deployment there, as they certainly aren't needed to defend Germany anymore. In any case regarding the US troops, the results of firing random SCUDs at Israel may have radically different results from what happened in 1991. Moreover, I don't think that the US will stand by idly either, but whether that means ground intervention or not is hard to say now.
Posted by Tom Roberts 2/9/2002 1:34:06 PM |