Israel has warned the United States that it will retaliate should Baghdad fire missiles on the Jewish State in response to an American strike on Iraq.

Israel has notified the United States that it will not exercise the same kind of restraint it demonstrated in the Gulf War in the even of another Iraqi attack, even if there are no casualties.

The Hebrew language newspaper Ha'aretz has reported that Israel has issued the warning during discussions about preparations for a possible American attack on Iraq calculated to topple the regime of President Saddam Hussein.

The newspaper said that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had made it clear to U.S. President George W. Bush that "if Israel is attacked, it will respond."

The Washington correspondent for the English language Jerusalem Post newspaper independently confirmed that warnings had been issued by Israel.

The warnings are reportedly of concern to the United States, which is attempting to build international support for a possible military campaign against Iraq.

During the Gulf War, the United States joined forces with some Arab states and called on Israel not to intervene even when Iraq fired Scud Missiles at the Jewish State.

The Americans believed then that if Israel had responded, the coalition with the Arab States would have fallen apart.

In the build-up to another possible confrontation with Iraq, the U.S. administration does not yet have either European or Arab public support for a military strike.

At the same time, the Ha'aretz newspaper reports the Bush administration is sensitive to any suggestion that it is working with Israel against Iraq for fear that this could affect its relations with Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
[url]http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=69E28B3C-A094-449A-BDDD236AB7BFAF3F&title=Israel%20Will%20Retaliate%20if%20Iraq%20Attacks,%20says%20Newspaper&catOID=45C9C78D-88AD-11D4-A57200A0CC5EE46C[/url]

I think his board name stands for; [b]M[/b]e-hates [b]C[/b]oloreds [b]U[/b]nd [b]Z[/b]ee [b]I[/b]sraelis" [;)]

Check this out on www.debka.com
US Iraq Campaign Has Its First Engagement
DEBKAfileSpecial Military Analysis
10 August:  America’s offensive against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq has begun as an exercise in gradualism rather than a D-Day drama. DEBKAfile ’s military sources report that tens of thousands of US, British, French, Netherlands, Australian troops may take part in the campaign, openly or covertly, but not in massive waves that fling themselves telegenically on Baghdad.
The fact of the matter is that American military concentrations are already unobtrusively present in northern and southern Iraq. The US campaign to oust Saddam is therefore unfolding already, albeit in salami-fashion, slice by slice, under clouds of disinformation and diversionary ruses – like the latest statements by President George W. Bush (No date set yet for the offensive) and British premier Tony Blair (Plenty of time before the war begins), or the grave reservations issuing from the Russian, French and German leaders. The peasoup of deception is further thickened by utterances in the last 48 hours from Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit, King Abdullah of Jordan, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and the Saudi crown prince Abdullah. They warn Washington that attacking Iraq would be a terrible mistake, one which they want no part of.
DEBKAfile’s military sources attempt here to pierce some of the thickets of confusion with a few facts on the ground:
A.  Special US forces entered the Kurdish regions of north Iraq towards the end of March nearly four months ago, to set up local Kurdish militias and train them for battle.
B. At around the same time, Turkish special forces went into northern Iraq in waves that continued through April, fetching up in Turkmen regions around the big oil towns of Mosul and Kirkuk.
C.  Meanwhile, the Americans threw a ring of bases – using existing facilities and adding new ones  – around Iraq. They have since been pouring into those bases US armored ground units, tanks, air, navy and missile forces, as well as combat medical units and special contingents for anti-nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. According to our sources, the noose around Iraq extends from Georgia and Turkey in the north, Israel, Egypt and Jordan to the west, Eritrea and Kenya in the southwest, and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain to the south.
Furthermore, a large US armada, including aircraft carriers, has assembled at three points: the eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
D.  Since June, American and Turkish construction engineers have been working in northern Iraq, building and expanding airfields and air strips to make them fit for military use.
(Details of this operation appear in an earlier report on this page.)
First US Military Steps
In the past week, once those preparations were in place, the United States carried out two military operations:
1.  Tuesday August 6, at 0800 hours Middle East time, US and British air bombers went into action and destroyed the Iraqi air command and control center at al-Nukhaib in the desert between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The center contained advanced fiber optic networks recently installed by Chinese companies.  DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military sources say the raid made military history. For the first time, the US air force used new precision-guided bombs capable of locating and destroying fiber optic systems. The existence of such weaponry was hitherto unknown.
Following the destruction of the facility, about 260 miles (415 kilometers), southwest of Baghdad, waves of US warplanes swept in from the Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia and from US aircraft carriers in the Gulf and flew over the Iraqi capital.
The Iraqi air force and anti-aircraft system held their fire on orders from above. This deep air penetration told the Americans that the early warning radar system protecting Baghdad and its environs from intrusion by enemy aircraft and missiles was inactive.
2.  Two days later, on Wednesday night, August 8, Turkey executed its first major military assault inside Iraq. DEBKAfile’s military sources learn from Turkish and Kurdish informants that helicopters under US, British and Turkish warplane escort flew Turkish commandos to an operation for seizing the critical Bamerni airport in northern Iraq. This airport, just outside the Kurdish region, lies 50 miles north of the big Iraqi oil cities of the north, Kirkuk and Mosul. With the Turkish commandos was a group of US special forces officers and men. Bamerni airport was captured after a brief battle in which a unit of Iraqi armored defenders was destroyed, opening the airport for giant American and Turkish transports to deliver engineering units, heavy machinery and electronic support equipment, which were put to work at once on enlarging the field and widening its landing strips.
The American unit, reinforced, went on to capture two small Iraqi military airfields nearby.

The Turkish expeditionary force in northern Iraq now numbers some 5,000 men, in addition to Turkish air force contingents.
DEBKAfile’s military experts explain that with Bamerni airport and the two additional airfields  the Americans have acquired full control of the skies over the two oil cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, as well as over the Syrian-Iraqi railroad, which they can now cut off by aerial bombardment. A prime strategic asset, this railroad is Saddam’s back door for taking delivery of his illegal overseas arms purchases, which are ferried from Syrian ports to Baghdad by the Syrian-Iraqi railway. On the return journey, the same railway carries illegal Iraqi oil exports, over and above the quantities allowed under UN sanctions, out to market. The Iraqi war effort and the Syrian treasury depend heavily on the revenues accruing from these smuggled oil sales.
The battle over this airfield was in fact the first important face-to-face engagement between a US-led invasion force and Iraqi troops. It was carried out seven hours before the Iraqi ruler delivered his televised speech to the nation, on the 14th anniversary of the bloody eight-year Iraq-Iran war. In that speech, Saddam threatened American troops going to war against Iraq that they would return home in coffins.
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Wanna talk irony??

THis is irony-

That SOME claim I'm antiSemitic, yet my namesake is the Worlds NUMBER ONE nazi / anti Semite killer that the world has ever known.

THAT is irony.

And for the record -

If Iraq launches scuds or other missiles at Israel, I MOST DEFINITELY DO INDEED hope they launch a nuke (our guys being FAR from the region) at Iraq.

I got NO PROBLEM with israelis defending themselves or even launching an offensive in their war.

No. You and I get along pretty well. You have a sense of humor / understand (at least in a clinical sense) my sense of humor. [BD]

But I'm a-wonderin'

What perts of scripture do you think I've skipped over?? (maybe a discussion fo offline)

While I have a fairly healthy opinion of myself [:D], if I were to consider myself an expert in ANY area, it would be the Scriptural understanding of Israel / Jew / chosen under the new Covenant, which has Scripturally superceded the Old Covenant. More to the point, the New Testament (Covenant / Contract) is QUITE clear that it is intended to interpret the Old Covenant for us.

So, I'm all ears as to what parts of Scripture you think I've skipped over.

Again, offline if you wish.

Done.

I'll send you my home e-mail addy.