Newsday (New York, NY) March 18, 2003
An Ally On the Edge
By Andrew Metz.
Staff Correspondent; staff reporting
Jaffa, Israel - The patio at the White Pergola Restaurant used to offer unobstructed views of the Mediterranean seashore, drawing diners for plates overflowing with hummus, salads and fresh, grilled fish.
Today the sunny eatery in this ancient city adjacent to Tel Aviv is all but empty, rubbing up against an American military beachhead, complete with Patriot anti-missile batteries in the sand, soldiers, Humvees and American flags flapping in the breeze.
"It really gives you the feeling that there is a war," the restaurant's chef, Nayef Zoabi, 43, said on a recent day as he lamented the loss of business because of the encampment directly off his patio. "Before it was all talk, but as soon as you see the Patriots, you know."
In the crescendo of war, U.S. troops and military hardware have quietly arrived on Israeli beaches, bluffs and mountains, pursuing a delicate mission both to protect America's main Middle East ally and to keep it on the sidelines, as it was a decade ago.
An American general has been sent to Israel, along with 600 to 800 soldiers, several Patriot batteries and a joint command center.
The United States has tried to position itself here with as little international attention as possible. Even as it plugs Israel into the war in major ways, it is disavowing the Jewish state's connection to it.
"From the American standpoint, it has a difficult enough time rallying the Arab world to the cause of attacking Iraq, and any Israeli involvement is an embarrassment," said Yossi Alpher, a strategic analyst and adviser to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. "We are being asked to keep a low profile in general. That holds for ... all elements of American-Israeli military cooperation."
U.S. and Israeli officials have denied access to the soldiers, who are largely confined behind the razor wire of their bases, such as the one here, called Camp Ajami, for the surrounding seaside neighborhood.
Though the State Department has ordered all nonemergency personnel and dependents out of Israel, the country has not been classified a combat zone like other parts of the war theater. For the soldiers here, who initially arrived as part of a joint military exercise, that means they still must pay federal income taxes, unlike their colleagues serving nearby.
"If they are putting them there to shoot Scud missiles out the sky, then it seems to me they are in harm's way," said Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Jamaica Estates), who visited soldiers here recently and is lobbying the secretary of defense to grant them the same tax abatement as the other troops. "They are here in support of the U.S. effort in a war zone."
Ackerman said the discrepancy is dimming morale. He blamed it on "diplomatic nuance," a desire by the Bush administration to avoid declaring "Israel a frontline country."
Besides the considerable technological and military cooperation here, the United States is training its sights on western Iraq in the hope of thwarting any Israel-bound missile launches.
Israeli military and intelligence officials have emphasized that the risk from Iraq appears minimal, but the mission is still potentially perilous. In 1991 Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel, causing few casualties but proving the American Patriots a disappointment. There is concern Iraq might attack Israel, this time with chemical or biological agents. And there is fear that Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon may use the war as cover to launch strikes.
The country is mobilizing an extensive civilian defense apparatus and is better prepared than it was in 1991. It has deployed one of the most advanced missile defense systems in the world, the Arrow-2, designed to spot incoming missiles up to 300 miles away and destroy them above ground, up to 56 miles away. The $2-billion system was jointly developed and funded by the United States.
The Patriots, now a backup, are supposedly much improved. Any Israeli military action is a worst-case scenario that U.S. officials are trying to avoid, but Israeli leaders have said they reserve the right to retaliate against an attack.
Most people living in the shadow of the Patriot batteries here expressed doubt that it would come to that, particularly with American soldiers on their beaches.
For many, the real politics of this incendiary place is as plain as the Patriot launchers parked outside the White Pergola. "I don't think Israel needs any help from America," said Zoabi, an Israeli Arab. But, he said, "it would upset all the other Arab states if Israel got involved. And then the Arab states would want to attack back."
Protecting Israel
Iraq launched 39 Scud missiles at Israel during the Gulf War and, as the prospect of another war looms, might do so again. In preparation, Israel has bolstered its air defenses with Israeli - and U.S. - made interceptor missiles. Any Scud strike would likely be launched form an area in western Iraq analysts call the "Scud box"
Scud-B
(Iraqi mobile ballistic missile)
Range: 186-400 miles
Arrow-2
(New Israeli Scud interceptor)
Range; 56 miles
Patriot
(Made in U.S.)
Range: 100 miles
SOURCES: www.globalsecurity.org; Center for defense Information, Periscope military databases, staff reporting
GRAPHIC: Photo by Andrew Metz - An American soldier is seen in the foreground, against a backdrop of American Patriot batteries along the beach in Jaffa, Israel. Newsday Chart - Protecting Israel (see end of text)
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