Israel Readying Anti-Missile System?

Israel has deployed an operational missile defense and is ready to use it to protect Tel Aviv and other major population centers if they come under fire from Iraq's arsenal of Scud missiles, The New York Times reports in its Sunday editions.

Known as the Arrow, the system is designed to avoid the pitfalls of the American Patriot system, which Israelis say had little success in stopping Iraq's Scud missile attacks during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the Times says.

The program, which will cost more than $2 billion, is partly financed by the United States. One battery is already deployed, and when the final interceptors and radars are installed about two years from now, Israel will be the first nation in the world to have a nationwide missile defense system, the newspaper points out.

If the Bush administration follows through with its threats to attack Iraq, and Saddam Hussein lashes out at Israel, the Arrow could be put to the test in what would be an important trial of antimissile technology.

"It would be the first time in history that an interceptor that was developed strictly to shoot down incoming missiles is used," a Pentagon official told the Times. "The Patriot used in 1991 was designed to shoot down airplanes and modified to give it some kind of antimissile capability. But from the start, the Arrow was built to intercept ballistic missiles. The whole world will be watching to see what happens, and we will be watching."

At the heavily guarded Palmachim air force base south of Tel Aviv, the Israeli military has been preparing for one of Israel's worst nightmares: a salvo of Al Hussein Scud missiles from Iraq, possibly carrying chemical or biological agents, the Times says. The flight time for an Iraqi Scud to a target in Israel is only about six or seven minutes.

Wearing gas masks and protective suits, Arrow crews practice reloading the Arrow missile launcher in an environment contaminated with chemical agents. In the fire control center, Israeli officers practice tracking and intercepting incoming Scud missiles under various attack scenarios. Unlike the Patriot system used in the gulf war, whose fire control system was essentially automated, the Israeli system allows military officers to decide when to fire the Arrow interceptor.

At a firing site, huge launchers, each loaded with six Arrow interceptors, stand at the ready while Israel's Green Pine radar scans the skies, according to the Times.

"We did a lot of testing, and most were successful," Danny Peretz, the program manager for the Arrow at Israel Aircraft Industries, which makes the system, said to the Times. "But we know in our hearts and put it in the design that this weapon will be tested only in war."

The Arrow has its origins in President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. After Mr. Reagan began his "Star Wars" program, Israel joined in the research and development effort. At first there was considerable debate in Israel as to whether it really needed a missile shield, a dispute that was essentially ended during the gulf war when 39 Iraqi Scud missiles struck Israeli territory, the Times explains.

"There were lot of arguments that Israel was so powerful that nobody would launch a missile at us," Mr. Peretz is quoted as saying. "But that all changed in 1991. Would anybody dare launch a missile at Israel? Well, somebody did."

In other developments Saturday, Israeli troops Saturday killed a Palestinian youth during clashes in the West Bank's most populous city, the fifth such death in two weeks. Israel's military intelligence chief, meanwhile, said Yasser Arafat's followers are trying to prevent terror attacks inside Israel.

In Washington, a Bush administration official said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will meet with President Bush on Oct. 16. Israeli news media said the talks would deal with the Israel-Palestinian conflict and possible U.S. action in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Arafat on Saturday signed Palestinian legislation defining Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qureia said.

Qureia said Arafat decided to sign the two-year-old bill now in response to a demand by the U.S. congress that Jerusalem be recognized as Israel's capital.

Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in 1950, but most countries, including the United States, have their embassies in Tel Aviv. Eastern Jerusalem was captured by Israel from Jordanian rule in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed afterward.

The new Palestinian law is symbolic since Israel has full control over both parts of the city and Sharon has pledged not to redivide it.