OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 27 March 2003 — A top-selling Israeli daily yesterday compared the US-British war in Iraq to Israeli Army operations in the Palestinian territories, which the coalition allies have frequently criticized as heavy-handed. Under the headline “Similar?” the tabloid Ma’ariv’s supplement section splashed a series of juxtaposed pictures of bombed buildings in Iraq and the Palestinian territories, of Iraqi prisoners being watched by US soldiers and Palestinian captives of the Israeli Army.
“Over the years the British and the Americans have reprimanded Israel for the way in which it has fought terrorism in the territories. Now, they are fighting in Iraq,” the daily said in a long editorial.
“Suddenly they are engaged with a civilian population and they have to get their hands dirty. The pictures that have begun to come in from Iraq look astonishingly like the ones we’ve grown accustomed to from the territories,” it said. It said that “the way the coalition troops are dealing with the fighting is also reminiscent of the way Israeli troops do.”
Among the series of pictures side by side were a shot from Basra of armed and helmeted coalition troops prodding at gunpoint unarmed civilian men with their hands on their heads, next to a photo from Nablus of an Israeli soldier doing the same.
Another pair of pictures showed smoke rising from bombed buildings in Baghdad and Gaza. Washington and London have also come under fire from the Palestinian leadership for their decisive pressing ahead with the war on Iraq while constantly delaying publication of an internationally drafted “road map” to end the 30-month Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Meanwhile, after a week of the war in Iraq, the Baghdad regime has still not fired any missiles at Israel and many Israelis have stowed their gas masks, although the specter of a Scud missile attack has still not died. While military analysts said that the first 48 hours of the war were crucial to Israeli security, as coalition forces seized possible missile launch sites in western Iraq, some now say that a new danger period is looming as US and British forces close in on Baghdad.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has told people that despite coalition activities in western Iraq, the population should still carry gas masks against the threat of chemical attack from the collapsing regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Alex Fishman, military analyst for the Yedioth Aharanot daily, said, “The closer we come to the decisive battle in Baghdad, the less inclined the Israelis security establishment becomes to dismantle the sealed rooms” prepared for the event of a chemical attack. He said reports that Iraqis would start using chemical weapons if US-led forces closed in on Iraq’s capital caused concern in Israel, “since crossing the conventional line means that the Iraqis will have rid themselves of all inhibitions on all fronts.”
