BY BY JOEL GREENBERG
The New York Times
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a veiled warning Thursday that Israel would hit back if attacked by President Saddam Hussein in response to the wave of U.S. and British air strikes on Iraq.
“We reserve the right to self-defense,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a radio interview. “Israel will know how to defend itself. I think everyone knows what Israel's capabilities are.”
But even as the Israeli army announced that it was positioning Patriot missiles to defend against a possible Iraqi missile attack, Israeli officials said such an attack is highly unlikely. Mr. Hussein's offensive abilities are limited, they said, and he would not want to risk retaliation by Israel while under U.S. and British assault.
Brig. Gen. Amos Gilad, chief of research for Israeli military intelligence, said at a news conference, “At the moment, Saddam Hussein is preoccupied with defense against the United States, and our assessment is that as long as there is no concrete threat to his existence, he will not take steps to attack Israel that could embroil him on another front.”
In the West Bank, thousands of Palestinians protested the air strikes, burning American flags days after the same banners were hoisted to welcome President Clinton to Bethlehem and the Gaza Strip.
Some protests turned into stone-throwing clashes with Israeli troops, and a 20-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed in Ramallah.
The State Department ordered the departure of some staff members and their families from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, recommending that other Americans should consider leaving. British travel companies evacuated several hundred tourists from Eilat, a Red Sea resort, while the Israeli Tourism Ministry announced that it had enough gas masks for all visitors.
Mr. Netanyahu, for his part, praised what he described as the “composure” of the Israeli public.
“We are not involved in this conflict, and we have no intention of being involved in this conflict,” he said. “But if someone will want to involve us, we know that Israel has the full right to self-defense.”
In the Persian Gulf war in 1991, Israel was hit by 39 Iraqi Scud missiles but did not respond, because it wanted to prevent a defection of Arab countries from the U.S.-led coalition.
There is no such coalition today, and the Israelis probably would feel freer to respond to any attack.
![[attack on iraq logo]](/editions/1998/12/18/iraq_100x66.gif)