1/22/2024 0 Comments Gulf war israeli gas maskIn 1990, Saddam Hussein threatened to strike Israel with chemical weapons in retaliation for U.S. “We’ll prepare as best we can, to the extent we can, just in the way we did in 1990 for the Gulf War,” says Tzipi, the Jewish woman (who said she could not give her last name because as an Education Ministry employee she is not authorized to speak to the media). One wore the headscarf of a pious Muslim woman, and the other, the headscarf of a religious Jewish woman - strikingly similar except for the way the fabric is tied. “If Syria attacks, then none of us are safe.” An Arab citizen of the Jewish state, Sheikha sat beside a religious Jewish woman. “We need masks for our families just like everyone else in Israel,” says Zeinab Sheikha, waiting outside in a Jerusalem distribution center. Like the long lines extending at other gas-mask distribution points this week, the episode betrayed the rising unease coursing just below the surface of Israeli society. The policymakers’ assessment is based on monitoring of Assad’s military, which betrays no preparations to carry out the retaliation threatened by midlevel Syrian officials, whose bellicose rhetoric is judged chiefly for domestic consumption.īut cool calculation was not what drove the Jerusalem residents who overwhelmed a gas-mask distribution center at a shopping mall Thursday, forcing it to shut down early. In the mind of the Israeli public, those memories combine against the assurances of Israeli leaders that Damascus is unlikely to strike out at Israel in response to the expected American air strikes. The former apparently has used chemical weapons on its own people, and the latter rained thousands of rockets into Israeli cities and towns just seven years ago. Syrian forces stand just across 47 miles (76 km) of Israel’s northern frontier, and its ally Hizballah roams the grassy highlands of southern Lebanon that account for the remaining 49 miles (79 km). Yet at ground level, Syria is awfully close to Israel proper, and ordinary Israelis have reason to worry that an American air strike could produce consequences beyond the theoretical or geopolitical. “The implications of this go beyond Syria.” “The Iranians are watching very closely how we respond,” says an Israeli official in Jerusalem. prepares to make good on its threats to launch military strikes punishing the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad for its alleged use of chemical weapons, Israel sees the situation as a test of international resolve on checking Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which Israel’s leaders call an existential threat. If you are still in possession of a gas mask and don’t know what to do with it please contact The Home Front Command by dialing 104 from any phone for instructions.Follow Eastern conflicts always unfold on multiple levels - think 3-D chess - and for Israel the most relevant level of the crisis in Syria is what it says about the world’s approach not to Syria, but to Iran.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |