Israel Puts Its F-16 Jets on Display : Military: Despite U.S. call for restraint, officials say they will retaliate if Iraq launches an assault.

The cutting edge of the Israeli air force was displayed at a northern base Sunday, and Defense Minister Moshe Arens promised retaliation in case of an Iraqi attack.

“If Israel is attacked,” Arens told reporters after inspecting air force readiness, “we will use the legitimate right of any country that is attacked to respond.”

Arens’ comments appeared to be a clear rejection of pleas from the Bush Administration for Israel to refrain from any attack on Iraq to avoid splintering Arab support for the anti-Iraq coalition.

“There is no reason for the Israelis to be brought in,” Bush’s National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft said in Washington on Sunday in a television interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If they are brought in, they are brought in by (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein, and they are brought in pursuant to a grander strategy that he has, and we shouldn’t fall into his strategy.”

“Hopefully,” Israel would not retaliate even if attacked, Scowcroft said, although he conceded that “I don’t know if it’s realistic.” The message of restraint was conveyed to Israeli officials by Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, who met with Arens in Jerusalem shortly before Arens arrived by helicopter at the air force base.

Earlier in Jerusalem, Health Minister Ehud Olmert, who is close to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, said after the weekly Cabinet meeting: “We do not expect anyone to fight for us. We do not want anyone to protect us. We will do it ourselves.”

Asked about reports that the Eagleburger mission was designed to persuade Israel to stay out of the Persian Gulf conflict, Olmert answered: “Whether or not there was a (U.S.) request is irrelevant. We will retaliate.”

At the northern air base, Arens inspected two U.S.-made F-16 fighter-bombers and watched ground crews arm each aircraft with a dozen 500-pound bombs, two air-to-air Sidewinder missiles and a large fuel drop tank.

The message for Iraq was clear: the F-16s were used in the 1981 raid that destroyed that country’s nuclear reactor near Baghdad; the fuel drop tanks give the planes the range to reach Iraqi bases, and the Sidewinders shot down the Soviet-made MIGs in Iraq’s air force.

Arens said Israel’s air force is in a high state of readiness at the approach of the United Nation’s Jan. 15 deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait or face the prospect of war. Iraq’s President Hussein has vowed to strike at Israel if the U.S.-led multinational force in the Persian Gulf tries to drive his troops from Kuwait.

Hard hit by missiles and conventional antiaircraft guns manned by Egyptian and Syrian batteries in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israelis learned a tough lesson that led to a remarkable air victory over the Syrians during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

The first targets were 19 SA-6 surface-to-air missiles deployed by Syrians in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. The Israelis employed a variety of aerial weapons in the attack.

Involved were E-2C surveillance aircraft orbiting off the coast of Lebanon, a Boeing 707 gathering electronic intelligence and many ground-based and helicopter-borne electronic jammers.

The E-2Cs monitored the airspace over the targets and airfields in Syria and served as aircraft controllers; the 707 monitored the SA-6 batteries themselves, and the jammers interrupted transmissions between Syrian pilots and their ground controllers.

Israel sent in pilotless drone aircraft to serve as decoys, activating the radars that triggered a Syrian missile response.

Once the missiles gave away their locations and their radars were neutralized, Israel launched combined artillery and air strikes, knocking out the Syrian batteries.

When Syrian fighters scrambled to engage Israel combat jets, their communications were jammed. Deprived of instructions from ground radar controllers, they were helpless against Israeli F-16 and F-1F fighters.

In the largest series of air battles since World War II, the Israeli air force destroyed 85 Syrian planes without losing a single aircraft to enemy fighter action.

Times staff writer David Lauter, in Washington, contributed to this story.