Military Attacks Draw Protest Among Arabs

Thousands of anti-American demonstrators took to the streets in several Arab countries Thursday to protest U.S. and British strikes against Iraq, but the Middle East’s reactions to Operation Desert Fox were muted by the complexities of the crisis.

Anger at the military attacks was tempered by feelings in some quarters that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein shared blame for the assault because he has failed to comply fully with U.N. resolutions on disarmament.

But although there is no love lost between the Iraqi leader and his neighbors, many said they fear that military strikes without a strategy to depose Hussein will leave him even more firmly entrenched and prolong the suffering of ordinary Iraqis.

“People here are very angry. Very sad. Very frustrated,” said Radwan Abdallah, an independent political analyst in Jordan. “The whole anti-Saddam campaign has been to no avail. He is still in power, still as oppressive as ever, and Iraqis are reaching the point of desperation.”

U.S. Takes Precautions in the Mideast

There were no reports of violence against Americans in the Middle East, but precautionary measures were taken in some countries. Security was increased around the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. The United States ordered some of its diplomats to leave Kuwait, offered to fly out U.S. civilians and told those remaining to stay at home.

The fortress-like U.S. Embassy in Amman was closed because of an unrelated security threat, according to a spokesman. But there were protests downtown against the U.S. attack, and the American School shut down a day early for Christmas vacation.

Across the border in Israel, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deployed Patriot missiles against a possible attack from Iraq and said the radar system of its new Arrow anti-missile system was operational.

Mindful of the panic caused during an earlier scare over Iraq in February, Israeli leaders were careful to reassure their people that Israel was not part of this fight.

“We have no intention of becoming part of this conflict, but we are prepared for every possibility,” Netanyahu said on nationally broadcast radio. “I am not tempted to do anything [against Iraq]. I will do whatever is required to ensure the security of the state of Israel. . . . We will act with very great caution.”

Attacks on Israel Seen as Unlikely

When Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles on Israel in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir showed remarkable restraint and acquiesced to U.S. entreaties that he not retaliate. There has been speculation in Israel that Netanyahu might launch a spectacular strike against Iraq this time to shore up his collapsing government. Netanyahu’s statements were intended to put that speculation to rest.

Israeli Army Brig. Gen. Amos Gilad, head of intelligence research, has estimated that Iraq has as many as 30 missiles and several launchers, as well as chemical capability. He said Thursday that an attack on Israel is unlikely unless Hussein feels cornered.

“So long as there is no tangible threat to his survival . . . he will not attack Israel, so as not to become embroiled in another front,” Gilad said. “But if he is on the brink of extinction, he certainly may take suicidal steps involving the launching of a few missiles against Israel.”

Overall, Israelis seemed relatively calm. Schools were closed anyway because of Hanukkah.

In the Palestinian-ruled West Bank and Gaza Strip, meanwhile, pro-Iraqi demonstrators railed against the airstrikes and burned the U.S. flags that had waved in greeting to President Clinton only two days before. One Palestinian was killed when a protest turned into a confrontation with Israeli soldiers.

The Palestinian leadership that had embraced Clinton earlier this week called for an emergency summit of Arab states to condemn the U.S. air raids and demand that they end.

“Only by peaceful means shall this region be transformed,” Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said at a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “We demand an immediate end to the strike and siege against 23 million Iraqi people.”

The Cairo-based Arab League will meet this weekend at Baghdad’s request, although it was not immediately clear whether Arab foreign ministers or the permanent representatives will attend the session. A high-level Arab summit is deemed unlikely given the general lack of sympathy for Hussein.

Like so much of the Arab world, Palestinians were torn by conflicting emotions.

Palestinians were grateful for Clinton’s visit this week, which bestowed legitimacy on their campaign for statehood. But the Palestinian leadership sided with Iraq in the Gulf War, and the Palestinian people still feel a great affinity for the Iraqis.

“The Iraqi people are paying the price of the Monica crisis,” said one sign at a protest in Ramallah.

It was a sentiment echoed in many Arab quarters.

“The failure of Clinton’s Middle East policy, added to his personal failures, left him no choice but to attack,” said Salama Ahmed Salama, a columnist in the semiofficial Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram. “This hypocritical way of saying that we are attacking now before Ramadan to respect the feelings of the Muslim world, that’s the worst gift for the Islamic world for Ramadan. It will backfire. Attacking the women and children of Iraq is not the way to handle the situation.”

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a U.S. ally who has opposed the use of force to oblige Iraq to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions, expressed “regret” over the airstrikes.

Lebanon’s new prime minister, Salim Hoss, said, “We are asking the United States to stop this aggression and lift sanctions from the Iraqi people and show commitment to a fair position on the region’s issues.”

Iraq’s Arab neighbors in the Gulf voiced concern over the attack. In Saudi Arabia, a key Washington ally and base of support for the U.S. military during the Gulf War, newspapers voiced strong support for the Iraqi people but blamed Hussein for dragging his country into another conflict.

Kuwait urged a solution to the Iraq crisis but offered no public support for the punitive bombardment of its foe. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 sparked the Gulf War, and the U.S. and Britain are deployed in the tiny Gulf state as a precaution in case Baghdad decides to attack its neighbor again.

Iran said one of its southern cities was hit by a stray missile, causing damage but no casualties. Tehran called the strikes unacceptable, saying they would increase instability in the region, and it urged United Nations action to halt the operation. At the same time, it urged Baghdad, its adversary in eight years of war in the 1980s, to cooperate with the U.N. Security Council.

Miller reported from Amman and Wilkinson from Jerusalem. Aline Kazandjian in Cairo contributed to this report.