Israelis Gear Up for Possible Attack by Iraq

Between a bagel ad and the death announcements, the Jerusalem Post newspaper advertises “Chemical Warfare: A Family Defense Manual,” for a little more than $7. The daily Maariv publishes an offer for Virkon, a “Disinfectant Against Biological Contamination,” in its weekend edition. And Haaretz carries almost a full page of ads for gas-impermeable plastic sheeting to cover windows, portable toilets to place in sealed rooms--and sedatives.

The Commerce and Trade Ministry, meanwhile, announced Friday that when shopping resumes Sunday, after the Jewish Sabbath, it will crack down on profiteers who have been scalping masking tape and other supplies for sealing rooms against poisonous gases and germs.

While the panic level is nowhere near what it was in the days before the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Israelis increasingly are gearing up for the possibility that their country will be drawn into a renewed conflict between the United States and Iraq.

Israelis are preparing in their own way--getting gas masks from the government; booking flights out of the country or hotel rooms in Eilat, at the seemingly safe southern tip of Israel; or trying to shrug off the crisis as a bad rerun.

As U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Baghdad in hopes of persuading Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to allow unrestricted weapons inspections and end the standoff, Israelis debated the merits of a U.S. airstrike against Hussein and the likelihood of his regime’s retaliation against Israel with conventional or nonconventional weapons.

Most Isaelis seemed to believe that the U.S. will bomb Iraq late next week or soon after but that Hussein will not hit back at Israel as he did last time, when 39 of his Scud missiles fell largely in the Tel Aviv area.

But if he does, they feel certain that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not sit back and take it, as the previous Likud government did at the urging of the United States. They see Israel responding militarily.

The Israeli government has been sending mixed messages to its people, arguing that it is unlikely Hussein will fire at Israel and even less likely that he would use nonconventional chemical or biological weapons. At the same time, Israeli officials have told their people to update their gas masks.

About half a million Israelis have obtained masks or exchanged their 1991 issue for new models, even though they believe that the masks are of poor quality and would be ineffective against chemical and biological weapons. Last time, several people died of suffocation from improperly using the masks.

Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai, one of Israel’s most trusted officials, suggested that Israelis stock up on plastic sheets and masking tape to seal rooms against such weapons, causing a mad run on the stores. But then he told them not to do so yet.

He has since been blamed for feeding the public panic.

*

A Channel 2 poll published Friday night said 23% of Israelis have already prepared sealed rooms, 39% plan to and 37% said they do not intend to do so.

The U.S. Embassy has provided its personnel and their families with gas masks and sealing supplies and announced that it will allow dependents and nonessential employees to leave, voluntarily, as they did in the 1991 Gulf War.

The “authorized departure” means that they will not be ordered to leave but may do so at government expense as long as they do not return until the U.S. government says so. Asked how many Americans affiliated with the Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem were likely to pull out, one official in Jerusalem said: “Most people are probably going to think about it over the weekend. I think there will be more from Tel Aviv than here.”

The U.S. Embassy issued a news release that advises Americans to get gas masks in keeping with Israeli government recommendations and that says the U.S. government has been assured by Israel that adequate supplies are available to meet the needs of all Americans in the area.

“We have full confidence in the government of Israel’s ability to distribute gas masks to all those Americans who want one,” Embassy spokesman Richard Scorza said.

But the Israeli press office admitted early Friday that there is a shortage of “tens of thousands” of masks for children in Israel and that there simply will not be any for young foreigners.

*

All of these back-and-forth announcements have resulted in a range of reactions--from fear to cynicism and nonchalance. Many Israelis are frantically stockpiling candles, flashlight batteries and canned food, as others sip their coffee in cafes and mock the hype.

“The fear of the unknown is again driving us to believe in useless solutions,” wrote Haaretz political columnist Doron Rosenbloom, who compared the hoarders to frenzied shoppers on the eve of Passover.

At the other end of the spectrum, Anri Mazor, 19, a Russian immigrant and security guard in downtown Jerusalem, admitted: “I am very nervous from the situation in the country and this situation of waiting for a war.”

Moti Sasson, 55, a construction worker, said he had updated his gas mask and will seal a room in his home if the government tells him to do so. But he said he will never join the rush to stock up on supplies.

“We must never let the enemy see fear,” he said.

As for those who leave the country in anticipation of conflict, Sasson said, “I wouldn’t let them back in. . . . Whoever is a true Israeli is here for better or for worse.”

Not all Israelis agree. Travel agencies reported a 40% increase in sales, with even extra flights to Europe and the U.S. fully booked.

Nachman Shai, the army spokesman in the last Gulf War who went on television several times a day to calm the public, said the expressions of panic, whether fleeing the country or frenzy shopping, stem from the 1991 experience.

“In 1991, we didn’t know what would happen or how it would feel to stay in sealed rooms with gas masks on, and when the war was over, many people tried to deny the impact of those 40 days” in and out of shelters, Shai said.

“It was a national trauma. The sirens would go off, and for three or four minutes, until the missile landed somewhere, you were absolutely scared,” he said. “In this case, experience serves for the bad and not the good.”