Restructuring of the entire Orient

Nowhere will an American attack against Saddam Hussein find stronger support than in the High Command of the Israeli defence force. Their most important lobbyists in Washington are Paul Wolfowitz, deputy defence secretary, and the foreign policy expert Richard Perle. Jerusalem expects 'robust' measures against Iraq, in particular from defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld; caricaturists like to depict him as 'Dr Strangelove,' who 'learned to love the bomb.' In national security advisor Condoleezza Rice, a highly intellectual African American who is trusted by the President, the 'bellicist' clan (as the librals say) has found the most effective advocate of a regime change in Baghdad. She is not only an excellent piano player, but also has a degree in Slavonic studies and was an advisor to George Bush senior in the negotiations on the reunification of Germany.

Hardly any of the military leaders believe in a solution to the conflict in the Holy Land, be it a political or a military solution. Consequently, the goal is to completely renounce the present status quo, which is perceived as unbearable. What is at stake is a full scale restructuring of the Orient, and many high ranking officers await the American campaign against Iraq with impatience, hoping that it will produce a radically new deck of cards.

The headquarters of Zahal are better informed about the plans of the Pentagon than the European NATO allies. The Israeli army would be willing and prepared to participate in the combat operations. It is believed in Tel Aviv that Saddam Hussein will do all he can to involve Israel in the battle of Baghdad, because only such an engagement could produce the big Islamic-Arabic explosion in the neighboring countries which the dictator in Baghdad and Yassir Arafat have so long awaited in vain.

The number of Iraqi missiles that could reach Tel-Aviv or Haifa would be limited to about two dozen at most, according to Israeli intelligence. The new anti-missile defense system 'Arrow,' which is far superior to the American 'Patriot,' would be able to intercept these isolated missiles in time, in particular as US troops are already stationed in Jordan for 'training' purposes.

Scholl-Latour, Kampf dem Terror (War against Terror), p. 272f

And the neutron bomb?

Similar restraint exercised by Itzhak Shamir could not be expected from the present Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. If the Iraqi dictator should actually succeed in hitting the Jewish state, the reaction of Zion would be horrific. If Saddam were to really manage to load his bombs with chemical weapons, which would cause horrible reminiscenses of the gas chambers of Auschwitz, then Baghdad would face brutal and total annihilation. 'Well informed sources' are musing that Israel could use neutron bombs as an extreme measure. A wrath of biblical dimension would descend upon the new Babylon. Saddam Hussein is believed to understand the mene tekel, the writing on the wall, very well. But nobody can predict what the new Belshazzar would be capable of doing, if he should be pitilessly confronted with his own end.

Scholl-Latour, Kampf dem Terror (War against Terror), p. 192