U.S. Reassures Israel It is Trying to Eliminate Iraqi Missile Threat

The Bush administration sought to ensure Israel on Wednesday that the United States was doing everything it could to provide for Israel’s security, despite the continuing threat from Iraqi SCUD missiles.

“We want the government and the people of Israel to know that the United States will continue to stand by Israel in the days ahead,” said State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler.

These assurances were seen as part of the U.S. effort to encourage Israel to continue refraining from retaliating for the SCUD attacks, the most serious of which occurred Tuesday night in Ramat Gan. Three people died and 96 were injured in that attack.

The SCUD hit the suburban Tel Aviv neighborhood despite the Patriot anti-missile batteries the United States rushed to Israel last weekend.

In a speech Wednesday night to the Reserve Officers Association, President Bush said Saddam Hussein “has sickened the world with his use of SCUD missiles, those inaccurate bombs that indiscriminately strike at cities and innocent civilians in both Israel and Saudi Arabia.”

Calling the SCUD missiles “tools of terror,” Bush declared “they do nothing but strengthen our resolve to act against a dictator unmoved by human decency.”

Finding and destroying Iraq’s mobile SCUD launchers is still a major priority, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said at a news briefing Wednesday.

Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that finding the SCUDs has been “more of an effort on our part than we had anticipated.”

Both White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater and Tutwiler at the State Department maintained Wednesday that the United States has not directly asked Israel to refrain from a retaliation.

And Bush reportedly did not do so when he called Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir at midnight Tuesday to express his “outrage” at Iraq’s “unprovoked aggression.”

$13 BILLION REQUEST UNDER CONSIDERATION

But Bush and other top administration officials have made their preference clear by repeatedly expressing appreciation for Israel’s restraint so far, which the president called “remarkable.”

“We recognize and respect the right of every sovereign state to defend itself and thus have never questioned Israel’s right to respond to attacks,” Tutwiler said.

“We also recognize and respect Israel’s desire not to be drawn into this conflict and greatly admire Israel’s restraint in the face of Iraqi deliberate and murderous efforts to widen the conflict caused by the aggression against Kuwait,” Tutwiler said.

The White House said Bush and Shamir agreed to stay in close consultation. One means of doing this is the indefinite stay in Israel by Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger.

Eagleburger spoke to Secretary of State James Baker by telephone eight times between the time the SCUD missile hit Ramat Gan on Tuesday and noon Wednesday, according to Tutwiler.

Both Fitzwater and Tutwiler denied that Israel has been promised any specific rewards for its restraint, such as the $13 billion in additional aid over five years that Israeli Finance Minister Yitzhak Moda’i requested during a meeting Tuesday with Eagleburger.

The deputy secretary made no commitment on the aid, but the request will be “given our full consideration,” Fitzwater said.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives voted 416-0 Wednesday afternoon to adopt a resolution condemning the Iraqi attacks on Israel, praising Israel’s restraint and declaring solidarity with the Jewish state.

The resolution was introduced by Rep. Edward Feighan (D-Ohio), who declared that the longstanding ties between the United States and Israel have now been forged into steel.

A similar resolution was introduced in the Senate by the majority and minority leaders, Sens. George Mitchell (D-Maine) and Robert Dole (R-Kan.) respectively.