Today's Situation

WAITING FOR DISASTER, August 24, 2007

With the main Hebrew-language newspapers concentrating on domestic issues in their Friday issues, it was left to The Jerusalem Post to report exclusively on the IDF's decision to modify its missile defense doctrine and change its deployment of the Arrow missile in northern Israel. According to the report, the decision was prompted by assessments that Israel's future wars will be characterized by unprecedented missile barrages.

According to the report, the Arrow has been deployed until now at the Palmahim Air Force Base, as well as at an undisclosed site in northern Israel. The 'thin deployment,' as it was called, was implemented when the Arrow became fully operational in 2000 and when the doctrine was still based on the threat of Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles from the first Gulf War.

Defense officials claim that the Arrow missile is capable of intercepting all of the operational ballistic missiles in Iran and Syria.

Ahead of a possible conflict with Syria and Iran, the Air Defense Forces are also conducting an increased number of joint exercises with the United States Armed Forces, in an effort to increase coordination between the two countries and to prepare for the possibility that Washington will send US missile defense systems to Israel if and when they are needed., the paper reported.

Yedioth Ahronoth leads its Friday edition with a call by parents of students in the Sderot to evacuate their children from the Qassam-hit city ahead of the start of the new school year on September 2. Their call comes as the IDF steps up its operations against militants in Gaza, which have killed at least 13 Palestinians in the past four days, and as there is increased talk of a wider IDF operation in Gaza. (See Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer, below.)

On the Palestinian front, Ynet reports on Friday that Hamas government spokesman Dr Ghazi Hamad has resigned following the recent events in the Gaza Strip. Quoting the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, Ynet says that a Palestinian source told the paper that Hamad quit his job because he believed Hamas did not do enough to reach a compromise with the rival Fateh movement.

Israel Radio, meanwhile, reports on a statement by Islamic Jihad, in which it said that all of its operations - including rocket attacks against Israeli targets - are coordinated with and approved by Hamas.

Finally, an exclusive report in Omedia claims that 'the Syrian navy is expected to receive new missile boats from Iran in the very near future, if it has not received them already.' While the report says that there are no details regarding the specific model that is expected to arrive in Syria and that there have been no confirmations from other sources, it stressed that 'if the information proves accurate, the move marks an upgrade of the Syrian navy. Still,' the report adds, 'the Israeli navy would retain vast superiority over its Syrian counterpart.'

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