The IDF has not reduced the level of alert, despite reports that American forces have taken over key areas in western Iraq, from where Scuds were fired at Israel during the previous Gulf War. The public is still instructed to carry gas masks with them at all times, and the Arrow and Patriot anti-missile batteries and their emergency crews continue to be deployed on high alert. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told CNN yesterday,
"We feel pretty good about the fact that we've covered a lot of that ground [in western Iraq]. I wouldn't want to say that it's absolutely certain that something couldn't be fired from that area, but given the overhead control we have, the air superiority, indeed, air dominance in that part of the country and the number of people on the ground, I think that we can feel much better today than yesterday or the day before with respect to that issue."
Along those lines, the Israel Air Force has reduced the frequency of its 24-hour aerial patrols, under the assumption that the damaged Iraqi Air Force will have trouble launching an aerial attack against Israel.
Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz told the Cabinet yesterday that despite the heavy costs entailed by the countrywide alert declared last week, "it was the right decision." Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna had strong criticism for the "premature" decision to instruct the public to take out the gas masks.
"We feel pretty good about the fact that we've covered a lot of that ground [in western Iraq]. I wouldn't want to say that it's absolutely certain that something couldn't be fired from that area, but given the overhead control we have, the air superiority, indeed, air dominance in that part of the country and the number of people on the ground, I think that we can feel much better today than yesterday or the day before with respect to that issue."
Along those lines, the Israel Air Force has reduced the frequency of its 24-hour aerial patrols, under the assumption that the damaged Iraqi Air Force will have trouble launching an aerial attack against Israel.
Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz told the Cabinet yesterday that despite the heavy costs entailed by the countrywide alert declared last week, "it was the right decision." Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna had strong criticism for the "premature" decision to instruct the public to take out the gas masks.