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Armless Saddam To Form Jerusalem Liberation Army
CAIRO & BAGHDAD, Feb 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has started to form a Jerusalem army made up of volunteers and soldiers "to liberate Palestine" from Israeli rule, a senior Iraqi official announced Wednesday.
"At the orders of President Saddam Hussein, we have started to form the first brigade of volunteers in the Al-Quds Al-Sharif [Jerusalem] Army to liberate Palestine from the Mediterranean to the Jordan [river]," said Ali Hassan al-Majid, a member of the decision-making Revolutionary Command Council (RCC).
The announcement came a day after hawkish right-winger Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister of Israel.
The U.S. Cable News Network showed footage of street celebrations upon the announcement of Iraqi decision and said that Iraqis, at the orders of Hussein, will collect donations for the drive.
Hussein lacks support in most Arab countries, and some intellectuals have gone as far as to label him "an agent" that has always served Israeli and American plans in the Middle East.
Some observers say that Israel, which came into existence in 1948 after a war with Arab countries, often uses threats made by powerless Iraq as pretext for more American support and weapons shipments. Saddam Hussein was the only Arab leader who fired Scud missiles at Israeli cities during the 1991 Gulf War, but caused near zero damage.
Majid told reporters that the first brigade of the Jerusalem force was made up of a military unit of the Baath party in the Al-Karkh district of Baghdad where the ruling party had two regular army divisions.
Iraq, a fierce opponent of the Middle East peace process, has already announced the mobilization of more than 6.5 million volunteers for a jihad, or Muslim holy struggle, against the Jewish state and urged Israel's neighbors to open their borders.
Saddam has called for the expulsion of Jewish immigrants following the 1948 creation of the state of Israel, which would be replaced by a multi-confessional Palestine state, newspapers reported Wednesday.
"The Jews who were living in Palestine before 1948 can then co-exist with the other confessions," the president told a meeting of the RCC and Baath leadership on Tuesday.
He also said that the four-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule would "continue, with the support of the Arab masses."
In support of the uprising, the Iraqi leader threatened on the January 17th anniversary of the 1991 Gulf War, to bombard Israel every day for six months.
On January 30th, Iraq's artillery corps chief said his heavy guns were awaiting orders from Saddam to start the bombardment, although post-war U.N. resolutions limit the range of Iraq's missile force to 150 kilometers (95 miles), well out of reach of Israel.
During the Gulf conflict, Iraqi forces launched 39 Scud missiles at Israel, killing at least one person and wounding hundreds of others, as well as causing serious damage.
Iraq's top newspaper, Babel, on Monday accused both Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak, who was ousted as Israeli premier, of being "criminals, each of them as dangerous as the other for the Palestinian people.
"The settlement of the Palestinian cause will only be solved when the Jews who immigrated to Palestine leave," said Babel, which is run by the president's eldest son, Uday Saddam Hussein.
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