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Jerusalem-Syria has almost completed a massive deployment of missiles capable of carrying non-conventional warheads as far as the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, Israel's Army Radio reported on Monday.Military officials say the deployment has enabled Syria to hit strategic installations and civilian population centers throughout northern and central Israel with a barrage of hundreds of missiles within one hour of commencing hostilities.The huge arsenal, most of it supplied by Iran, includes upgraded Scud-D missiles that can deliver payloads of over 1,000 pounds of explosive power, enough to damage entire city blocks in the densely populated Israeli coastal plain.Despite the mounting threat, Defense Minister Ehud Barak insisted he will not order the mass distribution of updated gas masks and emergency medical kits to Israeli families, the radio reported.Barak said such a move could be interpreted by Damascus as preparations for war on Israel's part and further exacerbate the situation.Israeli lawmaker Yuval Steinitz (Likud), chairman of the Knesset Subcommittee on Home Front Preparedness, responded by slamming Barak for repeating the follies of past defense ministers."The decision not to hand out masks so as not to upset the Syrians reminds me of Moshe Dayan's unfortunate decision not to call up the reserves so as not to upset the Syrians and the Egyptians on the eve of the Yom Kippur War," said Steinitz in remarks carried by The Jerusalem Post.The widely respected Steinitz continued by warning Barak that he will face a commission of inquiry far more severe than the one investigating Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's handling of last summer's war in Lebanon if he fails to adequately defend Israel against such a dire threat.In comments emailed to Cybercast News Service, Professor Steven Plaut of Haifa University said he "can't see Syria really starting trouble" as it did in 1973, but he did concede that Syria could try to spark a conflict through its Hizballah proxy in Lebanon.Reports of Hizballah land purchases indicate that just such a scenario may be in the works. The powerful terrorist organization is rapidly buying up land north of the Litani River and using the territory to regroup and retrain its military forces, according to Britain's Sunday Telegraph.Because the land is privately owned, the thousands of United Nations peacekeepers deployed in Lebanon are unable to monitor what Hizballah is doing there. Most of the sellers are Christian and Druze, which for Hizballah carries the added benefit of removing potential allies for Israel from the area."Christians and Druze are selling their land and fleeing. The Shiites are coming. There is a drastic demographic change," a former Christian Lebanese parliamentarian told the newspaper.Military analysts and army officials in Israel have been warning for months that Syria could initiate low-level against Israel, either directly or via Hizballah, with the aim of justifying a major missile strike when Israel retaliates against the initial assault as expected.The regime in Damascus is said to have learned many lessons from Hizballah's conflict with Israel last year, including that it would not need to actually win a war with the Jewish state, but merely cause enough damage to force a renewal of negotiations over control of the strategic Golan Heights.Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Six Day War, after Syria had used it for the previous 19 years as a launch pad for almost daily minor attacks on northern Israel, as well as two full-scale invasions. Syria has demanded Israel's full withdrawal from the plateau in exchange for a peace agreement ever since, and has on more than one occasion threatened violence if those conditions are not met.As in the days of Noah...
