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U.S. Reportedly Okays Israeli Retaliation if Iraq Attacks
(Los Angeles Times) In a marked departure from the U.S. approach during the Persian Gulf War, the Bush administration has signaled that it would accept an Israeli retaliation against a devastating Iraqi missile attack, U.S. officials say. The American shift is the latest sign of how much more closely the U.S. and Israel are coordinating in the buildup to an increasingly likely war than they did last time around. The relationship has been enhanced, experts here and in Israel agree, by the personal and ideological bond between the current U.S. president and Sharon. Yet so far, the Pentagon has been unwilling to provide secret electronic codes that Israeli warplanes would need to emit so that U.S. and British warplanes could identify them as "friendlies" while they crossed allied-controlled airspace.