TEL AVIV Ñ For the first time, Israeli strategists are confronting the threat of an Iraqi missile attack with anthrax warheads. Military sources and Western analysts said the Jewish state has not allocated the resources to counter such a strike that would require the distribution of advanced antibiotics as well as the evacuation of entire cities.

"We cannot respond to all the threats," Israeli Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon told a conference sponsored by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies. "So, we have to set priorities." He warned that Israel is now facing new threats.

Laurie Mylroie, an expert on terrorism and a leading author on Iraq, agreed. Ms. Mylroie has foreseen an Iraqi chemical weapons attack against Israel should the regime of President Saddam Hussein face elimination, according to Middle East Newsline. She attributed the current anthrax outbreak in the United States to Saddam and allies from the Al Qaida movement of Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden.

Ms. Mylroie said Israel is not prepared for such an attack. Instead, Israel has been focusing on the Iranian nuclear threat in the belief that it could withstand any biological or chemical attack.

"I don't think Israel is prepared for the kind of attack that Saddam may launch against it when he is going down," Ms. Mylroie told The Jerusalem Post radio. "There has been a tendency, over the last decade to focus on nuclear weapons, specifically Iran, to the exclusion of biological and chemical weapons, and to discount the kind of damage they can do, and to almost pretend as though that kind of damage is acceptable to the Israeli population."

"There are many threats:" Israeli Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon said, "The internal circle, the first circle, the second circle, the third circle. We are even talking about a fourth circle. Threats that come from far away, sometimes anonymously."

The first circle refers to Israel's immediate neighbors. The second circle refers to areas deep in such countries as Egypt and Syria. The third circle refers to Iran and Iraq. Ya'alon would not explain what he meant by a fourth front.

Ya'alon told a conference on economy and security sponsored by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies that new threats have appeared against Israel. He said on Monday that Israel does not lack either technology nor manpower to deal with these amorphous threats. The main shortage, he said, is that of funding.

Ms. Mylroie foresaw the prospect of an Iraqi missile attack with anthrax warheads. She said this will require the distribution of advanced antibiotics as well as the evacuation of entire cities.

Her assessment was supported by the former United Nations chief inspector, Richard Butler. Butler said Iraq is a major suspect in the anthrax attacks.

"What really concerned me is the nuclear weapons that might have come to the hands of Iraq or Osama Bin Laden from the former Soviet Union," Butler said.

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