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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Israel
Index
The military partnership between the United States and Israel
was by 1988 a flourishing relationship that encompassed not only
military assistance but also intelligence sharing, joint weapons
research, and purchases of Israeli equipment by the United States
armed forces. During the early years of Israeli independence, the
United States had been reluctant to become a major source of arms,
a position dictated by the view that the United States could best
contribute to resolving the Arab-Israeli dispute by avoiding
identification with either party to the conflict. The United States
continued to deal with Israeli arms requests on a case-by-case
basis until the October 1973 War, when it became virtually the sole
outside source of sophisticated weaponry. The high level of United
States aid was intended to insure that Israel maintained the
capability to defend itself against any potential combination of
aggressors and to give Israel the confidence to enter into
negotiations with its Arab neighbors.
Israel had great difficulty in obtaining the modern arms it
needed until the mid-1950s, when France became its main supplier.
Even after the announcement of a major arms agreement between Egypt
and Czechoslovakia in 1955, the United States was unmoved by the
argument that this development justified deliveries to Israel to
maintain a balance of forces in the Middle East. It did, however,
relax its stance by authorizing the transfer to Israel of Mystère
IV fighter planes manufactured in France with United States
assistance and F-86 Sabre jets manufactured in Canada under United
States license. In 1958 the United States consented to a modest
sale of 100 recoilless rifles to help Israel defend itself from
neighbors receiving shipments of both Soviet- and Western-made
tanks.
Sales of Hawk antiaircraft missiles in 1962 and M-48 Patton
tanks in 1966 represented a shift in policy, but were justified as
"occasional, selective sales" to balance the large shipments of
sophisticated Soviet arms to Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. A more
decisive turn in United States policy occurred in 1968 when,
following the failure of efforts to reach an understanding with the
Soviet Union on limiting the supply of arms to the Middle East and
the imposition of a complete embargo by France on arms sales to
Israel, Washington approved the sale of fifty F-4 Phantom jets.
By the early 1970s, the flow of United States military supplies
to Israel had acquired considerable momentum, although it was not
always considered sufficient by Israeli leaders concerned with
Egypt's aggressive actions along the Suez Canal. In 1972 and 1973,
the Israeli air force was bolstered by additional deliveries of F-4
aircraft as well as A-4 Skyhawks. After the outbreak of the October
1973 War, President Richard M. Nixon ordered the airlift of
urgently needed military supplies to Israel. President Nixon
followed this action by seeking from Congress US$2.2 billion in
emergency security assistance including, for the first time, direct
aid grants. By 1975 a steady flow of aircraft, Hawk missiles,
self-propelled artillery, M-48 and M-60 tanks, armored personnel
carriers, helicopters, and antitank missiles enabled Israel to
recover from the heavy equipment losses suffered during the war.
For the first time, the United States government approved the sale
to Israel of more advanced F-15 and F-16 interceptor aircraft.
In conjunction with the IDF redeployment following the
Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979, the United States provided
US$3.2 billion in special aid. More than one-third of this amount
was used to finance the construction of two airbases in the Negev,
replacing three bases evacuated in the Sinai. Egypt also benefited
from a vastly increased level of aid; but Israel sharply disputed
Washington's later package proposal to sell US$4.8 billion worth of
aircraft to Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Israel's objections to
the delivery of sophisticated fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia grew
stronger when the United States decided in 1981 to allow Saudi
Arabia to purchase airborne warning and control system (AWACS)
aircraft.
In 1983 the United States and Israel established the Joint
Political-Military Group (JPMG) to address the threat to American
and Israeli military interests in the Middle East posed by the
Soviet Union. The JPMG contemplated joint military planning,
combined exercises, and the prepositioning of United States
military equipment in Israel. In the same year, the United States
agreed to assist Israel in constructing its own Lavi fighter
aircraft by furnishing technology, engines, flight controls, and
other components. Although the United States was committed to
contribute US$1.75 billion to the Lavi, the project was cancelled
in 1987 under United States pressure (with considerable support
from senior Israeli officers) because of cost overruns that were
causing unacceptable strains to the entire Israeli defense program.
As part of the growing military partnership, aircraft from
United States Navy aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean used
Israeli bombing ranges in the Negev; Israel loaned the United
States older Kfir fighters with characteristics similar to the
Soviet MiG-21 to use for combat training; antiterrorist teams from
the two countries trained together; and joint submarine exercises
were held. Israel also participated in advanced weapons research
programs. In 1986 the United States granted Israel the right, along
with Britain and West Germany, to compete for subcontracts for the
Strategic Defense Initiative. In 1988 the United States announced
that it would provide Israel US$120 million to continue research on
the Hetz antiballistic missile system. Purchases of Israeli
products by the United States Department of Defense (including
bridge-laying equipment, mine-laying and mine-clearing systems, and
electronic and communications items) amounted to more than US$200
million in 1986.
Israel benefited more than any other country from United States
military assistance, at a level of approximately US$1.8 billion
annually in the mid- and late 1980s. Only Egypt (US$1.3 billion in
1988) approached this sum. Military aid to Israel, which had been
in the form of both grant aid and military sales on concessional
credit terms, changed to an all-grant form beginning in United
States fiscal year (FY) 1985 (see
table 15, Appendix A). The US$1.2
billion provided each year in economic aid enabled Israel to
service the foreign debt incurred by past purchases of military
matériel. United States assistance accounted for more than
one-third of all Israeli defense spending during this period.
Nevertheless, in terms of purchasing power, the level of direct
military aid was less than the US$1 billion received in 1977.
In spite of the intimate degree of cooperation in the military
sphere, discord occasionally arose over the purposes to which
United States equipment had been applied. Under the terms of
military assistance agreements, Israel could use the equipment only
for purposes of internal security, for legitimate self-defense, or
to participate in regional defense, or in UN collective security
measures. Israel also agreed not to undertake aggression against
any other state. The United States condemned the Israeli air strike
against Iraq's Osiraq (acronym for Osiris-Iraq) nuclear research
installation near Baghdad in 1981 using F-16 aircraft escorted by
F-15s. A pending shipment of F-16s was suspended for a time and the
suspension was extended when the Israeli air force bombed PLO
targets in West Beirut, resulting in significant civilian
casualties. The United States lifted the ban after a few months
without a formal finding as to whether Israel had violated its
commitments by using United States-supplied aircraft on the two
raids.
The United States objected to Israel's use of cluster bombs
during Operation Litani, its incursion into Lebanon in 1978. A
commitment was obtained from Israel that it would restrict the use
of cluster bombs that cast lethal projectiles over a wide area to
"hard" targets. In 1982, however, the United States held up further
deliveries of the bombs when it learned that they were being used
in the invasion of Lebanon. In 1986, with the embargo still in
force, the United States launched an investigation into the
unapproved sale of equipment by private American firms enabling
Israel to manufacture the bombs.
In addition to cooperation on matériel, cooperation between the
two countries on intelligence matters had begun in the early 1960s,
when Israel furnished the United States with captured Soviet
missiles, antitank weapons, and artillery shells for evaluation and
testing. The United States shared reconnaissance satellite data
with Israel, although after Israel apparently used satellite
photographs to aid in targeting the Osiraq reactor, the data
reportedly were limited to information useful only for defensive
purposes relating to Arab military deployments on or near Israel's
borders. In September 1988, however, Israel announced that it had
launched its own scientific satellite which was to be followed by
other satellites in orbits characteristic of observation
satellites.
Data as of December 1988
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