U.S. Freezes Military Ties, Shipments to Israel

World Tribune.Com ^ | 14 Jun 05 | World Tribune.com

[datura]

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 The Bush administration has begun to block arms shipments to Israel and suspend joint programs after the two allies failed to resolve a dispute over arms sales to China.

U.S. officials said the Defense Department and Israeli representatives were unable to draft a memorandum of understanding that would halt Israeli weapons sales to China. They said the two sides could not agree on a supervision mechanism for Israeli arms exports.

Israel has agreed to increase government supervision of arms exports, the long-held turf of the Defense Ministry, Middle East Newsline reported. But officials said the Israeli delegation refused to accept U.S. demands for increased access to Israeli negotiations with foreign militaries. The countries were said to have included India and Singapore, two leading clients of Israel's defense industry.

"This is certainly an issue that is being discussed between the United States and Israel, and we have made our concerns about the sale and transfer of defense equipment and technology to China known to Israel," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said on Monday.

Whitman refused to confirm a report by the Israeli daily Haaretz that the administration has demanded details of more than 60 military and security deals with China. He also did not address the Pentagon boycott of senior Israeli defense officials.

"We continue also to raise concerns with our allies, our friends and partners and look for them to take responsible approaches to arms sales to China, too," Whitman said. "This is broader than just Israel."

The failure to draft the MoU appeared to have heightened the crisis between the Pentagon and Israel's Defense Ministry. The Pentagon has boycotted high level meetings with Israeli officials since July 2004 in wake of Israel's efforts to upgrade the Harpy unmanned aerial vehicle for China.

Since then, the Pentagon has embarked on a process of escalating sanctions. They included the suspension of Israeli participation in the Joint Strike Fighter program.

Officials said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought to resolve the crisis during his visit to the United States in late May. They said a week after Sharon's return, the United States informed Israel that it had been suspended from the JSF program.

In 2005, the administration began holding up arms deliveries to Israel, such as night-vision systems, and delayed a scheduled strategic cooperation session. Officials said the U.S. Army has stopped relaying information on a project to develop the Hunter-2 UAV, based on an Israeli-supplied platform. Northrop Grumman has been the prime contractor of the project for the U.S. Army.

The Pentagon has also refused to engage with three Israeli defense officials. They were identified as Defense Ministry director-general Amos Yaron, head of the ministry's New York-based procurement division Yekutiel Mor, and Sibat arms export chief Yossi Ben-Hanan. These officials were said to have been responsible for Israel's defense relationship with China.

Israeli defense sources said the Defense Ministry has responded to all of the Pentagon requests and still envisions an MoU by August 2005. But they acknowledged ministry opposition to the U.S. demands for increased transparency of arms deals and the dismissal of the three officials.

"The Defense Ministry is holding discreet and pertinent talks with the United States to solve the misunderstandings, which it does not believe need to make public," an Israeli Defense Ministry statement said.

[Almondjoy]

Exactly my thoughts. U.S. goes toe to toe with everyone in the world for Israel. Then we supply them with all kinds of aid.

Then they want to backstab us like this? They want to restrict access so they can peddle their arms to other places?

The arrogance of this is amazing.

[Almondjoy]

But you hit the nail on the head.

The buyer has the power. In a free and capitalist society we choose where we give our money.

The fact is people don't care or don't think China is a threat right now. So they buy their stuff.

Taking away my freedom to spend my money however I choose is far bigger loss to us as a country then the threat China could ever become.

[rmlew]

I don't know a thing about relations between the ROC and Israel. I do know that Taiwan does have modified versions of an Israel designed corvette, the Sa'ar V. However, these were built in the US.
Taiwan could certainly US ISraeli help. Their F-5's and even Indiginous Fighters could use better avionics and weapons. They really could use the Derby light medium ranged missle and the Python 5, which is the best ir-guided missle in production.
Taiwan could use help to develop or deploy cruise missles to attack Chinese military facilities.

Of course, Taiwan also needs to increase its military budget.

[elfman2]

"If the problem is China, then the US should not be sanctioning Israel for selling weapons to India and Singapore. In fact, we should want both countries to have a clear edge over China. Our negotiations here have a lot more to do with preventing competition to the American arms trade."

I think that it’s much more likely that in addition to not wanting Israel to arm China, 1) we don’t want Israel to accelerate an Asian arms race with Singapore and India and/or 2) we don’t want to appear to be singling out China to the Chinese so we’re pretending to be as upset about the other arms sales.

I don’t think Condi and Foggy Bottom are conspiring with US arms merchants to guarantee exclusive contracts.

The idea that a government as politically sophisticated as that of Israel is “confused” by our two pronged China policy and did not know we’d be upset with arms sales is not credible. Assuming this story is remotely true, my guess is that they’re testing what they can get away with.

[elfman2]

Trade Deficit is irrelevant. We have their stuff, they have our currency. So what.

What’s important in assessing dependency is the amount of trade relative to the GDP of each nation. If it’s cut off abruptly, that’s an economic vulnerability. If we’re at war, China’s trade with us, Japan and Taiwan pauses. That block of 3 represents a much larger percent of their GDP than China’s slice of ours. Also, nothing will pass through their ports, so that will take a bite out of the rest.

I haven’t even brought up oil.

[rmlew]

1) we don’t want Israel to accelerate an Asian arms race with Singapore and India and/or
Unlikely. The US is trying to sell them the F-16 or the F-18.

we don’t want to appear to be singling out China to the Chinese so we’re pretending to be as upset about the other arms sales.
Perhaps. But, see above.

I don’t think Condi and Foggy Bottom are conspiring with US arms merchants to guarantee exclusive contracts.
We do it all the time. We offer military aid to subsidize sales.

Assuming this story is remotely true, my guess is that they’re testing what they can get away with.
Of course Israel is. Israel desperately needs friends and feels screwed by the US.

[elfman2]

" We do it all the time. We offer military aid to subsidize sales. "

Not the same thing, worlds apart.

[elfman2]

"Unlikely. The US is trying to sell them the F-16 or the F-18. "

We could probably multiply those sales by 20 if we didn’t care about an Asian arms race.

[elfman2]

"Israel desperately needs friends and feels screwed by the US."

Is there a nation that doesn’t feel screwed by the US? ;^)

[dervish]

Well said.

Is it possible the US is concerned about US tech getting into Russian hands as well?

Also some of the objections about Israel sales to India may be a smokescreen for Pakistan's sake. The US does not want to appear to be arming India and thus tick off Pakistan.

[Evolution]

A Capitalist Paradise (In China)

China and India have a middle (though still not up to our standard) they are acquiring our wealth and soon we will be competing with them for resources.

Soon China and India will be bigger markets (the ones we were originally promised by free traitors) than the US now that they have our jobs and money, and will drive up the price of everything.

[itsahoot]

The New and Everlasting Covenant established God's "chosen people" as those who choose God.

Bad theology, the promises to the Jew were irrevocable. The notion that the promises are passed on to the Christian people of today, are the basis for the Genocide of the past. The Church is not mentioned after chapter three of Revelation, guess who the rest of that book is talking about?

By the way the book of Revelation, is the revelation of Jesus Christ, as revealed to John.

[E Rocc]

If Arbusto wants to tell Israel they need to plan on pulling back to the 1948 Auschwitz borders, then they had better plan on distancing themselves from us, and that means getting money from somewhere else too.

I've never understood where the US gets off thinking it can order the Israelis to the showers and they're going to march dociley on in. THe US can go screw. Either they support us or they don't. I'm sick of Bush's double talk. It's CHINA he ought to be talking to, not Israel. The whole lot of 'em can go screw.

Actually, just about every poll taken shows that a majority of Israelis favor evacuating the settlements if it leads to peace, so the "Auschwitz borders" stuff is pure bullclinton. No nation with nukes has "Auschwitz borders".

Transferring state of the art technology to China is a lot like what Weinberger said the Pollard case was all about (transferring war plans info to the Soviets).

-Eric

[King Prout]

PING

[Natural Law]

I think you are guilty of selectively applying a selectively applied collection of the theological works of the early church. If you accept that the Council of Nicene and the Emperor Constantine were the sole authenticators of doctrine and dogma then you are welcome to your opinion. I respectfully differ.

[Evolution]

Actually some national poll shows only 48% now support the expulsion - even many leftist polls shows less than a majority in favor of Sharon's proposal.



And that is 48% of all Israeli citizens - including the 22% of Israeli citizens who are Arabs, who naturally are almost unanimously in favor of the suicidal retreat. Among Israeli Jews, a majority are now against Sharon and his grotesque expulsion.

[Zionist Conspirator]

I don't know a thing about relations between the ROC and Israel. I do know that Taiwan does have modified versions of an Israel designed corvette, the Sa'ar V. However, these were built in the US. Taiwan could certainly US ISraeli help. Their F-5's and even Indiginous Fighters could use better avionics and weapons. They really could use the Derby light medium ranged missle and the Python 5, which is the best ir-guided missle in production. Taiwan could use help to develop or deploy cruise missles to attack Chinese military facilities.

All the more tragic that Israel has not considered selling arms to the ROC. Of course, Taiwan is hardly the PRC's equal in influence in the world, so I suppose it makes sense on that level. Still, Communist China is an evil government that denies HaShem and despite all its avowals of friendship it still supports anti-Israel forces in the Middle East (as does the US). It would certainly be the moral thing to do to for Israel to support Taiwan instead of the PRC (since Taiwan has also been screwed by the US). But I suppose the PRC's budget for military purchases and clout in the world (as well as the ROC's history of anti-Zionism) continue to play a factor here.

Tragic all around. Absolutely tragic.

[NJ_gent]

"I trust that Israel (our most important ally) has made the right decision on this."

If the time has come that our "most important" allies are selling weapons to our enemies, then we are truly alone in the world. Friends don't let friends sell weapons to China.

[tiamat]

Hi there.
Still catching up.

Like the new tag-line.

[A.B.Normal]

Wonder if this has to do with the US siding with EUROs on IRAN atomic weapons items and the support of IAEA?