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.

[familyop]

...not to mention the fact that we're giving Chinese nationals (even PLA officers from there, for cryin' out loud) enough education in the hard sciences (math, computer science, physics,...while shorting our own young men) to help them build anything they want to build against us.

[Natural Law]

"our most important ally"

How do you figure?

[Natural Law]

The New and Everlasting Covenant established God's "chosen people" as those who choose God. It isn't a genetic or nationalistic thing one way or the other.

[bill1952]

I had relatives that didn't.

And I agree with you about Japan today.

[familyop]

"Nonsense. And World Nut Daily is not a credible source."

But we have seen what happened to US policy on Israel right after our President's Administration recently visited the Brits and other Europeans. And we're well aware of how most Britons, Italians and others in most of Europe feel about Israel. Supporting Hamas was not the right answer, and neither is our own country's policy of educating the Chinese in the sciences and building their manufacturing base.

Besides, our President also reiterated his agreement with China's "One China" policy, so we don't exactly have the moral high ground with regards to Taiwan.

Bush Opposes Taiwan Independence
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,105239,00.html

Bush Reaffirms One-China Policy
http://www.china.org.cn/english/2001/Mar/9422.htm

Our "elite" have taught us that everything we really value about our USA is crap next to their materialism. They also teach our allies that we'll drop them at the convenience of our so-called business leaders (ever since the brats shouted our Army out of Viet Nam through their parents' pals: the politicians).

[exDemMom]

And Americans who complain about Israel rightfully so should make sure they dont buy any Chinese goods, because where do think China is getting the money to buy these weapons.

Do you check the labels before you buy things?

One of the hardest things I did was try to buy a Christmas present for a Chinese man--I wanted him to have a nice AMERICAN souvenir to take back to China, and EVERYTHING in my budget was made in China.

[Zeppelin]

Jood.

[Gondring]

Taking the classes Americans won't take...

[indcons]

Same here

[Inwoodian]

Has anyone asked Jonathan Pollard about this?

[Gunrunner2]

>>We don't need to have Israel living near the top of our technology chain if they're going to sell us out.<<

They don't, contrary to popular impression. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) security deletions ensure they are not sold/given the "keys to the Kingdom," as it were. They are given the technological edge in the region, but we do not sell/transfer technology that compromises our own technological edge. The media has no clue how this process is done and write from a position of ignorance when it comes to arms sales/transfers.

>> Likewise, I disagree with the provisions of the Camp David Accord which sells Egypt the Abrams tank <<

Small part of the overall FMS/FMF (Foreign Military Funding) protocols and policies. F-16's account for a very substantial part of this aide package. FMS serve several special needs of the US: 1) Access to the country physically and politically, 2) Influence comes with access (and the fact we can turn off the supplies and they would grind to a halt in a matter of days), 3) Infrastructure; the US arms industry can no longer stay afloat merely by relying on US military spending. Too little. So, we sell our kit and we use the dollars to keep the factory doors open and the R&D current.

>>The jury is still out on what Clinton sold the ChiComs - hopefully it was all technically flawed stuff that couldn't be reverse engineered to work, but I doubt that.<<

Congress is supposed to exercise oversight and 36(b)notifications is the process. The President explains to congress how the sale affects the balance of power in the region/world; its impact on the arms-race; its impact on the US technological edge, and most importantly how it supports US national interests. How Clinton ever effected the sales/transfers to China is something to explore in more depth.

>>Same goes for the P-3 Orion "transfer" at the start of this administration. <<

See FMS Security Deletions.

>>Bottom line: US Military procurement MUST come from VERIFIED US Sources ONLY. No front companies, no offshore parents, etc.<<

Indeed. Requirement now is at least 51% of the kit/effort of a specific sale/transfer must be US sourced.

>>If that means some of the new conglomerates have to divest some of their new treasures, so be it.<<

A bit more complicated than that.

[Gunrunner2]

>>We don't even allow Britain all of the access to the technology for the JSF<<

And we don't allow Israel access to all the technology of the JSF. We don't sell them our version. We sell them the Birt version (the FMS version).

[Gunrunner2]

The terms and conditions of the LOA specifically prohibit third-party transfers of US technology/arms (unless approved by the US).

Israel does dance at the edge when it comes to this (and occasionally over the edge). They have been called out for this before, and will again. Thing is, previously the admonishments/suspensions were not covered in the press and were low-key. . .politically we don't want to appear to "weaken" Israeli military capability.

[dervish]

agree too.

Also Israel should remove Amos Yaron. I don't trust him.

[dervish]

any thoughts on why India was included here?

[Sundog]

Thanks for the post.

[Isabelle]

Israel would be nothing without the United States. They better rethink who their friends are.

[phoenix_004]

Russia cannot fund this expensive project on its own....it needs others who can share the expenses!!

[ichabod1]

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.

p.s. I agree with Israel on EVERYTHING including THIS. With you from the first (my birth) with you till the last (my death). If you'd have me I'd probably come live there. I've got the blood, but it's on the wrong side.

[Centurion2000]

I'm glad they are doing this but someone in the feds should also bear in mind something else.

Checkpoint Firewalls (62% market share) were written in Israel.