1 BACKGROUND
Muddy Waters
Israeli officials say the U.S. is using dirty tricks
against them to cover up Washington's faults.
DOUGLAS DAVIS
Special to The Jewish News
barged with violating
an agreement with
the U.S. over the sale
of arms, Israeli officials went
on the offensive this week,
asserting that Washington
trumped up the story to
Om° make Jerusalem look bad.
The officials expressed
outrage at what they regard
as strategically timed leaks
that Israel illicitly trans-
ferred U.S. military
technology to third coun-
tries, particularly details of
the Patriot anti-ballistic
missile system to China.
"Such talk is completely
and totally groundless,"
declared Ehud Gol, spokes-
man for Prime Minister Yit-
l' zhak Shamir, while Israeli
Defense Minister Moshe
Arens, who was in Washing-
ton this week for talks with
Defense Secretary Dick
Cheney, suggested that
"somebody out there is try-
ing to muddy the waters."
The charges, which follow-
ed reports that Secretary of
State James Baker had used
a four-letter expletive in ref-
erence to Jews during a re-
cent White House meeting,
prompted government
spokesmen in Jerusalem to
accuse Washington of dirty
1.
tricks.
Ze'ev Schiff, Israel's most
authoritative military com-
mentator, dismissed the cen-
tral charges and said Israel
had neither sold Patriot
technology to China nor
transferred technology for
the Arrow missile, still in its
development stage, to South
Africa.
Dr. Gerald Steinberg, a
strategic analyst at Bar-Ilan
University, agreed it was
Olih
"very, very unlikely" that
Israel had passed such sen-
sitive information to China:
"The Israelis have no inter-
est in angering the Ameri-
cans," he said, "and they
have no interest in transfer-
ring technology to China
that would eventually find
its way back to the Arab
world."
Rather, he believed, the
report had been deliberately
leaked to divert attention
from the two embarrassing
items on the agenda being
carried to Washington by
C
the Israeli Defense Minister:
The first concerned the
failure of the 22 U.S. naval
vessels in the area to stop a
North Korean ship from
docking at the Iranian port
of Bandar Abbas in the
Straits of Hormuz with its
consignment of advanced
Scud-C missiles for Syria.
The second centered on the
issue of funding for the $1
billion Arrow anti-missile
program, which Israel is
seeking to protect in the face
of fierce competition with
the Raytheon Corp.,
manufacturer of the Patriot.
Despite the Arrow's three
failed test-firings, Israel
claims the Patriot, which
was deployed in Israel and
Saudi Arabia during the
Gulf War, offers inadequate
protection against incoming
missiles and is urging Wash-
ington to persevere with the
ailing, but more sophisti-
cated, "Star Wars" project.
Raytheon officials counter
that any Patriot failures
reflect the shortcomings of
the Israeli operators, not the
system.
"There is a lot at stake and
a lot of bitterness," said a
senior Israeli source in
Jerusalem. "There is a feel-
ing here that these leaks
The Israeli source
warned of the
consequences of
driving Israel into a
corner.
were intended to make it
much more difficult for
Israel to obtain further U.S.
support for the (Arrow) pro-
ject."
He conceded that Israel
was a substantial supplier of
military hardware and
technology to China and
suggested that this relation-
ship "lends an air of
credibility to the reports,
though common sense does
not support their conclu-
sions."
He said that while Israel
does sell weapons and
technology to China in large
quantities, "these sales have
virtually all involved
upgrading Soviet weapons in
the Chinese order of battle
— tanks, aircraft. They dealt
exclusively with conven-
tional weapons and conven-
tional systems. It is a giant
leap from such transactions
to supplying advanced
technology for ballistic mis-
siles."
The Israeli source also
warned of the consequences
of driving Israel into a
corner, "leaving it with the
feeling it has nothing to
lose."
He noted that while Israel
is economically vulnerable,
it is a military power which,
through concern for its own
survival, may be pushed into
unilateral action that does
not necessarily take account
of American interests: "The
Bush administration should
be sensitive to the possibility
that pressuring Israel could
have precisely the opposite
effects from those intended."
He said Washington's re-
jection of Israel's requests
for loan guarantees unless it
stops settlement activities in
the West Bank may unwit-
tingly accelerate building in
the territories, where land
prices are substantially
lower than those within the
pre- 1967 borders of Israel.
By the same token, a
breakdown of the intricate
defense and security links
between the two countries,
traditionally immune from
political disputes, could
trigger Israeli alliances and
arrangements that might
prove to be anathema to
Washington.
The bitter legacy of the
Gulf War is that the United
States is increasingly
perceived in the Arab world
as a toothless tiger — unable
to protect Saudi Arabia from
itself, unable to reform nar-
cissistic Kuwait, unable to
topple Saddam Hussein,
only too ready to pander to
Syria and abandon its
loathsome, but longtime,
Zionist ally.
The Bush administration
does not seem to realize that
neither the "hard-line" Yit-
zhak Shamir nor the
"compromising" Yitzhak
Rabin is likely to make the
sort of quantum territorial
leap on the West Bank, the
Gaza Strip or the Golan
Heights that will satisfy its
Arab negotiating partners or
Washington. ❑
Assad So Long
Despite the U.S. failure
to intercept the North
Korean cargo of enhanced
Scud missiles destined for
Syria, Damascus is send-
ing subtle but un-
mistakable signals that
its brief flirtation with
Washington is over.
Last week, Syria
restored postal links with
Baghdad, Syrian news-
papers and television
were instructed to stop
anti-Iraqi propaganda,
while its television an-
nouncers were instructed
to resume broadcasting
weather forecasts for
Baghdad.
The first signs of a
change in the diplomatic
temperature came when
Syria, which participated
in the military coalition
against Iraq, pointedly
ignored the anniversary
marking the liberation of
Kuwait.
This was followed by the
partial censorship of a
letter of appreciation to
the Syrian people by the
Kuwaiti ambassador
which was published in
state-controlled
Damascus newspapers,
Douglas Davis is a Mideast
correspondent based in
London, who was an editor
of the Jerusalem Post.
but with all hostile refer-
ences to Iraq deleted.
More significantly,
Arab sources quoted in
London reported that
Syrian Oil Ministry offi-
cials are studying the
pipeline system linking
Iraq with the Mediterra-
nean, via Syria and Leb-
anon, with a view to
reopening the Iraqi oil
lines to Banias and
Tripoli.
At the same time, rela-
tions between the Syrian
regime and Iraqi opposi-
tion forces are reported to
have deteriorated sharp-
ly, with Syria expressing
concern that the fall of
Saddam Hussein,
previously regarded as an
arch-rival, could
precipitate anarchy
rather than a new,
enlightened order in
Baghdad.
Some sources believe
Syrian President Hafez
al-Assad suspects Wash-
ington has led him into a
diplomatic ambush as it
prepares to extend the
hegemony of Jordan's
Hashemite monarchy into
the vacuum of a post-
Saddam Iraq at the ex-
pense of Assad's own ter-
ritorial ambitions. ❑
—Douglas Davis
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
29