FOR ISRAEL AND U.S., A GROWING MILITARY PARTNERSHIP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706110009-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: March 15, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ILL Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706110009-1
ON PAGE ~_
NEW YORK TIMES
15 MarcF 1987
For Israel and U.S., a Growin~-
Military Partnership
WASHINGTON
ATCHING foreign affairs
is sometimes like watch-
ing amagician; the eye is
drawn to the hand per-
forming the dramatic flourishes,
leaving the other hand -the one
doing the important job -unnoticed.
So it seemed last week as the
United States aired its grievances
against Israel over the affair of Jona-
than Jay Pollard, the United States
Navy employee sentenced to life in
prison for selling bundles of vital in-
telligence information to Israel.
While American officials. Con-
gressmen and Jewish leaders were
ex ressin indi nation over the es-
pionage, o cta s in t e Pentagon, the
Central Intelligence Agency_ an the
artment were quietly con-
ductin? business as usual with Israel,
maintainin the intimate relation-
s tat as rown u aroun m~ i-
tarvcooperation. mutua v agreed in-
telli ence sharin and 'pint wea ns
r "We consi er t e Pollard
business very compartmentalized
and not having a broader effect,"
said a senior Administration official.
"I can't guarantee that there won't
be any spillover," he said, but added,
"We are going to try not to allow this
to spread at all. It is not going to af-
fect any other aspects of the relation-
ship." In fact, he and other Administration officials ex-
pect an expansion in what they call "strategic coopera-
tion" with Israel.
What infuriated Washington were both the scope of
Mr. Pollard's espionage and the Israeli Government's
promotion of two key figures involved -Col. Aviem
Sella, who was given command of the Tel Nof air base
south of Tel Aviv, and Rafael Eitan, a former adviser to
the Prime Minister on terrorism who was named head of.
a state-run chemical company.
After Colonel Sella was indicted by a Federal grand
jury in Washington, the Reagan Administration ordered
that no American official -whether civilian or military
- have any contact with him or his air base, a largely
symbolic gesture. And Secretary of State George P.
Shultz characterized the case as "very disheartening,"
while adding that the relationship with Israel "has devel-
oped and matured for good reasons, and we want to keep
it that way."
Like the hand that goes unnoticed, Israeli-American
military cooperation has been kept mostly secret as it
has expanded during the Reagan Administration - hid-
den by the United States to avoid antagonizing pro-West-
ern Arab governments and by Israel to avoid provoking
the Soviet Union into including Israel as a target in any
Soviet-American clash.
The secrecy is especially tight on the storing of
American military equipment in Israel for use by Amer-
ican troops in a crisis in the eastern Mediterranean. Both
countries have confirmed that medical supplies have
been placed in Israeli warehouses, and some American
servicemen in Turkey are being sent to Israel for medi-
cal care rather than to American military hospitals in
West Germany. But neither country will disclose what
weapons, spare parts and other "lethal" items have been
put in place.
Other activities are more visible. Planes from Amer-
ican aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean use Israeli
bombing ranges in the Negev Desert for practice, then
return to their ships. Old, Israeli-built Kfir jet fighters
have been leased free of charge to the United States
Navy and marines to help train American pilots in flying
against Soviet-built MIG-21's, which
have similar characteristics. The is-~
raelis have a lucrative contract to
maintain the planes in the United
States. Joint American?Israeli anti-
submarine exercises have been held
in the Mediterranean, and anti-ter-
rorist teams from the two countries
have trained together.
Israel -designated by Washing-
ton as a non-NATO ally similar to
Japan and Australia - is also partici-
pating in American programs of ad-
vanced weapons research. Israeli en-
gineers and scientists are reportedly
ahead of their American colleagues
in developing a missile designed to
shoot down ashort-range missile, such as the Soviet-built
SS-21 possessed by Syria. Israel has asked for American
funds to proceed with a testing program in two years.The
United States, which has signed about 310 million in re-
search contracts with Israel for the space-based defense
system, plans to wait about a year to decide whether the
Israeli "anti-tactical ballistic missile," as it is known, is
better suited to the "Star Wars" program than lasers or
other technology.
In addition to the i1.8 billion in American military
aid to Israel this year, Pentagon purchases of Israeli
electronics, mine-laying and bridge-laying equipment
and other military items have grown rapidly, from 39.4
million in 1983 to 3205 million in 1986.
Air Base Boycott
But the Pentagon has also judged a proposed Israeli
jet fighter, the Lavi, too expensive to produce, a view now
shared by key Israeli officers. Pentagon officials would
like to see more Israeli money in antisubmarine warfare
to counter a growing fleet of old, Soviet-built diesel subs
being supplied to Libya and Syria.
Many of the joint research programs were begun
after Mr. Pollard's arrest in 1985. Indeed, the boycott of
the Tel Nof air base seems a minor inconvenience in this
context.
The base contains about one-sixth of the Israeli air
force, including the largest contingent of American-built
F-15 jet fighters, whose pilots are
routinely debriefed after missions in
Lebanon by American Air Force
attach8s on the planes' performance
and the characteristics of Soviet-built
weaponry they encounter. But as one
official, noted, the debriefings can
take place elsewhere.
"I think in the end the main im-
pact of the Pollard affair is not on
strategic relations but on human
relations," said Joyce Starr of
Georgetown University's Center for
Strategic and International Studies.
"In terms of technical cooperation, I
don't think it will be attested because
it is in our interest." .
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706110009-1