Cheney Offers Jets and Missile Aid to Israel

TEL AVIV — One day after President Bush unveiled a proposal to restrain the Middle East arms race, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney announced here Thursday that the United States will give Israel $65 million worth of U.S. fighter planes and underwrite most of a new Israeli missile program.

Cheney said the United States had agreed to pay 72% of the cost to continue development of Israel’s Arrow missile, a system that, like the American Patriot missile, is designed to shoot down short-range ballistic missiles. Iraq launched such missiles, its own versions of the Soviet Scud missile, against Israel and Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War.

Cheney said the United States also will transfer 10 F-15 fighter jets to Israel under a congressionally mandated agreement to give Israel as much as $700 million worth of U.S. arms. A senior Israel official noted that the fighters are an early model of the F-15--not the advanced, ground-attack F-15Es that Israel is eager to get but cannot afford to buy.

Coming a day after Bush’s speech at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, Cheney’s gesture is likely to raise concerns among Arab nations that Washington will not be evenhanded in demanding military restraint in Middle East countries. U.S. officials, however, said the long-planned move was intended, in part, to coax a reluctant Israel to consider the U.S. arms-control program even though it has serious qualms about it.

After cautiously welcoming Bush’s arms-control announcement, Israeli officials switched positions Thursday and virtually dismissed the proposal as inadequate. They complained that the President’s approach fails to tackle a wide range of arms issues that they believe are just as pressing as limits on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and missiles.

In addition, a Foreign Ministry official said, there is no guarantee that the United States can prevail on a host of emerging arms dealers to stop sales to the Middle East even if traditional suppliers in Europe and the Soviet Union comply.

“The Bush proposal covers neither all the supplies of weapons nor all the suppliers,” the official said.

Israel has been pressing for controls on sales of all kinds of weapons to Arab countries, notably to Syria and Saudi Arabia--two countries that are well stocked with tanks and high-tech jets as well as missiles that can reach Israel. The Israelis fear that their longtime technological edge in arms is being quickly eroded by Arab off-the-shelf purchases.

For the last few years, weapons have begun to flow to the Middle East from such disparate places as China, North Korea, Argentina and Brazil. It is not clear how Bush would stem the flow, the Foreign Ministry official said.

Sources here said Israeli officials also made clear to Cheney that they are unhappy with a proposal that would deny them the right to develop and build nuclear weapons and would open their nuclear program to international scrutiny.

“We’re talking about the family jewels here,” said one U.S. official.

At the same time, the official added, the Bush Administration hopes Israel may be persuaded to make such a sweeping concession in exchange for the prospect of winning significant limitations in the conventional arsenals of its potential adversaries.

Israeli officials also told Cheney on Thursday that any regional arms-control proposal must limit the weapons of Muslim countries outside the Mideast that have declared themselves hostile to Israel.

Cheney declared that the Bush Administration “looks forward to talking to everybody” in an effort to implement the White House proposals.

A senior U.S. official here called the Israelis’ concerns “very natural.” The official stressed that the Bush proposal was intended to set in motion a long-term process rather than to produce immediate results.

As the package is fleshed out in consultations with allies, the countries drawn into the talks could be expanded, the official added.

“We don’t have a road map,” the official said of the Bush proposal. “We have a concept.”

But Israeli officials expressed disappointment that Bush did not propose face-to-face arms control talks between Israel and Arab states as a means of bringing about weapons reductions, the Foreign Ministry official said.

“Face-to-face talks are the key,” the official argued, repeating a persistent Israeli stand. “If there is peace first, then there can be progress on other problems.”

The chances of the Israeli and Arab governments sitting down for talks on any subject appear remote. Efforts by Secretary of State James A. Baker III to set up meetings between Israel and the Arabs, along with Israel and Palestinian representatives, have crashed on a shoal of procedural obstacles.

Cheney, on his first official visit here as defense secretary, visited an Israeli air base near Tel Aviv on Thursday and met for two hours with his Israeli counterpart, Moshe Arens, a U.S.-educated aeronautical engineer who has been active in promoting U.S.-Israeli cooperation in arms development.

Arens has been especially active in promoting the Arrow antimissile system, which now will enter a stage of advanced development expected to cost at least $300 million over the next four to five years. The United States paid 80% of the $158-million cost of the first development stage.

The Pentagon’s Strategic Defense Initiative Office is overseeing much of the work on the Arrow system, which would intercept missiles at distances of 25 miles. Interest in the system has grown in the wake of reports that the U.S.-built Patriot missile, which was deployed in Saudi Arabia and Israel during the Gulf War, was not very effective in protecting wide areas from missile attacks.

Officials here are also concerned that the Patriots will not be able to intercept a new generation of Chinese and North Korean-made missiles pouring into the Middle East.

Israeli military officials said Thursday they believe that in the next two years, Syria will be able to launch two new missiles, the Scud-C and the Chinese-made M-9 missile, with greatly improved accuracy at Israeli military and civilian targets. Meanwhile, Syria has been “piling up” chemical warheads, an Israeli military official said Thursday.

At the same time, Iraq may retain virtually all of its surviving mobile Scud missile launchers, the official said.

Bush’s arms-control proposal calls on Mideast nations to freeze their acquisition, production and testing of such missiles and urges major arms suppliers to tighten their export controls on such technologies.

In addition to the F-15s slated for Israel, Cheney said Washington and Tel Aviv are having “further discussions” on other arms transfers. Officials here said the Pentagon, faced with tighter-than-expected budgets, is balking at a congressional order to turn $700 million worth of arms over to Israel as a supplement to a $1.8-billion military aid grant.

The Israelis, however, have submitted to the Bush Administration a list of items they want--including fighter aircraft, Patriot and air-to-air missiles, other munitions and spare parts--totaling more than $700 million. On Thursday, they pressed Cheney to ensure the delivery of at least $700 million worth of arms, although a senior U.S. official cautioned that that figure “is not a target, it’s a ceiling.”

Time staff writer Daniel Williams contributed to this report.

What U.S. Is Giving Israel

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney on Thursday promised more U.S. military aid to Israel: F-15s: Washington will deliver 10 of the fighter planes as part of an earlier promise to provide $700 million in military equipment. Cost to U.S.: $65 million Arrow defense system: The United States will pay 72% of the Israeli antimissile missile’s next phase of development, which is expected to cost at least $300 million. Cost to U.S.: $216 million+