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| July 14, 2000 | atimes.com | ||
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China
Israel yields to US on key China deal By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON - Ending months of controversy, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has bowed to US demands that it cancel the sale of a sophisticated, $250 million airborne radar and surveillance system to China. The proposed sale of the powerful Phalcon system had threatened Israel's close ties with Washington, particularly in Congress where lawmakers from both parties warned that the system eventually could be used by Beijing against US military forces operating in defense of Taiwan or elsewhere in Asia. A number of influential lawmakers said they would try to reduce the $3 billion in aid Washington has provided Israel annually over the past 20 years, if the sale went through. Wednesday's announcement, which came on the second day of peace talks between Barak and Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat at the US presidential retreat at Camp David, was praised by the administration of President Bill Clinton. Clinton had personally pressed Barak on the issue. "We welcome the decision," said Clinton's spokesman, Joe Lockhart, at a press briefing in the Maryland town of Thurmont, close to Camp David. "We are pleased to see they have taken our security concerns into account." The Phalcon, which is similar to the US Awacs system, enables military commanders to track and target large numbers of enemy planes and ships within a radius of some 300 kilometers. It was to have been installed aboard a Russian-made Ilyushin aircraft, and China reportedly planned to order as many as seven more such systems worth a total of $2 billions. The deal was initially struck by Barak's predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, four years ago. The deal marked the culmination of what has been a quiet, but increasingly lucrative military relationship between Israel and China that has developed over the past 25 years. From a virtually non-existent relationship in 1975, Israel sold some $3 billion worth of arms and military technology to China from 1983 to 1993, according to a study by the Central Intelligence Agency. In Israel, China has found a hi-tech military exporter with detailed knowledge of the kind of Soviet-made weaponry, captured from its Arab neighbours in successive wars, on which China's own arsenal is largely based. In addition, Beijing has been able to acquire some military or "dual use" technology which the United States and Western European countries have been reluctant to sell. Israel, on the other hand, has pursued its military relationship with China both for political reasons and to replace two big arms markets it lost: Iran after the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 and South Africa after the US Congress enacted far-reaching economic and military sanctions against the apartheid regime in 1986. Because its domestic needs are relatively modest, Israel's hi-tech military industry has needed to export to survive. It now ranks among the 12 biggest arms exporters in the world. Its biggest markets are the United States itself, with which it is developing a $2 billion anti-ballistic-missile system, Western Europe, and, since at least the late 1980s, China. The military relationship has clearly boosted diplomatic ties as well. Last December, Israel hosted former Chinese prime minister Li Peng, who personally inspected the Ilyushin on which the Phalcon system was to be installed at the headquarters of Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI), the prime contractor. Last April, President Jiang Zemin himself spent six days visiting the Jewish state, marking a high point in bilateral relations. Until recently, the United States has taken a benign view of Israeli arms sales, claiming a right to review only when US-made technology was directly involved, as required under US law. Israel informed Washington about the Phalcon sale in 1996, insisting that no US-protected technology was being used - a contention the Pentagon has not challenged. But increasing concern about Taiwan over the last four years, as well as a growing perception that China may represent the greatest challenge to US power in the 21st century, appears to have altered Washington's attitude. In recent months, the Pentagon has objected especially strongly and publicly to the proposed Phalcon sale. In a trip to Israel just one week before Jiang's arrival, Defense Secretary William Cohen issued a blunt public rebuke. "The United States does not support the sale of this type of technology to China," he said, "because of the potential of changing the strategic balance in the region, with the tensions running high as they are between China and Taiwan." He warned that the sale would be "counter-productive". Still, Barak's government, subject to its own internal pressures, refused to bend, noting that Britain and Italy had also tendered bids on an airborne radar system without the United States objecting. The IAI, a parastatal company, employs some 14,000 workers, a substantial voting bloc in and of itself in such a small country, and often sub-contracts out work to smaller companies with thousands of other worker-voters. It was not until the issue resounded in the halls of Congress that Barak was forced to sit up and take notice. While Congress - and especially the House of Representatives - has been Israel's most generous supporter over the years, it also has become the main focus of suspicion against China and Taiwan's strongest defender in the US government. In recent weeks, Republican Rep Sonny Calahan, the powerful chairman of the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, has waged a fight which, just hours before Wednesday's announcement, he was vowing to take to the floor of the House. He was seeking a symbolic cut in US aid to Israel by delaying delivery of $250 million of next year's aid package. At the same time, Democratic Rep David Obey, a long-time Israel supporter in the House, said he would oppose aid to Israel after 2001 if Barak failed to cancel the Phalcon deal. "The message was apparently received," said one Congressional aide who added, however, that Israel's failure to respond earlier may have done long-term damage to its relationship with Washington. Indeed, some analysts, notably the influential Congressional Quarterly, describe the controversy as the latest in a series of disputes which may be leading to a reassessment of the relationship in Congress. Last year, several lawmakers threatened to cut aid to Israel when it refused to extradite a young man indicted for a murder committed just outside Washington. Lawmakers have also been angered by Israel's perennial attempts to gain freedom for convicted spy Jonathan Jay Pollard, a Jewish-American convicted of passing on highly sensitive information to Israel during the 1980s. "This was an extraordinarily difficult decision for Barak to make," said Ken Bricker, spokesman for the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most powerful pro-Israel lobby group. "Ultimately, he did the right thing. One has to remember that Barak has said all along that he would never endanger US national security interests and he has proved that." (Inter Press Service) |
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