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Israel
MILITARY COOPERATION WITH THE UNITED STATES
The military partnership between the United States and Israel
was by 1988 a flourishing relationship that encompassed not only
military assistance but also intelligence sharing, joint weapons
research, and purchases of Israeli equipment by the United States
armed forces. During the early years of Israeli independence,
the United States had been reluctant to become a major source
of arms, a position dictated by the view that the United States
could best contribute to resolving the Arab-Israeli dispute by
avoiding identification with either party to the conflict. The
United States continued to deal with Israeli arms requests on
a case-by-case basis until the October 1973 War, when it became
virtually the sole outside source of sophisticated weaponry. The
high level of United States aid was intended to insure that Israel
maintained the capability to defend itself against any potential
combination of aggressors and to give Israel the confidence to
enter into negotiations with its Arab neighbors.
Israel had great difficulty in obtaining the modern arms it needed
until the mid-1950s, when France became its main supplier. Even
after the announcement of a major arms agreement between Egypt
and Czechoslovakia in 1955, the United States was unmoved by the
argument that this development justified deliveries to Israel
to maintain a balance of forces in the Middle East. It did, however,
relax its stance by authorizing the transfer to Israel of Mystère
IV fighter planes manufactured in France with United States assistance
and F-86 Sabre jets manufactured in Canada under United States
license. In 1958 the United States consented to a modest sale
of 100 recoilless rifles to help Israel defend itself from neighbors
receiving shipments of both Soviet- and Western-made tanks.
Sales of Hawk antiaircraft missiles in 1962 and M-48 Patton tanks
in 1966 represented a shift in policy, but were justified as "occasional,
selective sales" to balance the large shipments of sophisticated
Soviet arms to Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. A more decisive turn in
United States policy occurred in 1968 when, following the failure
of efforts to reach an understanding with the Soviet Union on
limiting the supply of arms to the Middle East and the imposition
of a complete embargo by France on arms sales to Israel, Washington
approved the sale of fifty F-4 Phantom jets.
By the early 1970s, the flow of United States military supplies
to Israel had acquired considerable momentum, although it was
not always considered sufficient by Israeli leaders concerned
with Egypt's aggressive actions along the Suez Canal. In 1972
and 1973, the Israeli air force was bolstered by additional deliveries
of F-4 aircraft as well as A-4 Skyhawks. After the outbreak of
the October 1973 War, President Richard M. Nixon ordered the airlift
of urgently needed military supplies to Israel. President Nixon
followed this action by seeking from Congress US$2.2 billion in
emergency security assistance including, for the first time, direct
aid grants. By 1975 a steady flow of aircraft, Hawk missiles,
self-propelled artillery, M-48 and M-60 tanks, armored personnel
carriers, helicopters, and antitank missiles enabled Israel to
recover from the heavy equipment losses suffered during the war.
For the first time, the United States government approved the
sale to Israel of more advanced F-15 and F-16 interceptor aircraft.
In conjunction with the IDF redeployment following the Egyptian-Israeli
peace treaty of 1979, the United States provided US$3.2 billion
in special aid. More than one-third of this amount was used to
finance the construction of two airbases in the Negev, replacing
three bases evacuated in the Sinai. Egypt also benefited from
a vastly increased level of aid; but Israel sharply disputed Washington's
later package proposal to sell US$4.8 billion worth of aircraft
to Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Israel's objections to the
delivery of sophisticated fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia grew
stronger when the United States decided in 1981 to allow Saudi
Arabia to purchase airborne warning and control system (AWACS)
aircraft.
In 1983 the United States and Israel established the Joint Political-Military
Group (JPMG) to address the threat to American and Israeli military
interests in the Middle East posed by the Soviet Union. The JPMG
contemplated joint military planning, combined exercises, and
the prepositioning of United States military equipment in Israel.
In the same year, the United States agreed to assist Israel in
constructing its own Lavi fighter aircraft by furnishing technology,
engines, flight controls, and other components. Although the United
States was committed to contribute US$1.75 billion to the Lavi,
the project was cancelled in 1987 under United States pressure
(with considerable support from senior Israeli officers) because
of cost overruns that were causing unacceptable strains to the
entire Israeli defense program.
As part of the growing military partnership, aircraft from United
States Navy aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean used Israeli
bombing ranges in the Negev; Israel loaned the United States older
Kfir fighters with characteristics similar to the Soviet MiG-21
to use for combat training; antiterrorist teams from the two countries
trained together; and joint submarine exercises were held. Israel
also participated in advanced weapons research programs. In 1986
the United States granted Israel the right, along with Britain
and West Germany, to compete for subcontracts for the Strategic
Defense Initiative. In 1988 the United States announced that it
would provide Israel US$120 million to continue research on the
Hetz antiballistic missile system. Purchases of Israeli products
by the United States Department of Defense (including bridge-laying
equipment, mine-laying and mine-clearing systems, and electronic
and communications items) amounted to more than US$200 million
in 1986.
Israel benefited more than any other country from United States
military assistance, at a level of approximately US$1.8 billion
annually in the mid- and late 1980s. Only Egypt (US$1.3 billion
in 1988) approached this sum. Military aid to Israel, which had
been in the form of both grant aid and military sales on concessional
credit terms, changed to an all-grant form beginning in United
States fiscal year (FY) 1985 (see table 15, Appendix A). The US$1.2
billion provided each year in economic aid enabled Israel to service
the foreign debt incurred by past purchases of military matériel.
United States assistance accounted for more than one-third of
all Israeli defense spending during this period. Nevertheless,
in terms of purchasing power, the level of direct military aid
was less than the US$1 billion received in 1977.
In spite of the intimate degree of cooperation in the military
sphere, discord occasionally arose over the purposes to which
United States equipment had been applied. Under the terms of military
assistance agreements, Israel could use the equipment only for
purposes of internal security, for legitimate self-defense, or
to participate in regional defense, or in UN collective security
measures. Israel also agreed not to undertake aggression against
any other state. The United States condemned the Israeli air strike
against Iraq's Osiraq (acronym for Osiris-Iraq) nuclear research
installation near Baghdad in 1981 using F-16 aircraft escorted
by F-15s. A pending shipment of F-16s was suspended for a time
and the suspension was extended when the Israeli air force bombed
PLO targets in West Beirut, resulting in significant civilian
casualties. The United States lifted the ban after a few months
without a formal finding as to whether Israel had violated its
commitments by using United States-supplied aircraft on the two
raids.
The United States objected to Israel's use of cluster bombs during
Operation Litani, its incursion into Lebanon in 1978. A commitment
was obtained from Israel that it would restrict the use of cluster
bombs that cast lethal projectiles over a wide area to "hard"
targets. In 1982, however, the United States held up further deliveries
of the bombs when it learned that they were being used in the
invasion of Lebanon. In 1986, with the embargo still in force,
the United States launched an investigation into the unapproved
sale of equipment by private American firms enabling Israel to
manufacture the bombs.
In addition to cooperation on matériel, cooperation between the
two countries on intelligence matters had begun in the early 1960s,
when Israel furnished the United States with captured Soviet missiles,
antitank weapons, and artillery shells for evaluation and testing.
The United States shared reconnaissance satellite data with Israel,
although after Israel apparently used satellite photographs to
aid in targeting the Osiraq reactor, the data reportedly were
limited to information useful only for defensive purposes relating
to Arab military deployments on or near Israel's borders. In September
1988, however, Israel announced that it had launched its own scientific
satellite which was to be followed by other satellites in orbits
characteristic of observation satellites.
Data as of December 1988
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