American -Israeli crisis over weapons deal for China ended
Israel-USA, Politics, 8/17/2005

The USA and Israel signed an agreement ending a long-running crises over the sale of Israeli weapons to China that caused tension in the relations with the main supporter of Israel.

A joint statement for the ministries of defense in the two countries said that the signing of this agreement confirms the commitment of both the USA and Israel to work together in confrontation of world security challenges.

The statement added that other measures will be taken in the few coming days to restore confidence between the two sides. The conflict concentrated on Israel's selling to China of pilotless planes and other technologies that the USA says might cause of imbalance in power in Asia.

After Israel signed this contract with China, the US punished Israel by freezing cooperation in the production of the warplane GSF and electronic systems for supervising battlefield designed for the Israeli lands.

The US also abstained from handing Israel night-vision equipments and stopped contacts between the US defense department (Pentagon) and the Israeli defense ministry.

In June, The Israeli Haaretz reported about US demands in this regard that "The U.S.'s first demand is that Israel provide it with details of more than 60 deals it made with China in recent years, so that Washington could assess the damage caused to its security, if any.. The second demand is a close examination of the Israeli security equipment supervision system. Washington wants to know how 'holes' are created in the system, how those who break regulations are punished and why the government is not directly involved in the supervision. The third demand is the formulation of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) about arms sales. Sources in the U.S. administration say it will be possible to draft the MOU once the differences over the Israeli supervision are ironed out.

Haaretz added in June that "The controversy triggered a personal trust crisis between outgoing U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith and Defense Ministry Director General Amos Yaron. Recently, however, the dispute deepened and expanded into several security areas that could gravely damage Israel. On Sunday, Israel Radio quoted Defense Ministry officials denying that Israel is awaiting personnel changes in the Pentagon in order to settle its dispute with the United States."

Haaretz added "The crisis has disrupted the contacts of senior Defense Ministry officials with their counterparts in the American Defense Ministry, who are not responding to telephone calls from Israel. A meeting of a strategic work team that convenes every six months was put off. Yaron (Defense Ministry Director General Amos Yaron) has recently written to Deputy Minister of Defense Gordon England, who replaced Wolfowitz, suggesting settling the crisis. But England replied only to Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz."

For his part, one Chinese official criticized the USA because it prevented the finalization of an armament contract between Beijing and Tel Aviv, and considered this incident as having worsened relations between China and Israel.

The Chinese minister of information Jao Kejeing said "we are angry over the US interventions. It is another example on the American hegemony. It is a flagrant violation of world trade rules." In the year 2000, the USA forced Israel to give up a contract to sell China "Falcon" planes with advaced AWACS radar system capabilites.

The Americans said then that these planes might constitute a threat to the security of US warships, if these warships ever are obliged to defend Taiwan. After the abrogation of the contract at the time, Israel was obliged to pay USD 350 million for China as compensation.

Previous Stories:
  CBS News: Pentagon official was cooperating with FBI on Israel spy inquiry   (8/1/2005)
  Bush to meet Sharon   (3/19/2005)
  Maqsoud and spying for Israel in the USA   (9/1/2004)
  Israel to compensate China over abrogating planes deals   (2/15/2002)

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