In the wake of a no-strings-attached weapons sale by Britain to Saudi Arabia, Israel is reconsidering its longstanding policy of opposing all U.S. arms deals with its enemy Arab nations.
Publicly, Israeli leaders reacted Sunday with alarm toward the multi billion-dollar deal, saying Britain was harming the Middle East peace process by striking its biggest-ever arms sale with the Saudis.
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin told visiting American rabbis that the arms sale, reportedly worth $20 billion to $30 billion, was part of ”the acceleration of the arms race of the Arab nations.”
Riyadh struck the deal with London after supporters of Israel in Congress repeatedly blocked American arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The Associated Press reported that the package includes more than 50 Tornado fighter jets, more than 50 Hawk jet training aircraft, six mine sweepers for use in the Persian Gulf, 90 helicopters, weapons systems and the construction of two Tornado bases.
Yossi Ben-Aharon, director-general of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir`s office, said the Tornados could someday help the Saudis strike at the Jewish state.
”We cannot discount the possibility that if we will be faced with a confrontation with a number of Arab states,” he said, ”Saudi Arabia will at the worst moment volunteer to hit us from the soft underbelly, from the south.”
It has been Israel`s longstanding policy to use its influence in Washington to block all U.S. weapons sales, both offensive and defensive, to enemy Arab nations.
But Sunday, the Israeli defense experts said it was time to seriously reconsider the position. They said the United States generally imposes restrictions on the use and placement of U.S.-supplied weapons, while Western European nations do not impose limits.
”Is it not better to agree to certain deals and have indirect control over the offensive weapons flowing in?” wrote Israel`s leading defense analyst, Ze`ev Schiff, in a front-page commentary in the respected daily newspaper Haaretz.
”From a moral point of view, and as a matter of principle, Israel cannot agree that a nation at war with her will receive offensive arms to endanger her,” Schiff said.
”But from a practical point of view, it is perhaps better in certain cases to tacitly agree to U.S. engagement in deals involving defensive materiel, rather than have such deals carried out by countries like France and Britain, which show no restraint in selling the offensive equipment that accompanies such platforms, such as aircraft.”
Foreign Ministry officials in the past have said the policy was a subject of debate, specifically on how vehemently to oppose certain deals with Arab nations seen by Israel as moderate.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman refused to comment Sunday on whether the policy change was under consideration. ”We are just studying what has happened,” he said. ” . . . We have nothing to say beyond that.”
But Joseph Alpher, acting director of Tel Aviv University`s Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, said Israeli officials have been examining the policy since the Saudis purchased their first batch of Tornado fighters from Britain in 1986.
Riyadh turned to Britain in that deal after Washington refused a Saudi request for additional F-15s, he said.
”The United States could have dictated certain terms over the sale, such as they would not be stationed at a base quite near to Israel,” he said.
”Instead, they ended up with Tornados, which may be not quite as good as the F-15s, but which the Saudis are free to station wherever they want.”
Alpher said Israeli officials have been considering the policy change specifically in terms of Persian Gulf states` needs to defend themselves from ”the Iranian threat.”
”Particularly of late, I believe, Israeli authorities have been talking about not objecting on certain specific deals,” he said. ”There is need for dialogue, obviously indirectly at this point, between Israel, the U.S. and the Gulf Arabs over their legitimate defense needs against Iran.”
Israel, he said, could exploit ”quiet collaboration” through the Americans to extract certain security guarantees from its more moderate Arab enemies.
