Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 1999, page 54

Special Report

U.S., Israel at Odds Over Israeli Defense Sales and Technology Transfer to India, China

By Shawn L. Twing

A September visit to China by Israel’s defense minister and an October biannual meeting between U.S. and Israeli officials highlighted increasing U.S. concern about Israeli arms sales and Israel’s illegal retransfer of American military technology to India and China.

In September, Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai met in China with President Jiang Zemin to discuss increasing Israel’s role in China’s massive military modernization program. “Mordechai came to Shanghai, Xi’an, and Beijing with the heads of the country’s major defense industries to open doors, make contacts and win the green light from [China’s] leadership to make deals,” Israel’s Jerusalem Post reported Sept. 13. Accompanying Mordechai on his trip, according to the Post, were representatives from virtually every Israeli defense company, including state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries, Rafael, TAAS-Israel Industries, El-Op, Tadiran, Rada, Elissra and Elbit.

Mordechai’s trip to China did not go unnoticed in Washington. In the lead article of the November issue of “Pointer,” a monthly supplement to Jane’s Intelligence Review, under the title “Israel’s Dirty Deals,” writer Al Venter points out that “The remarkable proliferation of sophisticated hi-tech weapons systems in Israel is raising questions in Washington. Making the stuff is fine, say the Americans. The problem is who Israel ends up selling [it] to.”

The Jerusalem Post also recognized American concerns. “The Americans, meanwhile, are apprehensive about the cozy ties being forged on this side of the world, which, they fear, may involve the illegal transfer of U.S. technologies in Israel’s hands,” the Post reported. It’s interesting to note that nowhere in the article did the Post deny the legitimacy of those concerns.

Americans should be worried. Despite a recent lull in Israeli defense exports to China, Israeli companies have provided China with substantial amounts of military hardware and technology in the past, and there also have been widespread public allegations from several sources, including the U.S. government, that Israel has illegally sold substantial quantities of sensitive American military technology repeatedly to China in direct violation of U.S. export laws.

A Resurrected Lavi

Among the items and technology Israel allegedly has sold to China are the Python-3 air-to-air missile, which is thought to contain substantial amounts of American technology from the AIM-9L “Sidewinder” missile, cruise missile technology, accuracy modifications for ballistic missiles, and massive amounts of hardware, technology and guidance for China’s F-10 fighter, which is strikingly similar to Israel’s failed Lavi light fighter. The Lavi project, funded almost exclusively by U.S. taxpayers, received more than $1.5 billion from the United States before it was cancelled in 1987. (For more information about Israel’s illegal retransfer of American military technology to China, see “Congress Calls for Sanctions If Israeli Technology Transfer to China Is Proven,” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November/December 1996, p. 9.)

Israel also has won a $250 million contract, with Russia, to provide China with an advanced airborne early warning (AEW) system similar in function to the U.S. AWACs platform, which will greatly improve China’s ability to conduct over-the-horizon warfare. China’s acquisition of an AEW system will provide a dramatic advance in its operational abilities and will, according to Heritage Foundation senior analyst Richard Fisher, “significantly erode the military technical edge held by the U.S. and Taiwan that is necessary for deterring China.”

It also is interesting to note that Israeli defense officials accompanying Yitzhak Mordechai to China “pleaded with journalists accompanying [him] not to report on any possible deals, claiming the Chinese were ultra-sensitive to publicity and any report that appeared would likely scuttle the deal,” according to the Jerusalem Post. A more likely rationale for Israel not wanting its dealings with China reported is to prevent U.S. officials from learning of impending deals in time to prevent them, particularly when they involve sensitive U.S. technology protected, at least on paper, by U.S. export laws.

Less than a month after Defense Minister Mordechai’s trip to China, U.S. and Israeli officials met in Israel for the semiannual meeting of the Joint Political Military Group. One item on the American agenda, according to the U.S. trade weekly Defense News, was a request that Israel ban arms sales and transfers of technology to India.

The United States imposed sanctions on India and rival Pakistan in May after both countries successfully detonated nuclear devices. To help enforce those sanctions, the United States has asked suppliers of military assistance to both countries, including Russia and Israel, to refrain from large-scale, destabilizing arms sales to the subcontinent.

Sensitive Deals

“Israel has been a particular target of Washington’s efforts because of several sensitive arms deals in the offing, including a potential $1 billion airborne early warning package,” Defense News reported. Other Israeli defense programs with India include avionics upgrades for up to 400 Indian fighter aircraft, additional unmanned aerial vehicles for reconnaissance, and the transfer of Israel’s Green Pine fire control radar system developed for the U.S.-Israel Arrow missile program, and paid for almost entirely with U.S. taxpayer funds.

Israel insists that the Green Pine radar is not subject to U.S. export law, although it is part of a joint U.S.-Israeli defense program that already has received more than $800 million in U.S. funding. Exporting Green Pine “is our decision to make,” an Israeli official told Defense News.

“Clearly this is not the U.S. view at all,” American University professor Duncan Clarke told Defense News. “Attempting to make the case that Arrow components are exclusively Israeli is not well received in the Pentagon or the State Department,” he said. Responding to U.S. pressure, Defense Minister Mordechai announced that Israeli defense firms would suspend dealings with India temporarily. “Let’s be clear here,” an Israeli official told Defense News. “This is not a prohibition. It’s a temporary, voluntary freeze that may or may not be adhered to depending on the circumstances.”