Washington Report, December 30, 1985, Page 8

Facts For Your Files: A Chronology of U.S.-Middle East Relations

November 29:

An explosive blaze which local Fire Department officials labeled "very suspicious" was set in a building housing the Washington, D.C. national headquarters of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). No one was injured in the fire, which reportedly caused some $500,000 in damage. It was the third attack on ADC offices in the U.S. in three months. In August, two policemen were injured while dismantling a bomb placed outside the ADC Boston office. On October 11, ADC Southern California Regional Director Alex Odeh was killed by a bomb triggered to explode when the door to the ADC Santa Ana office was opened.

November 29:

State Department spokesman Charles Redman said the U.S. was "dismayed and distressed" that Israel had not cooperated in the investigation of Jonathan Jay Pollard, the 31-year-old naval counterintelligence analyst arrested November 21 on charges of spying for Israel. Redman said Israel, two of whose science attaches left the U.S. immediately after Pollard's arrest, had promised to return classified documents stolen by Pollard and allow U.S. law enforcement officials access to the Israeli diplomats who had been his U.S. contacts, but had not fulfilled either promise.

December 1:

Israel formally apologized for any spying that may have occurred against the U.S., saying it would "deal with" those responsible, would dismantle the unit responsible for hiring Jonathan Pollard, and would make sure the activity is not repeated. Secretary of State George Shultz said the U.S. was satisfied with the apology.

December 7:

In the wake of the Pollard affair the U.S. decided to "temporarily suspend" routine intelligence exchanges between Israel and the State Department's Intelligence and Research Unit. Israeli officials said the suspension "was not in the nature of a sanction."

December 11:

Senators Robert Kasten, Jr. (R-WI) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI) withdrew their proposal to "buy down" interest rates on outstanding U.S. military loans to Israel from 11.4 to 5 percent. If passed, the proposal would have added about $500 million to the $3.75 billion in aid Israel is scheduled to receive for Fiscal Year 1986. Although budgetary reasons were cited to explain the withdrawal of the proposal, some Senators said the Pollard case influenced the decision by Kasten and Inouye.

December 12:

U.S. Custom agents searched three factories in an investigation of possible illegal transfers to Israel of advanced technology for developing high-performance 120-millimeter tank cannon barrels. Customs said the companies had not obtained the necessary permits from the State and Commerce Departments required to transfer sensitive military technology out of the country. Senior Israeli officials reacted to the probe by claiming some Reagan Administration officials had embarked on a campaign of harassment against Israel in the wake of the Pollard affair.

December 15:

Israel accused Syria of seeking a military confrontation by redeploying Soviet-built SA2 surface-to-air missiles in three locations along Syria's border with Lebanon, threatening Israeli reconnaissance flights over Northern and Eastern Lebanon. The State-controlled Syrian newspaper Al-Tishrin, in turn, charged Israel with "sounding the war drums."

December 16:

Former Israeli Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the U.N. Abba Eban and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Harold Saunders urged Prime Minister Shimon Peres to allow 14 Palestinian leaders from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to meet with PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat in Amman. The Palestinians are asking Arafat to accept U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin has refused to grant them permission to leave the occupied territories to meet with Arafat.

December 18:

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Ivory Coast President Felix Houphouet-Boigny announced that their two countries intended to reestablish diplomatic ties. Like most African nations, the Ivory Coast broke relations with Israel after the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war as a demonstration of solidarity with Egypt, a member of the Organization of African Unity. The Ivory Coast becomes the third African state to restore diplomatic links with Israel, following Zaire in 1982 and Liberia in 1983.