The United States briefed Israel on the arrest of accused spy Ben-Ami Kadish.
“We received an official update from the Americans. We are following the developments,” Arye Mekel, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, said Wednesday when asked for comment on U.S. allegations that Kadish spied for Israel between 1979 and 1985.
Israel has yet to confirm or deny that Kadish, whose arrest was announced Tuesday, passed it classified U.S. military information.
Kadish, 84, a former U.S. Army engineer, is alleged to have worked for the same Israeli handler who recruited Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard to spy in the early 1980s. The Pollard case remains a sore point in relations between Washington and Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has declined comment on the Kadish affair, but a Cabinet colleague voiced confidence that bilateral ties would survive.
“I believe that relations between Israel and the United States are well grounded and serious,” Environment Minister Gideon Ezra told Israel Radio. “In my opinion, the state of our strategic ties with the United States is stronger than this.”
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