The escalating debate between Israel and the U.S. over the Lave, Israel’s second generation jet fighter plane scheduled for its first test flights next September, focussed this week on the number of jobs that would be lost if the project is abandoned.
The U.S. which is paying for most of the development and production costs, has been urging Israel to drop the Lavi, mainly on grounds that it is too expensive. The Israelis dispute the American cost estimates. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said in a radio interview Tuesday that Israel stands by its decision to develop and produce the plane but is willing to hear alternative proposals from the Americans. Chief of Staff Gen. Moshe Levy has taken a similar position.
But executives of Israel Aviation Industries (IAI), manufacturer of the Lavi, warned Tuesday that abandonment of the project would mean the dismissal of between 3,000-4,000 engineers.
The Americans have promised that all of them would find jobs in high-tech research and engineering in connection with the Reagan Administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the “Star Wars” program with which Israel has agreed to cooperate.
According to Israeli officials, most of the engineers would probably leave Israel for the U.S. where the knowledge and expertise gained from the Lavi program would bring them higher paying jobs than they had in Israel.
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