U.S. Team Leaving for Israel to Investigate Arms Charges

A team of U.S. government experts is expected to arrive in Israel this weekend to investigate charges that Israel provided China and other countries with American weapons technology.

Experts from the State Department, Pentagon and U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv will focus on allegations that Israel provided China with technology on the Patriot missile defense system.

But State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said the team may also delve into some of the other recent charges that Israel transferred American weapons technology without U.S. government approval.

They will try to “ensure that there are no misunderstandings on technology transfer,” she said.

Among the other charges are that Israel has sold cluster bombs containing U.S. technology to Ethiopia and Chile, and that it has provided South Africa with missile technology.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens, who discussed the subject Monday at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, has vigorously denied that Israel transferred any Patriot technology to China.

That position was echoed here Tuesday by Yitzhak Rabin, Arens’ predecessor as Israel’s defense minister. He denied that Israel had ever illegally provided U.S. technology in military weapons to a third country.

“Are we idiots?” Rabin asked in a speech to the United Jewish Appeal’s young leadership conference. He said Israel would never jeopardize a $3 billion annual grant in economic and military aid from the United States for a $100 million weapons sale.

Rabin said that during the five years he was defense minister, he informed the U.S. defense secretary of every military sale made by Israel.

Rabin suggested that some of the charges about Israel may have come from U.S. companies that lost contracts won by Israeli firms.