Both Israeli and American officials have expressed satisfaction with U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney’s two-day visit here last week, which ended with an announcement that the United States will store some $200 million of American weapons in Israel.
Other areas of military cooperation announced during Cheney’s trip include U.S. decisions to finance 72 percent of the second-stage development costs of the Arrow anti-missile missile and to provide Israel with another 10 F-15 jet fighters.
Some $100 million of weapons and ammunition, approved some years ago, is now being delivered to Israel for what is called “propositioning.” Delivery, scheduled some time ago, was delayed because of the Persian Gulf War.
An additional $100 million has been authorized by Congress, but details of its composition have yet to be worked out, according to Danny Naveh, spokesman for Defense Minister Moshe Arens.
The announcement of the F-15s and the Arrow financing struck some critics of administration policy as odd, coming as it did a day after President Bush unveiled a major new arms control initiative for the Middle East.
But Cheney, as well as officials at the White House and State Department in Washington, stressed there was no conflict between calling for massive arms control in the region while at the same time continuing to assist Israel in its “legitimate defense needs.”
Observers here suggested that while both Cheney and Arens favor arms restrictions, in theory at least, both are also responsible for the development of the weapons industries in their respective countries.
Any cutbacks in arms production and sales would have serious repercussions on their arms industries, which represent a significant force in the industrial sectors of both countries, providing jobs and income for thousands of workers.
Cheney also met with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister David Levy. In addition, he paid a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem.
Before leaving Israel, the defense secretary was given a birds-eye view of Israel by helicopter, intended to illustrate its small size and defensive vulnerability.
He flew low over Jerusalem’s Old City, on a route parallel to the Jordan River, from which he could see the narrowness of the area between Jordan and the Mediterranean.
The tour also took him over the old “Green Line” at the foot of the Golan Heights and then to a lookout post near Kibbutz Manara, where he could see Israel’s borders with Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
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