U.S. signs $30 billion defense aid pact with Israel
Pastor Dale Morgan
U.S. signs $30 billion defense aid pact with Israel*
By Dan Williams
Reuters
Thursday, August 16, 2007; 8:26 AM
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States sealed a deal on Thursday to
provide Israel with $30 billion in defense grants over the next decade,
a 25 percent boost that Washington describes as strengthening a regional
bulwark against Iran.
At a signing ceremony in Jerusalem, U.S. Undersecretary of State
Nicholas Burns said the United States would help Israel maintain a
military advantage over foes ranging from Iran and Syria to their
proxies in Lebanon and Palestinian territories.
"There is no question that, from an American point of view, the Middle
East is a more dangerous region now even than it was 10 or 20 years ago
and that Israel is facing a growing threat. It's immediate and it's also
long-term," Burns told reporters.
"The United States faces many of the same threats from the same
organizations and countries as Israel does, and so we felt this was the
right level of assistance."
The Bush administration said last month that it would also offer weapons
worth $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and other allied Gulf states. Egypt
stands to get $13 billion in defense assistance over the next decade,
similar to present levels.
The package -- which awaits approval in the U.S. Congress -- is designed
to reassure Israel and Sunni Muslim Gulf nations of Washington's
commitment to the Middle East despite its problems in Iraq, as well as
to strengthen them in the face of the growing clout of Shi'ite Iran and
its nuclear program.
Citing a need for regional stability, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are among
Arab powers that have endorsed U.S.-led efforts to revive
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after Hamas, an Islamist group partly
funded by Iran, violently took over Gaza in June.
PEACE PRIORITY
Burns said the new aid to Israel, which currently receives $2.4 billion
in annual military grants, would not be conditioned on diplomatic
progress or concessions though "one of the major priorities for our
government ... will be to help push forward a peace agreement between
Israel and the Palestinians."
The United States, Burns said, considers "this $30 billion in assistance
to Israel to be an investment in peace, in long-term peace -- peace
cannot be made without strength."
Israel overhauled its armed forces since suffering surprise setbacks in
last year's war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
Assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, Israel has vowed
to prevent Iran, its arch-enemy, from acquiring the bomb. Iran denies
its nuclear program has military aims.
"We have an exceptionally heavy defense burden," said Bank of Israel
Governor Stanley Fischer, who officiated at the signing ceremony. "The
fact that the United States is willing to share a significant part of
that burden ... is a critical element in the budget."
Israel is the only recipient of U.S. defense grants allowed to spent
some of them -- 26.3 percent -- on domestic arms firms.
Israeli defense experts say the funds are vital for developing
technologies that are used to upgrade U.S.-supplied weaponry and
guarantee a "qualitative edge." But there have been American objections
to the idea of underwriting Israeli firms that could compete with U.S.
counterparts in the global market.
An Israeli official said the Americans had initially wanted to cap the
amount of U.S. assistance that may be spent on Israeli defense
industries at $625 million a year, but eventually relented, agreeing to
a fixed percentage.
Burns and Fischer said the sides had not finalized details on what
weaponry would be supplied to Israel under the new deal.
(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem)