The United States sealed a deal yesterday to provide Israel with
US$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, US Undersecretary of State
Nicholas Burns said the US 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 US$20 billion to Saudi Arabia and other allied Gulf
states. Egypt stands to get US$13 billion in defense assistance
over the next decade, similar to present levels.
The package -- which awaits approval in the US 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 US-led efforts to revive
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after Hamas, an Islamist group
partly funded by Iran, violently took over Gaza in June.
Burns said the new aid to Israel, which currently receives
US$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 US, Burns said, considers "this US$30 billion in assistance
to Israel to be an investment in peace, in long-term peace - peace
cannot be made without strength."
Israel has 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 US 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 US-supplied weaponry and
guarantee a "qualitative edge". But there have been American
objections to the idea of underwriting Israeli firms that could
compete with US counterparts in the global market.
An Israeli official said the Americans had initially wanted to
cap the amount of US assistance that may be spent on Israeli
defense industries at US$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.
(China Daily August 17, 2007)
