FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2010
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The World by Glenn Kessler This week, Israel successfully
conducted a test of a new mobile missile-defense system designed to shield Israeli towns from small rockets launched from the Gaza Strip. When the “Iron Dome” sys- tem is fully deployed in the next year, about half the cost — $205 million — will be borne by U.S. taxpayers under a plan ad- vanced by the Obama adminis- tration and broadly supported in Congress.
While public attention has fo-
cused on the fierce diplomatic disputes between Israel and the United States over settlement ex- pansion in Palestinian territo- ries, security and military ties be- tween the two nations have grown ever closer during the Obama administration. Defense Secretary Robert M.
Gates, who has worked decades in Washington, “believes we are cooperating on military-to-mili- tary relations in an unprecedent- ed manner,” Pentagon spokes- man Geoff Morrell said. Military relations were very close during the Bush adminis- tration, but “in many ways the co- operation has been extended and perhaps enhanced in different areas” during the Obama admin- istration, a senior Israeli official acknowledged. Elliott Abrams, a former senior Bush administration official and a frequent critic of the Obama administration’s policy toward Israel, gives the White House high marks for its handling of the security relationship, saying it is “very smart” to insulate it from the diplomatic turmoil. “It is the sounds of silence,” he said. “I do not hear from Israeli officials and officers any griping, and that is in a context when there has been a lot of griping in the past year about everything else.”
Long-term investment
U.S. officials portray the effort as a long-term investment de- signed to improve the prospects for peace and to make Israel feel less vulnerable to any threat posed by Iran. “A secure Israel is better able to
make the tough decisions that will need to be made to make peace,” said Andrew J. Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for po- litical-military affairs. High-level exchanges of senior
military and defense officials take place almost weekly — more than 75 at the deputy assistant secretary level or above in the past 15 months, according to a Pentagon accounting. That re- sults in an exchange of military and intelligence expertise that U.S. officials say is unique in the world. The U.S. efforts in Iraq and Af- ghanistan draw on lessons learned and equipment devel- oped by the Israelis in their con- flicts — and visa versa. Un- manned drones and the armor- ing of vehicles to protect against roadside bombs derive from Is- raeli technology, Israeli officials say. “We exchange information and
discuss developments in the re- gion, and under this administra- tion our communication has tak- en on a more frequent and inti- mate nature,” Shapiro said. “It is a mutually beneficial exchange.” Solidifying those links, more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers last year participated in a joint missile- defense exercise in Israel last year known as “Juniper Cobra,” the first such exercise involving boots on the ground between the two nations. Besides Iron Dome, the United
States provides about $200 mil- lion a year to two other Israeli missile-defense systems, known as Arrow and David Sling. The costs are shared 50-50, with the understanding that the United States will benefit from the Is- raeli experience. “We have been working really closely with the Israelis on every tier of their missile-defense ar- chitecture, all the way from [the Hamas] Kassam [rocket] at the lowest level to the [Iranian] Sha- hab [ballistic missile] at the high- est level,” said a senior U.S. de- fense official, who spoke on con- dition of anonymity to discuss the breadth of cooperation. Israeli Ambassador Michael B. Oren noted that the U.S.-Israel relationship is more than the sum of its military parts. “Securi- ty is more than financial support and cooperation on missile de- fense and joint maneuvers; secu- rity is also dialogue, and dialogue has been especially close and continuous with this administra- tion,” he said. Under an agreement signed toward the end of the Bush ad- ministration, annual U.S. mili- tary assistance to Israel has been boosted from $2.5 billion in 2009 to $3 billion in 2011, meaning that almost a quarter of Israel’s
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actual defense expenditures comes from the United States, ac- cording to Anthony H. Cordes- man of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Oba- ma’s Iron Dome money would be on top of that largesse, already the most military assistance to any country. Unlike most other countries, which are required to use U.S. military assistance to buy U.S.
weapons and technology, Israel is permitted to use 26 percent of the funds for the development and production of its own weap- ons. This arrangement gives Is- rael “five or six times the value per dollar as a country like Egypt or Jordan,” Cordesman said.
Stockpile for Israel
The United States also main- tains stockpiles of ammunition,
spare parts, communication gear and other military items in Is- rael, which the Jewish state can draw on if it runs short during a war.
Because Israel has attacked without warning nuclear facil- ities in Iraq and Syria, experts in- side and outside the Obama ad- ministration think that not halt- ing Iran’s nuclear program could prompt an Israeli military strike
against that country. Such an attack could prompt reprisals against American inter- ests in the region, and U.S. offi- cials hope the investment in close coordination with Israel will make a sneak attack less likely. “Neither of us try to surprise each other but we try to coordi- nate on issues of mutual con- cern,” President Obama told Is- raeli television this month.
A9 U.S.-Israeli security ties grow amid diplomatic disputes
“I don’t think there is any question that the kind of rela- tionship we have and the kind of intensity of contacts we have cer- tainly breeds confidence in each other,” a senior administration official said. “We have a partner who understands our interests and who we count on to be that cooperative partner going for- ward.”
kesslerg@washpost.com
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