U.S. cancels exercise with Israel

WASHINGTON — The United States has cancelled a military exercise with Israel amid concern that American soldiers would be attacked by Palestinian guerrillas.

Pentagon officials said the exercise was cancelled after consultations with the State Department. The exercise, called Noble Shirley, was to have taken place in Israel's Negev desert in July.

Officials said the exercise was cancelled on Tuesday after Israel's use of F-16 warplanes to bomb Palestinian Authority security installations on May 18. On Sunday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appealed for Israel not to use the U.S.-made aircraft to bomb Palestinian targets.

The exercise was to have included thousands of soldiers from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The unit has been on the USS Kearsarge in the Mediterranean Sea.

"We were concerned over Palestinian attacks on U.S. marines in Israel," a U.S. official said. "The idea of having a military exercise with Israel right now was also not the right thing to do."

Pentagon spokesman Craig Quigley said a formal announcement had not been made to stage an exercise with Israel. But Quigley acknowledged that exercises are cancelled for a range of reasons.

"We have cancelled exercises in the past when we felt that that was simply the right thing to do, the appropriate thing to do, given world events of the moment," Quigley said. "And we'll continue to look at that, and we could take that action in the future."

Arab allies of the United States have criticized the Israeli use of the F-16 and Arab-American groups have called for an end of U.S. arms sales to the Jewish state. U.S. officials said that at this point the protests would not affect planned weapons deliveries to Israel.