TEL AVIV — The United States has shelved Israel's request for
upgraded strategic
relations that would include massive American military aid and increased
cooperation in weapons development projects.
Israeli sources said the Clinton administration relayed its decision to
the government of Prime Minister Ehud Barak amid the current mini-war
between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The sources said the U.S.
message was that the time was not ripe for upgraded strategic relations.
A U.S. diplomatic source said the administration has not issued a formal
decision. But the source said the White House was discussing an upgraded
strategic relationship with Israel as part of a comprehensive Middle East
peace pact.
"These talks have been going on for a while," the U.S. source said. "A
lot of this was based on peace scenarios that don't appear to be
developing."
The Israeli sources said the administration also turned down Israel's
request for $800 million for military modernization as well as help for its
May 24 withdrawal from Lebanon. Israel has moved troops, missiles, tanks and
attack helicopters to the Lebanese border in the wake of the abduction by
three Israeli soldiers by the Hizbullah militia.
Instead, the administration has relayed its intention to provide Israel
with $400 million in special aid. The sources said the aid would be
allocated for programs for defense against missiles and nonconventional
weapons.
Barak had requested up to $17 billion in U.S. aid for new weapons and
military redeployment in the wake of a withdrawal from either the West Bank
and Gaza Strip or from the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967
war. Defense officials said the government has prepared a so-called
"separation plan" to form a border with the Palestinian Authority.
Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said the plan will be implemented
unilaterally if Palestinian violence continues. He said the plan is meant to
protect Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from neighboring
Palestinian communities.
"There is no decision for legal annexation," Sneh said. "But we are
implementing a plan to connect these settlements to the state of Israel."
