Israel seeks Bush support for anti-missile umbrella

TEL AVIV— Israel hopes the Bush administration will back new joint theater missile defense programs meant to destroy enemy missile batteries. "What is certain is that anti-missile defense is clearly high on our agenda in our strategic relations." a senior Israeli official said.

Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Ben-Yisrael, head of the Defense Ministry's research and development directorate, is responsible for making Israel's case with the Pentagon.

Ben-Yisrael has warned that several Middle East countries have acquired the technology to tip their Scud-based missiles with nonconventional warheads.

This, the general said, requires an anti-missile system that is more effective than the Arrow. Israel received its first Arrow-2 missile battery last year and Ben-Yisrael said it has limited capability.

"The first battery was delivered to the Israel Air Force and it has limited operational capability," Ben-Yisrael said. "The word 'limited' describes the quantity and not the performance. The equipment is very expensive and is slow because of the resources that are required."

Israeli officials said they plan to renew requests to the White House and Defense Department for funding and technology transfer to develop programs that can destroy missiles in enemy territory. They said they hope that the Bush support for a national missile defense system will result in approval for what they term as more effective means of stopping an enemy missile attack.

So far, Israel and the United States are completing the Arrow-2 anti-missile system. The missile is meant to destroy incoming enemy missiles when they reenter the atmosphere.

But Israeli officials said such a system is insufficient to provide the country with an anti-missile umbrella. Instead, the Defense Ministry wants to urge Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to approve joint development of systems that can destroy missiles within enemy territory.

This could include eventual Israeli participation in the current airborne laser system.

Officials in the Clinton administration had objected to such a project, saying the United States does not want to aid any country in an offensive missile system.

Ben-Yisrael said the Arrow was never meant to protect Israel throughout a missile war. He said the Arrow was meant to allow Israel to defend against the first salvo of enemy missiles aimed to disrupt reserve mobilization and foil an air counterstrike. The general said Israel is developing other systems for missile defense.

"The Arrow, by itself, is not the final answer," Ben-Yisrael told a ceremony in Tel Aviv. "The Arrow, by itself, has to be sufficient to provide the first response, say the first few days. And in these days, we have to do what we can to neutralize the missiles."

Ben-Yisrael said Israel does not need a satellite to detect Scud launches in the Middle East. The general said the Arrow's Green Pine radar can provide real-time notification of a missile launch.