Israel having second thoughts on purchase of Joint Strike Fighter
JERUSALEM — Israel's Cabinet has expressed last-minute reservations
to a multi-billion-dollar procurement of the Joint Strike Fighter from the
United States.
A senior minister has warned that a U.S. proposal to sell up to 20 F-35
fighter-jets could backfire on Israel. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, a
close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the plane was too
expensive and would not contain Israeli subsystems, particularly radars and
electronic warfare.
"The Cabinet must examine the significant economic aspects," Steinitz
said.
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The Cabinet has been asked to ratify a decision by the Defense Ministry
to accept a U.S. draft Letter of Agreement for JSF. Defense Minister Ehud
Barak has argued that the $2.7 billion JSF deal marked a vital requirement
for the Air Force and a test of Israel's strategic cooperation with the
United States.
Officials said the United States has offered to begin training Israeli
pilots on JSF over the next year. They said the Defense Department and
Lockheed Martin have raised the prospect of up to $4 billion in offsets from
the deal.
But during a session on Aug. 22 Steinitz urged the Cabinet to insist
that Israel be given a greater share of production subcontracts for the
F-35. Several ministers, including Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau,
supported Steinitz.
Cabinet sources said Netanyahu did not allow the ministers to debate the
JSF deal, which called for the first aircraft to arrive in Israel in 2015.
Netanyahu said the issue must be discussed in a closed forum of the
so-called inner Cabinet.
"Maybe the debate should be held in the forum of seven ministers,"
Netanyahu said.
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