Is Israel Selling Communist China the Rope With Which Her Enemies Will Try to Hang the Jewish State?

(Washington, D.C.): In recent weeks, Israel has acknowledged that it is selling an
advanced
airborne radar system to the People’s Republic of China. Unfortunately, the $250 million job of
retrofitting a Russian-manufactured Ilyushin 50 cargo aircraft to carry this sensitive “Phalcon”
warning and command-and-control technology is not the first dubious sale of military equipment
by the Jewish State to Communist China. It may, however, be one of the most portentous.

In an important op.ed. article that appeared in the Jerusalem Post on 22
November, Dov
Zakheim, a former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense and long-time member of the Center for
Security Policy’s National Security Advisory Council, warned that, “When operated in
conjunction with China’s growing, increasingly modern long-range air force, the Phalcon could
tilt the strategic balance not only between China and Taiwan, but more generally in East and
Southeast Asia.”

The Israeli government has, to date, shrugged off the United States’ objections to the
Phalcon
sale. As one of its officials anonymously put it to the Financial Times on 25
November, “We are
going to compete in the arms export business just like anybody else. Tough if Washington or
other countries get upset.” Friends of the Jewish State can only hope that Jerusalem does not
fail to appreciate the sinister significance of a remark by one of China’s hardline leaders, Li
Peng, following a 28 November meeting there with Prime Minister Ehud Barak. In response to
Barak’s expressions of concern about Iran’s access to advanced arms — some of which are
obtained from Beijing — Li declared “My country has normal ties with Iran.”

The Jerusalem Post, November 22, 1999

Get Real on China

Dov S. Zakheim

Israel has long had the reputation of testing Washington’s patience on matters of arms
transfers.
With the United States transferring its technology to Israel via a host of cooperative development
programs, scientific exchanges, and military sales, it is hardly surprising that Washington policy
makers would go to great lengths to ensure that none of America’s secrets are transferred to a
potentially hostile power.

Over the years – indeed, for nearly two decades – there have been frequent sub-rosa
complaints
by senior American officials to their Israeli counterparts regarding reports of unauthorized sales,
often to the People’s Republic of China. Sometimes, those discussions boiled over into disputes,
and sometimes those disputes erupted into the public domain. For its part, Israel has consistently
denied that it has ever acted on its own, without authorization, to transfer American technology
to China, or for that matter, anywhere else.

A new dispute has arisen, once again over the transfer of armaments to China. This time, the
issue is not necessarily the unauthorized transfer of American technology, however. Israel insists
that all the elements of its Phalcon airborne command and control system are homegrown.
(Phalcon is an acronym for phased-array L-band conformal radar system – try that for breakfast!).
It therefore wonders why the fuss in Washington. After all, other Western states sell their
equipment to China as well.

Jerusalem protests too much. The issue is not necessarily unauthorized transfer of American
technology. Nor is it one of mere equipment sales to the People’s Republic of China.

It is, indeed, true that other American allies also have sold equipment to the PRC. But the
Phalcon is no mere piece of military equipment. It is a state-of-the-art system. When operated in
conjunction with China’s growing, increasingly modern long-range air force, the Phalcon could
tilt the strategic balance not only between China and Taiwan, but more generally in East and
Southeast Asia.

That the Phalcon is a marvel of Israeli and not American technology, is, therefore, beside the
point. What matters is that Israel should not be in the business of complicating America’s already
delicate position vis-c-vis China and Taiwan, one that led to a major crisis in the Taiwan Straits
only three years ago. Nor should Israel help to unbalance the equally delicate relationship
between China and America’s major regional allies, notably Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Israel consistently expects the United States to account for its own sensitive strategic needs.
It
has often asked America to delay, if not forestall, sales to its hostile neighbors. Washington has
just announced, for example, that it will not sell the highly accurate Joint Direct Attack
Munitions (JDAMs) to the Arabs (Israel will receive 700 JDAMs). Israel asks that even
commercial satellite photos not be made available to those states.

Yet, at the same time, Israel seems tone-deaf to the concerns of a bipartisan majority in
Congress, as well as within the administration, about the state of US-PRC relations, about the
state of cross-Taiwan straits relations and, more generally, about relations between China and all
its major neighbors.

Even a novice in the ways of Washington knows that it is Congress that has staunchly stood
by
Israel even as administrations in the past collided with Israel’s interests. Why, then, alienate
Capitol Hill? Why turn away staunch supporters, who cannot understand Israel’s insensitivity to
America’s strategic concerns?

Israel’s behavior regarding the Phalcon is nothing short of inexcusable. Israel’s economy is
healthy enough without this sale. Israel’s military industries can survive without it as well. Israel
can afford to curtail this sale.

Friends of Israel should not be tested over the Phalcon. As the final-status talks move ahead,
there will be far more important tests to come. Israel must ensure that, when the “crunch” arrives
in those talks, its erstwhile friends in Washington will not have been turned away in the wake of
an ill-advised, ill-timed arms transfer that could have serious and negative repercussions for
long-term American interests throughout East Asia.

Dov S. Zakheim, chief executive officer of SPC International Corp. and adjunct senior
fellow at
the Council on Foreign Relations, is a former deputy undersecretary of
defense.