[WCUSP] US speeds up bomb delivery for the Israelis (NYTimes)

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

U.S. Speeds Up  Bomb Delivery for the Israelis 
By _DAVID S. CLOUD_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/david_s_cloud/index.html?inline=nyt-per)  and HELENE COOPER
New York Times: July 22, 2006

_http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/world/middleeast/22military.html?ex=1311220
800&en=e256f1d8872a835d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss_ 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/world/middleeast/22military.html?ex=1311220800&en=e256f1d8872a835
d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) 
 
WASHINGTON, July 21 — The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of  
precision-guided bombs to _Israel_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/israel/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) , which requested 
the expedited shipment last  week after beginning its air campaign against 
_Hezbollah_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/hezbollah/index.html?inline=nyt-org)  targets in _Lebanon_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/lebanon/index.html?inlin
e=nyt-geo) , American officials said Friday. 
The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively  
little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its 
disclosure  threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance 
that  the _United States_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/unitedstates/index.html?inline=nyt-geo)  is actively 
aiding the Israeli bombing  campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s 
efforts to arm and resupply  Hezbollah. 
The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a  
multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to  
draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel’s request for expedited  
delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by  some 
military officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list  of 
targets in Lebanon to strike.  
Secretary of State _Condoleezza Rice_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/condoleezza_rice/index.html?inline=nyt-per)  said 
Friday that she would head to  Israel on Sunday at the beginning of a round of 
Middle Eastern diplomacy. The  original plan was to include a stop to Cairo in her 
travels, but she did not  announce any stops in Arab capitals.  
Instead, the meeting of Arab and European envoys planned for Cairo will take  
place in Italy, Western diplomats said. While Arab governments initially  
criticized Hezbollah for starting the fight with Israel in Lebanon, discontent  
is rising in Arab countries over the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon,  
and the governments have become wary of playing host to Ms. Rice until a  
cease-fire package is put together.  
To hold the meetings in an Arab capital before a diplomatic solution is  
reached, said Martin S. Indyk, a former American ambassador to Israel, “would  
have identified the Arabs as the primary partner of the United States in this  
project at a time where Hezbollah is accusing the Arab leaders of providing  
cover for the continuation of Israel’s military operation.”  
The decision to stay away from Arab countries for now is a markedly different 
 strategy from the shuttle diplomacy that previous administrations used to  
mediate in the Middle East. “I have no interest in diplomacy for the sake of  
returning Lebanon and Israel to the status quo ante,” Ms. Rice said Friday. “I 
 could have gotten on a plane and rushed over and started shuttling around, 
and  it wouldn’t have been clear what I was shuttling to do.” 
Before Ms. Rice heads to Israel on Sunday, she will join President Bush at  
the White House for discussions on the Middle East crisis with two Saudi 
envoys,  Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the  
secretary general of the _National Security Council_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_security_council/index.html?
inline=nyt-org) . 
The new American arms shipment to Israel has not been announced publicly, and 
 the officials who described the administration’s decision to rush the 
munitions  to Israel would discuss it only after being promised anonymity. The 
officials  included employees of two government agencies, and one described the 
shipment as  just one example of a broad array of armaments that the United 
States has long  provided Israel. 
One American official said the shipment should not be compared to the kind of 
 an “emergency resupply” of dwindling Israeli stockpiles that was provided 
during  the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, when an American military airlift helped 
Israel  recover from early Arab victories. 
David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, said: “We  
have been using precision-guided munitions in order to neutralize the military  
capabilities of Hezbollah and to minimize harm to civilians. As a rule, 
however,  we do not comment on Israel’s defense acquisitions.” 
Israel’s need for precision munitions is driven in part by its strategy in  
Lebanon, which includes destroying hardened underground bunkers where Hezbollah 
 leaders are said to have taken refuge, as well as missile sites and other  
targets that would be hard to hit without laser and satellite-guided bombs. 
Pentagon and military officials declined to describe in detail the size and  
contents of the shipment to Israel, and they would not say whether the 
munitions  were being shipped by cargo aircraft or some other means. But an arms-sale 
 package approved last year provides authority for Israel to purchase from 
the  United States as many as 100 GBU-28’s, which are 5,000-pound laser-guided 
bombs  intended to destroy concrete bunkers. The package also provides for 
selling  satellite-guided munitions. 
An announcement in 2005 that Israel was eligible to buy the “bunker buster”  
weapons described the GBU-28 as “a special weapon that was developed for  
penetrating hardened command centers located deep underground.” The document  
added, “The Israeli Air Force will use these GBU-28’s on their F-15  aircraft.” 
American officials said that once a weapons purchase is approved, it is up to 
 the buyer nation to set up a timetable. But one American official said 
normal  procedures usually do not include rushing deliveries within days of a 
request.  That was done because Israel is a close ally in the midst of hostilities, 
the  official said. 
Although Israel had some precision guided bombs in its stockpile when the  
campaign in Lebanon began, the Israelis may not have taken delivery of all the  
weapons they were entitled to under the 2005 sale.  
Israel said its air force had dropped 23 tons of explosives Wednesday night  
alone in Beirut, in an effort to penetrate what was believed to be a bunker 
used  by senior Hezbollah officials. 
A senior Israeli official said Friday that the attacks to date had degraded  
Hezbollah’s military strength by roughly half, but that the campaign could go 
on  for two more weeks or longer. “We will stay heavily with the air campaign,”
 he  said. “There’s no time limit. We will end when we achieve our goals.” 
The Bush administration announced Thursday a military equipment sale to Saudi 
 Arabia, worth more than $6 billion, a move that may in part have been aimed 
at  deflecting inevitable Arab government anger at the decision to supply 
Israel  with munitions in the event that effort became public. 
On Friday, Bush administration officials laid out their plans for the  
diplomatic strategy that Ms. Rice will pursue. In Rome, the United States will  try 
to hammer out a diplomatic package that will offer Lebanon incentives under  
the condition that a _United Nations_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org)  
resolution, which calls for the  disarming of Hezbollah, is implemented.  
Diplomats will also try to figure out the details around an eventual  
international peacekeeping force, and which countries will contribute to it.  Germany 
and Russia have both indicated that they would be willing to contribute  
forces; Ms. Rice said the United States was unlikely to. 
Implicit in the eventual diplomatic package is a cease-fire. But a senior  
American official said it remained unclear whether, under such a plan, Hezbollah 
 would be asked to retreat from southern Lebanon and commit to a cease-fire, 
or  whether American diplomats might depend on Israel’s continued bombardment 
to  make Hezbollah’s acquiescence irrelevant. 
Daniel Ayalon, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, said that Israel would not  
rule out an international force to police the borders of Lebanon and Syria 
and  to patrol southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has had a stronghold. But he 
said  that Israel was first determined to take out Hezbollah’s command and 
control  centers and weapons stockpiles. 
Thom Shanker contributed reporting for this article. 




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