Despite rift, Israel to get U.S. C-130s

TEL AVIV, Israel, March 26 (UPI) -- Despite the sharpest rift in decades between Israel and the United States, the Pentagon is reported top have given the green light to the $250 million sale of C-130J transport aircraft to Israel.

The deal with Lockheed Martin involves three "Super Hercules" aircraft manufactured especially to the Israeli air force's requirements, Haaretz reported. They incorporate systems developed by Israel's defense industry.

If the report is correct, it indicates that despite the belief among the United States' top military commanders that Israel's failure to reach a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians is undermining U.S. influence and standing in the Muslim world and thus endangering its forces, the Pentagon is prepared to maintain Israel's military superiority in the Middle East -- for now at least.

However, U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has voiced concern that Israel may launch unilateral pre-emptive strikes against Iran's nuclear infrastructure that would drag the Americans into a war they don't want.

There has been speculation that these military concerns, on top of the political differences that have arisen over the Israeli government's refusal to bow to U.S. President Barack Obama's insistence of freezing settlement building, could result in Washington cutting back on its military aid to Israel.

This totals around $3 billion a year and is to rise to $3.15 billion a year in 2013 and remain at that level until 2018.

However, for now at least, that U.S. commitment seems to be untouchable, if only because of the domestic political upheaval it would trigger if the military aid was scaled back to any significant degree.

Much of the military aid is recycled back into the U.S. economy anyway, as the C-130 deal would be, a major boon for the U.S. defense industry.

But withholding some aid wouldn't be unprecedented. In 1975, when Israel refused to sign a peace treaty with Egypt, President Gerald Ford blocked all new arms agreements with Israel for six months.

In 1981, President George H.W. Bush withheld $10 billion in loan guarantees because of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's intransigence over settlements in the occupied territories -- the same issue at the heart of the current friction.

But the U.S. military lobby has immense clout in Washington and Mullen's concerns about Israel dragging the United States into a war with Iran and its allies could impact on an even more important and controversial acquisition by the Israelis, Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighter.

The Israeli Defense Ministry remains in negotiation with the Pentagon on a contract estimated at more than $3 billion for an initial buy of 25 of the single-engine jets.

That's enough to equip one squadron. The Israelis want an option on at least another 50.

But one of the main sticking points blocking a deal is Israel's insistence that its F-35s contain key Israeli-built electronic systems. The Pentagon has balked at that.

The price per jet is another obstacle. That went up to $113 million this month when the U.S. Defense Department conceded the F-35 program was two years behind schedule and marred by hefty cost overruns.

The original price tag a decade ago was $50 million per aircraft. So the current price, more than double that, is way past what the Israelis have said they're prepared to pay.

But the air force wants the F-35, possibly the last manned strike jet America will produce, primarily to counter the perceived threat from Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Yossi Melman, an intelligence specialist who writes for Haaretz, noted on March 20: "The greatest problem of all may be that even if Israel does decide to buy the fighter and all its demands are met, the air force wouldn't receive the first planes before 2016."

He noted that "intelligence assessments indicate that is three to five years after the time Iran is expected to go nuclear. The moment that happens, it will be too late to bomb Iran.

"And if Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon by then, that means the leadership has decided not to produce them and Israel wouldn't need the F-35 to bomb the country in the first place."