'Spy' arrest in U.S. adds to Israel's woes

TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- The indictment in Washington of a senior American scientist on charges of attempting to spy for Israel is another body blow for the Jewish state as it grapples with mounting international criticism and fears that its leaders could face arrest abroad for war crimes.

Stewart Nozette, who was arrested Monday, worked at the White House on the National Space Council under President George H.W. Bush in 1989-90.

He also worked at the National Aeronautical and Space Administration and the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1990-99 where he held security clearance for top secret material.

Israel has been the target of growing animosity, particularly in the Muslim world and in Europe, in recent months because of alleged war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip during a 22-day invasion of the Hamas stronghold in December 2008.

These allegations were given great weight by a U.N. investigation headed by a noted Jewish jurist, Richard Goldstone of South Africa.

Goldstone said atrocities were committed by both sides during the winter fighting, but he came down particularly heavy and in great detail against Israeli military.

The outcry over the report, which is to be debated by the U.N. General Assembly, evoked earlier allegations against Israel, most notably the September 1982 massacre of as many as 2,000 Palestinian refugees in Beirut's Sabra and Chatila refugee camps by Lebanese Christian militiamen allied with the Israelis.

No one was ever convicted of atrocities over that slaughter, which took place during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June that year.

Gen. Ariel Sharon, Israel's defense minister at the time and the mastermind of the invasion, was reprimanded by an official Israeli commission of inquiry. He later became prime minister.

Sharon was charged with war crimes by a Brussels court several years ago but was not convicted.

But the new concept of international justice, under which some countries allow legal proceedings against foreigners accused of atrocities in other lands and jurisdictions, has made the prospects of indictments against Israeli leaders more likely.

Several senior figures, either serving or retired army officers, have been threatened with arrest in Britain and other European states in recent months, particularly since the Gaza bloodletting. Many fear traveling abroad in case they are arrested.

Amid all the furor over the Gaza fighting, Israel's unique alliance with Turkey began to crumble, stripping the Jewish state of a vital ally in a region overwhelmingly hostile to Israel.

Nozette's arrest in a sting operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation has particularly rekindled U.S. claims that Israel has worked against its strategic ally and benefactor.

The scientist had worked as a consultant for an unidentified aerospace firm owned by the Israeli government in 1998-2008, although it is not clear what secrets he may have passed or intended to pass to Israel's intelligence services.

But his alleged activities can only intensify the concerns of President Barack Obama's administration about how far it can trust Israel, the key U.S. ally in the Middle East.

The administration is striving to revive the moribund Arab-Israeli peace process and find a diplomatic solution to the problem of Iran's controversial nuclear program.

Israel has refused to halt settlement expansion to allow negotiations to resume and has threatened to launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran.

But U.S. concerns go back many years. Israeli intelligence has been caught running several espionage operations against the United States that have antagonized many officials in the U.S. intelligence community.

The most damaging of these came in November 1985 with the arrest of Jonathan Pollard, a civilian analyst with the U.S. Navy who from May 1984 had passed vast amounts of top-secret material to Israel. Some of it is believed to have reached Moscow.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987. Israel eventually acknowledged him as one of its agents and has made repeated requests for his release.

But so heavy was the damage that Pollard inflicted, successive U.S. presidents have turned down these appeals. Many in the U.S. intelligence establishment believe Pollard was not the only spy employed by Israel operating in the United States at that time -- and to this day -- at the highest level of government.