Missiles for Peace

As the Administration's effort to sell Capitol Hill on the Sinai accord worked out between Israel and Egypt continued last week, some unpublished portions of Henry Kissinger's negotiating handiwork began to leak out. There appeared to be no devastating time bombs hidden among the private "assurances" the Secretary of State had given the Israeli government that might jeopardize the deal's seemingly good chances of winning congressional approval. Most of what criticism there was seemed to focus on the sophisticated and costly weapons that Kissinger had used to sweeten the pot for an agreement.

Shopping List. The Israelis, as part of the accord, will get not only the new $20 million F-15 fighter but also the lightweight F-16 interceptor, which is the most maneuverable combat aircraft in the world. Kissinger also committed the Administration to considering, "with the view to giving a positive response," an Israeli request for a new model of the U.S. Pershing ground-to-ground missile.

The Pershing, which has a maximum range of 460 miles, was originally designed for a nuclear warhead. A newer Pershing II, which will be available in about three years, will carry a conventional warhead with greater accuracy. It is the Pershing II that Israel is after. Defense Minister Shimon Peres, arriving in Washington last week with a shopping list for $2.3 billion in aid and weapons this year, said that Israel views the Pershing as a deterrent, since it can reach such Arab cities as Damascus, Cairo and Amman with devastating force. As Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin put it last week in Jerusalem: "The stronger we are, the less will be the temptation to attack us."

Even without nuclear warheads, the Pershing IIs, at $2 million each, are scarcely thrift-shop weapons. Indeed, the cost of filling Israel's proposed weapons order, which includes the short-range Lance missile as well as other sophisticated weaponry, will come high--and the U.S. will be called on to foot two-thirds or three-fourths of the bill in the form of grants. All together over the next five years, Washington is expected to provide Israel with at least $10 billion in arms and economic aid.

Understandably, President Ford and Kissinger are sensitive to criticism that the Sinai agreement was "bought." In Cincinnati last week, Kissinger reiterated his persuasive rebuttal that most of the U.S. aid involved would in fact have been requested and provided whether or not there was a Sinai agreement. In his White House press conference last week, Ford stressed that in the past "the U.S. has supplied Israel with very substantial military weaponry, and it is our plan to do so in the future." He insisted that there is "no firm commitment on any of the weapons. They are merely open for discussion."

The Israelis make a fairly strong case for their need for these advanced weapons. In pulling back from their present positions in the Sinai, Israel's military men--drawing on lessons learned in the October war--are revising their tactics to get more punch for the Israeli pound from a smaller army using more advanced technology. Even as Israeli forces in the Sinai began their preparations for a pullback last week, Chief of Staff General Mordechai Gur talked about the new positions they will take up. At a briefing at Bir Gifgafa in the Sinai, attended by TIME Correspondent Donald Neff, Gur said: "I would like to remove the word lines from our lexicon. If in the future we see that the agreement has substance, I believe we won't have a new line." What Gur envisions are rolling defensive positions for Israel's armor and artillery, which would be backed up by long-range missiles and high-flying aircraft, including the F-15 and Israel's own K fir fighter.

Defensive Hawks. Complicating the U.S.-Israeli arms agreement--politically, at least--is the fact that the U.S. is simultaneously undertaking to sell arms to one of Israel's Arab neighbors. After a show of pique last week, Jordan's King Hussein decided to purchase $350 million in U.S. arms, with some strings attached. Hussein, who is paying for his weapons with funds supplied by Saudi Arabia, sought 14 batteries of Hawk ground-to-air missiles. Congress first rebuffed the Administration's request for approval of the sale, but it reversed itself last week after Ford promised that the missiles would be put in fixed positions; this meant that the Hawks could only be used defensively to protect Amman and other cities, and could not be moved forward to support an armored offensive against Israel. Upset by this stipulation, Hussein briefly balked at the deal, but then finally agreed to the U.S. terms. In fact, the King's "temper tantrum," as Washington officials described it, may have stemmed less from anger over the U.S.-imposed restrictions than embarrassment over how they might be read elsewhere in the Arab world.

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