Israel Up, Up, Up and Away

$ When word leaked last summer that Israel had secretly test-fired a medium- range missile into the Mediterranean Sea in May, reports said the missile was designed to carry a nuclear warhead and could travel 900 nautical miles, far enough to strike Soviet territory. But intelligence sources now say the exercise had an additional purpose: to test the country's capability of launching a surveillance satellite into low earth orbit.

Today Jerusalem is on the verge of sending up such a satellite for the first time. All that remains is for the Israeli Cabinet to set a launch date. When lift-off occurs, Israel will become only the eighth country -- after the Soviet Union, U.S., France, Japan, China, Britain and India -- known to possess a rocket powerful enough to put a satellite into space. With its own orbiting electronic eye constantly monitoring Arab states, Israel would gain a distinct advantage in any military confrontation with its neighbors. In addition, Israel would no longer be forced to depend on U.S. satellite intelligence.

Though Israel has long had the technology to produce a sophisticated satellite, work on the project did not begin until 1983, when Jerusalem created a space agency. Dubbed Shavit (Hebrew for comet), the rocket was built jointly by Rafael, the country's leading missile manufacturer, and Israel Aircraft Industries, creator of the Lavi jet fighter. Various electronics companies developed the satellite. Initially, the Israelis plan to launch an experimental satellite that will survive less than a month. If that mission is successful, the Israelis are expected to put up a satellite with a life-span of about two years.

Israeli defense officials, however, are divided over timing. Those who want to launch the satellite as soon as possible argue that in the wake of the Iran-Iraq cease-fire and recent missile purchases by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Jerusalem needs to watch its Arab neighbors more closely. Those who prefer to wait argue that a launch now would only push Arab countries into beseeching Moscow for satellites of their own, thus fueling the region's arms race and irritating the Soviet Union at a time when Jerusalem is trying to improve relations with Moscow. The ten members of Israel's inner Cabinet are expected to make a decision within the next few weeks. Another consideration: some Israeli politicians fear that if a satellite is launched before the country's November elections, the public will consider the move a cynical ploy to win votes.

Until now, Israel has relied on reconnaissance aircraft and high-tech drones for its intelligence. In addition, since Arab forces took Israel by surprise in the 1973 October War, the U.S. has provided Jerusalem with top-secret satellite information to help meet its defense needs. But the Israelis complain that U.S. officials "filter" the information, omitting data that Washington deems irrelevant. The Israelis also grumble that they receive the data too late. Israel regularly petitions the U.S. for its own ground links to American satellites, but Washington refuses. Supporters of Israel blame America's stinginess with its data for Israel's recruitment of Jonathan Jay Pollard, the former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst who was sentenced to life imprisonment for espionage in March 1987 after providing Israel with classified documents.

Jerusalem refuses to confirm or deny the satellite program. According to several U.S. space experts, a single satellite could give Israel coverage of key sites at least twice daily. On the other hand, the skies in the region are often clogged with dust, and satellites are ineffective in detecting night operations. "I doubt the program is worth the cost," says the Brookings Institution's Paul Stares, an expert on the military uses of space, who puts the price tag for a launch system and satellite at hundreds of millions of dollars. Jerusalem, despite military-budget pressures, has apparently decided otherwise.