The US dumps Israel from development of the F-35 Joint Strike fighter, Reuters and the Jerusalem Post report. From the Post's Arieh O'Sullivan:

The Defense Ministry is downplaying reports from Washington that it was so angry over Israeli arms transfers to China that it suspended Israel from participating in the development of the prestigious JSF fighter.

United States Defense officials, quoted by Reuters, said over the weekend that Israeli representatives were no longer invited to participate in discussions about the design of the Joint Strike Fighter, known as the F-35, the next-generation warplane...

While a blow to Israel's prestige, suspending Israeli participation is considered more of an expression of disappointment than a punishment, since Israel is merely an observer to the program and not a full-fledged partner.

The move came amid a simmering disagreement between the Pentagon and the Defense Ministry over arms sales to China. The most recent flap concerns the radar-hunting Harpy drones that the US believes Israel is currently upgrading for Beijing.

But following up on Brian Bender's excellent report in the Boston Globe last Sunday, is this really to do with Israeli upgrades to China's Harpy drone, or really to do with the design of the Israeli Lavi warplane turning up in the Chinese J-10 warplane, that the US fears it could face over Taiwan? And save for the Globe's Bender, why on earth haven't any of the big US dailies with fleets of reporters in the Pentagon, Jerusalem, Beijing, etc. reported on a single aspect of this apparently quite massive dispute between the Pentagon and the Israeli Ministry of Defense?

Posted by Laura at April 17, 2005 11:31 PM