Getting Down to Business
Gutierrez, Margo & Jamail, Milton
"THE GABRIEL WEAPON SYSTEM, AS "Iother IAI products, has proven itself highly reliable and effective in naval engagements. This was proved when, for the first time in history,...
...As one functionary put it, "Sharon's trip was more positive...
...3. Matti Golan, Shimon Peres: A Biography (New York: St...
...Nonetheless, the Rabin government gave its approval for marketing the Kfir abroad the following year, despite inherent political problems, among them congressional restrictions on the sale of weaponry containing U.S...
...Ochoa believes that a conflict such as El Salvador's allows no neutral civilians...
...Michael Rubner, Israel and Latin America: The Politics of Bilateral Economic Aid (Ph.D...
...1, no...
...H6ctor Franc6s, an Argentine contra adviser until 1982, offered an interpretation of the importance of stationing Costa Rican security forces along the Nicaraguan border...
...Delivery of either of these sophisticated aircraft would increase considerably the capability of the Honduran Air Force, already considered superior to any other in Central America...
...18 Dassault Ouragan jet fighters...
...But Saudi Arabia reportedly donated at least $30 million to the contras...
...6 (June 1986), p.8...
...6 A few months later, "whether because of the revelations in the wake of the Iran-contra scandal" or "because of Israeli attempts to sell Honduras Kfir aircraft," it was clear that the Nicaraguans would not be travelling to Israel, if in fact a visit had ever been planned...
...2 " Honduran officials were pleased with the Sharon visit, which immediately followed one by President Reagan...
...Christian Science Monitor, December 14, 1982...
...3 (May/June 1985), p. 37...
...The Israelis are primarily concerned with pleasing friends in Washington, and helping Reagan in his most important foreign policy objective certainly does that...
...l 2 Although it is not clear which camp made the first overture, Ramfrez said he would welcome mutual initiatives leading to improved relations...
...He explained that Nicaragua recognized Israel's right to exist as a sovereign state while at the same time acknowledging "the right of the Palestinian people to a territory...
...6 MARCH/APRIL 1987 25The Israeli Con Anection The Israeli Connection One Carter aide has said the Administration "had decided against trying to prevent Israel from supplying light arms" to the Somoza government...
...4 (March 1985), p. 3. 40...
...In 1981, Israel granted the Salvadoreans $21 million in arms credits, interpreted by many as a favor to Washington as it enabled the Reagan Administration to bypass Congress...
...2 7 T HE MARCH 1984 HEADLINE IN THE EL SALvador News-Gazette, a right-wing English-language weekly, read "Experts to work the Israeli miracle here...
...3, (February 1985), p. 2. 13...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, Vol...
...14, no...
...Ambassador Thomas Pickering (now ambassador to Israel), confirmed that the napalm was "probably of Israeli origin...
...When U.S...
...Davar, (Tel Aviv), January 3, 1982...
...2 2 Seeking more modern aircraft for an Air Force that defense analysts describe as having a "marked ascenMARCH/APRIL 1987 26Anastasio Somoza, April 1978 dancy in air power over neighboring countries," the head of the Honduran armed forces at the time, Gen...
...4 7 As early as 1964, when Costa Rica was creating its National Youth Movement under Israeli direction, a representative of Israel's Ministry of Defense went to Costa Rica to convince officials that the Israeli paramilitary youth organization, Gadna, was an attractive prototype...
...Nuevo Diario (Managua), November 4, 1986...
...components facilitate U.S...
...4 5 IN ISRAEL THERE IS A PINE FOREST NAMED for former Costa Rican President Luis Alberto Monge, Israel's way of saying thanks for Costa Rica's consistent diplomatic support of Israeli foreign policy objectives and for locating its embassy in Jerusalem...
...New Jewish Agenda, p.8...
...position (Costa Rica and Guatemala abstained...
...Unlike its neighbors, Costa Rica has no internal security threat and the armed forces were disbanded in 1948...
...In a July 5, 1957 letter to Shimon Peres, then a high official in the defense ministry, Walter Eytan, director general of the Foreign Ministry, wrote: "We really put our foot in it with the Nicaraguan arms deal...
...Davar, (Tel Aviv), May 4, 1984...
...This included 25 Arava aircraft...
...Israel has also reportedly provided El Salvador with an estimated 100 counterinsurgency trainers...
...5 5 A Reagan official conceded that an additional purpose of the project is to provide a military infrastructure in case of conflict with Nicaragua...
...MARCHIAPRIL 1987 Israel's role in Honduras may now go beyond that of arms supplier...
...This was proved when, for the first time in history, sea-to-sea missiles were used by opposing navies...
...If successful, the "miracle" would also serve to integrate peasants into a market economy, a one-time goal of the U.S.-directed project.* But "it is equally plausible that Israeli experts were assigned to *See "El Salvador: Medea's Children," in this issue...
...Cynthia Aruson, "Arms Race in Central America," The Nation, March 10, 1979, p. 2 6 7 . 22...
...Central America Report, March 6, 1987, p. 66...
...Its members detected no official anti-Jewish policy and issued a statement condemning U.S...
...But during the 1970s and early 1980s, Israeli military assistance was crucial, particularly after 1977 when U.S...
...Washington Post, December 7, 1982...
...297ff...
...6 (June 1986), p. 8 . 30...
...Embassy, Managua, #5527, November 1978, "Subject: Israel-Nicaragua Military Supply Relationship...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, Vol...
...Israel will provide the technical expertise, presumably based on its experiences with settlements in the West Bank area...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, Vol...
...Hay notes "these are two items which are found in the leading restaurants everywhere...
...aid package by $285 million in economic support funds...
...The Christian Science Monitor, citing Honduran military sources, reported that Sharon did, in fact, sign an agreement in which Israel agreed to provide Honduras with Kfir fighter jets (see box), tanks, Galil assault rifles and training for Honduran officers, troops and pilots...
...Army Lt...
...3 While El Salvador got the military equipment, Israel gained on the diplomatic front...
...the contra base camps scattered throughout the area...
...8. Christopher Dickey, With the Contras: A Reporter in the Wilds of Nicaragua, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), p. 41...
...But other factors lead Central American nations to seek Israeli advisers and arms...
...then U.S...
...Somoza, the Nicaraguan dictator who would be overthrown in 1979: "Out of an awareness of the excellent and friendly relations between our two countries, we have tried, within our limitations, to provide every possible assistance to the success of your mission...
...7, no...
...4 2 The controversial Ochoa-"a smart practitioner of modern counterinsurgency techniques," according to a seasoned reporter-has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate for the Right...
...Cited in Golan, Shimon Peres, p. 81...
...Rabin wants to meet w/me privately in N.Y...
...Several Sandinistas trained with the PLO in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
...They want to do this in concert with an Israeli plan to sell KFIR fighter to Honduras as a replacement for the 28 yr old [Super Mystere] which Honduras wants to replace...
...Sharon, accompanied by the head of Israel's Air Force and the director-general of the defense ministry, stressed that in addition to discussing possible weapons sales and assistance to Honduras, he planned to sign agreements in the fields of health, agriculture and culture...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, Vol...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs,, (Sacramento, CA), Vol...
...5 7 Yet another joint AID-Israel project initiated last year sought to help growers "determine obstacles to planting irrigated industrial tomatoes...
...diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1975), p. 193...
...The sale was reportedly made in 1984, but there is no evidence that any Kfirs have actually been delivered.' Israel has been discussing Kfir sales to Honduras since Ariel Sharon visited Tegucigalpa in December 1982, when a preliminary contract appears to have been signed...
...4 To a 1984 delegation of the New Jewish Agenda, a progressive activist organization, Ramirez had also indicated that current Israeli arms sales and training activities in Central America posed a substantial obstacle to normalization.' 5 In November 1986, The Jerusalem Post reported that the first official Sandinista delegation was to visit Israel...
...Armson, New Outlook, p. 21...
...In February 1957 a Nicaraguan delegation visited Israel, and was rewarded with a $1.2 million arms sale negotiated by Shimon Peres, then a high defense ministry official and now the foreign minister...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, Vol...
...Christian Science Monitor, January 13, 1985...
...FBIS-LAM, December 5, 1983, P-3...
...By then the project involved working with farmers "to support labor intensive export fruit and vegetable production, grown under partially irrigated conditions...
...6. Department of State, U.S...
...The Administration's decision seems to have put an end to talk of Honduran purchases of Israeli Kfir-C2s...
...3 In April 1984 there were more rumors about increased Israeli military involvement in El Salvador...
...At that time, however, Yossi Amihud, spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry, denied that "Israel had any military relationship with El Salvador...
...The Honduran officer added "that a second phase of arms sales may involve more sophisticated weapons, such as missiles...
...The cable also cited a report that civilian cargo planes delivered military supplies to Managua in November and that "these were El Al planes . . they landed after dark and then immediately departed...
...The New Mexican (Santa Fe), August 17, 1983...
...2 In turn, Israel began to supply military equipment to Nicaragua in the 1950s...
...Edy Kaufman, "The View From Jerusalem," The Washington Quarterly, Vol...
...Honduras and El Salvador were absent...
...Central America Report (Guatemala City), December 17, 1982, p. 389...
...Richard J. Walton, "How the U.S...
...2, no...
...While Israel seems to have lost out to the lower priced U.S...
...And they are priced competitively with those of other arms suppliers...
...restrictions...
...4 8 In late 1982 Israel offered Costa Rica-as it had Honduras-"a substantial amount of military equipment captured from Palestinian forces in Lebanon if Costa Rica would pay for the transportation costs...
...military attack on Nicaragua...
...Although Washington sources say congressional approval of the sale is not a foregone conclusion, it will likely go through...
...The Israeli daily Yedi' ot Aharonot had reported several months prior to Anderson's story that "the government of Costa Rica has decided to try and create a 'security belt' along the border with Nicaragua, and Israel will aid the settlement plan...
...tourists at the Atlantic coastal city of La Ceiba...
...5 In May 1986, Costa Rican Security Minister Herndn Garr6n confirmed that the new government of President Oscar Arias was preparing to receive Israeli military advisers...
...Pacific News Service, March 6, 1985...
...26 water and me manpower to start producing broccoUI, cauliflower, asparagus, artichokes and bell peppers . . . melons and other things you can export now that you have this beautiful weather...
...The FSLN viewed alliances with Somoza's enemies as self-preservation...
...7 The Israeli daily Davar reported in 1984 that "the Pentagon wants Israel to send military advisers to El Salvador openly, as a demonstration of Israeli participation in the load the United States bears in Central America...
...6 (June 1986), p. 8. 32...
...Critics of the scheme have commented that "once you have Israeli technicians coming into the country, you can have military trainers coming in under the guise of agricultural technicians...
...200 9-mm Uzi submachine guns...
...Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) delivered the first Kfir planes to the Israeli Air Force in 1975...
...Martin's Press, 1982), p. 8 1 . 4. There was, however, criticism of the sales within Israel...
...The idea is to move anticommunist Costa Rican farmers up to the border, and supply them with infrastructure, credit and technical services...
...plane this time around, the Kfir will remain the flagship in the Israeli arsenal...
...Nicaraguan relations with nations of the Middle East have been problematic...
...5 Reporting on a secret Israeli arms delivery to Managua in November 1978, a recently declassified U.S...
...ammunition and spare parts...
...4 (Fall 1984), p. 45...
...military assistance programs were suspended to Somoza's Nicaragua, to the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala in the late 1970s and early 1980s and, more recently, to the Nicaraguan rebels, Israel filled the gap...
...Secretary of State Henry Kissinger accepted the Israeli explanation that it all had been "an honest misunderstanding...
...Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, made a "quasi-secret" visit to Israel in late 1982 in search of alternatives to U.S...
...The Taiwanese and the Israelis do know...
...Nicaragua's relationship with Israel predates the Zionist state...
...According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 83% of El Salvador's defense imports between 1975 and 1979 were from Israel...
...Central America Report, December 14, 1984, p. 387...
...286-293...
...For some time, Israel has been trying to persuade the United States to arrange for weapons purchases by a third country...
...5 (April 1985), p. 6. 43...
...On November 3, 1986 it joined El Salvador and the United States in opposing a General Assembly resolution asking Washington to end contra aid...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, Vol...
...4 3 In 1985 Ochoa told the Dallas Morning News that El Salvador's new civil defense units "will be like the armed patrols on the Israeli kibbutzim...
...After President Carter vetoed the first sale of the Kfir to Ecuador in 1977, IAI President Al Schwimmer went to Washington to complain...
...2. Edy Kaufman, Yoram Shapira and Joel Barromi, Israel-Latin American Relations (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1979), p. 108...
...Marc Edelman, 'Lifelines: Nicaragua and the Socialist Countries," Report on the Americas, Vol...
...Israel stepped in to support police forces in Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador when the U.S...
...Latin American Regional Reports: Mexico and Central America, (London), June 8, 1984, p. 7. 47...
...2, no.6 (June 1986), p. 8. 59...
...components...
...SN DECEMBER 1983 THE HONDURAN National Airlines, SAHSA, diverted its regularly scheduled flight from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa to drop off a group of U.S...
...3 (March 1987), p. 8. 18...
...The government-owned Israel Aircraft Industries gets maximum advertising mileage out of the "combatproven" nature of its weaponry, no doubt an attraction for customers...
...These same French Super-Mystbre planes were used against Sandinista ground forces at Wiwilf and Murra in northern Nicaragua on December 7, 1986...
...As the plane taxied to the terminal, the passengers were surprised to see Honduras' military aircraft lined up along the runway...
...In the fall of 1984, a delegation of Israel's left-wing Mapam party visited Nicaragua...
...is Changing Costa Rica," The Nation, October 5, 1985, pp...
...aid was suspended due to gross human rights violations...
...Central American strategy...
...In a press conference Garr6n said that he will press for the formation of a unit called Combate Antiterrorista to be formed with Israeli government help...
...Delivery of either the F-5E or the Kfir to Honduras or Guatemala would violate the Contadora Treaty draft provisions calling on Central American governments not to import advanced weapons systems...
...What sounded rather absurd in 1984 became less so in 1986 when the U.S...
...to discuss details...
...El Salvador News-Gazette (San Salvador), February 20-March 4, 1984...
...Although often unnoticed, Israel's security assistance to Costa Rica and aid in agricultural schemes along the Nicaraguan border have played a crucial role in U.S...
...200 80-mm rocket launchers...
...New York Times, October 9, 1984...
...19, no...
...Anastasio Somoza Garcia provided the Haganah-the Israeli military's forerunner-with the diplomatic cover necessary to purchase arms in Europe in the late 1930s...
...This Israeli-U.S.-Salvador project could be related to the counterinsurgency effort, which of late has included attempts to resettle the country's more than half a million displaced persons...
...Embassy cable stated, "Israel has supplied significant quantities and types of military equipment, arms and munitions to Nicaragua, especially in recent months, and...
...Reagan only uttered platitudes, explaining that Congress was preventing him from doing more...
...In early 1987, the president of the Honduran Congress, Carlos Montoya, announced on his return from the Middle East that Israel "would provide military assistance to para-military groups in Honduras similar" to the civil defense patrols used for counterinsurgency and social control in Guatemala and El Salvador...
...In 1983, when asked if his civic-military action was based on the U.S...
...Kaufman, et al., Israel-Latin American, p. 1. 21...
...military equipment...
...My impression is that they are prepared to move quickly on this if we so desire...
...5 2 N 1983, COLUMNIST JACK ANDERSON REported that the United States and Israel were involved in a land-development scheme called the "Northern Zone Infrastructure Development" which included buying up land along the Nicaraguan-Costa Rican border, clearing roads through the wilderness, and moving in thousands of settlers...
...It does not take sophisticated technology or a trained observer to know that Honduras possesses a squadron of jet-fighters...
...According to The New York Times, Guatemalan officials have asked for similar aircraft while El Salvador has asked congressional allies to vote against the F5E sale to Honduras...
...laws banning 'third country transfers' of U.S...
...Traditional crops should be forgotten . . . start using those fertile lands, that have ample 27The Israeli Connection Israel's Young Lion IN MID-MAY THE REAGAN ADMINISTRAtion notified Congress of its intention to sell Honduras 12 F-5E supersonic jet-fighters...
...New York Times, December 8, 1982...
...Cynthia Arnson, "Israel and Central America," New Outlook (Tel Aviv), March/April 1984, p. 19...
...3, no...
...Le Monde Diplomatique en Espanol, (Mexico City), October 1984...
...Although designed and built in Israel, the plane is based on "stolen blueprints of France's Mirage-5 to which the powerful American-made General Electric J-79 engine was added...
...Israel cites Sandinista relations with the PLO-which maintains an embassy in Managuain justifying its stance...
...5. Jane Hunter, No Simple Proxy: Israel in Central America, (Washington, D.C.: Washington Middle East Associates, 1987), p. 29...
...T HE CLOSE TIES BETWEEN THE SOMOZAS and Israel and the use of Israeli materiel to fight the insurgency sheds light on Sandinista relations to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO...
...Some fear the sale is designed to provoke Nicaragua into acquiring the Soviet equivalent, the MIG-21-which the Reagan Administration has pledged to destroy--or other East-bloc planes...
...New Jewish Agenda, Report of the Jewish Human Rights Delegation to Nicaragua (New York, 1984), p.8...
...Abrams likes the idea.' 0 The Israeli defense ministry acknowledges the meeting, but alleges that the request for advisers came from North and that Rabin refused...
...Israel justified its role as Somoza's quartermaster by pointing to the "special relationship" dating from the late 1930s...
...The miracle, according to Jaim Hay, director general of Arroyot, Ltd.-which represents a group of Israeli kibbutzim-aims to get Salvadoreans to branch out a bit...
...Ibid...
...New York Times, April 23, 1984...
...The Sandinistas made numerous declarations of solidarity, and received a $100 million loan from Libya...
...Honduras and El Salvador were absent).'" Early improvement in Israeli-Nicaraguan relations seems unlikely...
...Congress has until mid-June to halt the $72 million F-5E deal...
...Houston Post, December 6, 1986...
...financing of the Kfir sale to Honduras...
...This makes the Gabriel the only Combat-Proven Weapon System in the free world," reads the glossy brochure...
...The Israelis claimed their aim in producing the Kfir was to "avoid overdependence on the United States for front-line fighters," and assured the Administration that "there was no intention of exporting the aircraft...
...4 9 Israel has provided intelligence and anti-terrorist training to Costa Rican security forces...
...Latin America Weekly Report reported in 1981 that "Israeli instructors are also training Guatemalan pilots in the use of Kfir jets...
...Reuters North European Service, February 19 and 22, 1986...
...9. Washington Post, December 3, 1978...
...Ignacio Klich, "Israel and Nicaragua: Mapam Nails a Lie," Middle East International (London) November 9, 1984, p. I1...
...more is probably on the way in the near future...
...As columnist Smith Hempstone noted at the time, in the United Nations "you will find Nicaragua casting its ballot in support of Israel...
...Congress banned such aid between 1974 and 1985.' In addition, Central American governments see a close military relationship with Israel as a political asset in dealings with Washington...
...They would be providing cover for...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, Vol...
...The report stated that in addition to the weaponry, the Israelis have provided advice, particularly in intelligence and communication...
...I, no...
...Then U.S...
...One of them, Patricio Argiiello, was killed while participating in a PLO-directed hijacking in Europe in 1970.'0 The Sandinista-PLO relationship, however, has not led Nicaragua to express a strong interest in the Middle East, nor has it precluded seeking to re-establish diplomatic relations with Israel, severed in 1982 due to Israel's invasion of Lebanon...
...The Israelis have turned the congressional restrictions on sales upside down, arguing that U.S...
...The matter was settled with little fanfare...
...Clarence Lusane, "Washington's Proxy: Israeli Arms in Central America," Covert Action (Washington, D.C...
...6 Shortly after taking office in 1981, President Reagan approved Israel's request to sell 12 Kfirs to Ecuador at an estimated purchase price of $196 million.' Forty-eight of the 56 Kfir jet fighters exported by Israel have gone to Latin American air forces-12 to Colombia and 24 to Venezuela.' K FIR SALES TO CENTRAL AMERICA HAVE been in the works since 1979, when arms trade analysts noted Guatemala's interest...
...That is what they did in Guatemala...
...Costa Rica has long maintained good relations with Israel...
...Costa Rica and Guatemala abstained...
...Israeli Foreign Affairs, Vol.2, no...
...Oliver North to National Security Adviser John Poindexter: DefMin Rabin sent his MilAide to see me with the following offer: The Israelis wd be willing to put 2050 Spanish military trainers/advisors into the DRF [Democratic Resistance Force] if we want this to happen...
...It is located in Guanacaste province, along the Nicaraguan border-a scene of high contra activity...
...E MJ and MG MARCHIAPRIL 1987 e KEl Salvador as a gesture of thanks to that country for...
...Jerusalem Post, November 11, 1986...
...Mark Hewish, et al., Air Forces of the World: An Illustrated Directory of All the World's Military Powers (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), p. 46...
...planes-in case Congress blocked the Honduran purchase...
...Meanwhile, Israel took stands against Nicaragua at the United Nations...
...In late 1984, Nicaragua's vice-president, Sergio Ramfrez, declared that his country was prepared to reassess its relations with Israel...
...Yet as early as 1982, Israel and the Reagan Administration were urging Costa Rica to arm itself, with some apparent success...
...5 6 Financing apparently comes from AID and Israel provides the advisers...
...The resolution passed by a vote of 96 to 3. On December 5, in an 88 to 2 General Assembly vote calling on the United States to immediately revoke its trade embargo against Nicaragua, Israel alone supported the U.S...
...All the countries of Latin America shun [Nicaragua] because of its foreign policy and domestic regime...
...Through the private sector think-tank, the Salvadorean Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUSADES), Israelis provide advice on processing melons and watermelons for export...
...2, no...
...Austin American-Statesman, February 14, 1983...
...Those negotiations were blocked because of U.S...
...Arnson, New Outlook, p. 22...
...Getting Down to Business 1. Section 660 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974 prohibited aid to foreign police forces, intelligence operations and penal systems...
...Kaufman, "View From Jerusalem," p. 47...
...Israeli savoirfaire clearly commands the respect of 29 MARCHIAPRIL 1987The Israeli Connection 30MARCH/APRtL 1987 MARCH/APRIL 1987 30 some within the Salvadorean armed forces...
...23 Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon visited Tegucigalpa in December 1982, raising speculation that another arms sale to Honduras was imminent...
...But Arroyot's first project in El Salvador involves raising geese, destined for patd de foie gras and smoked goose...
...In addition to the fighter jets, over the course of the 1970s Honduras purchased from Israel three Arava transport planes, a Westwind jet, Galil automatic rifles, Uzi submachine guns, 14 RBY Mk armored cars, 106-mm mortars and five rapid patrol boats...
...That same month Peres wrote to Col...
...In the regime's final months, Israel provided 98% of Somoza's military supplies, estimated at $250 million...
...Israeli security assistance has thus been limited...
...English, Armed Forces, p. 411...
...In early 1985, deputy minister of defense for public security, Colonel Carlos Reynaldo L6pez Nuila, "travelled to Israel where he reportedly explored the possibility of Israeli training for internal security forces...
...experience in Vietnam, Ochoa replied, "They lost...
...Israel has, according to Edy Kaufman, engaged in the training and reorganization of Costa Rica's national police...
...Adrian English, Armed Forces of Latin America (London: Jane's Publishing Co., 1984), pp...
...Ochoa has commented that he favors an "Israeli solution" to what he sees as Nicaraguan support for Salvadorean guerrillas...
...The Israeli-U.S.-Costa Rican settlement program fits nicely into Washington's attempt to encircle Nicaragua...
...The Kfir-C2-Kfir means young lion in Hebrew-is the "most sophisticated fighter ever manufactured in a developing country...
...Then Deputy Security Minister of Costa Rica, Johnny Campos, admitted that Israel was helping train Costa Ricans in intelligence matters, although he denied any other kind of military assistance...
...A 1983 agreement between El Salvador and Israel, providing for the relocation of the Salvadorean Embassy in Israel to Salvadorean soldiers guarding highway Jerusalem, also discussed further Israeli military aid to El Salvador...
...FBIS-ME-A, October 27, 1982, 1-17...
...20 (Winter 1984), p. 35...
...having moved its embassy to Jerusalem in 1984...
...Each blames the other for dealing with its mortal enemy...
...The Tower Commission mentions a May 8, 1986 memo from Lt...
...WITH MOST MILITARY HARDWARE COMing from the United States, Israel's role in El Salvador in the 1980s has shifted from munitions supplier to a more refined involvement in counterinsurgency...
...President Monge (1982-1986) was formerly his country's ambassador to Israel...
...One European diplomat told Reuters that other governments had been reluctant to offer such technical assistance for that reason...
...2 0 The problem arose when Israel, by failing to inform the State Department that the Dassaults had been outfitted with U.S.-made Pratt and Whitney engines, "violated U.S...
...London's Latin America Newsletters reported in 1984 that in an area along the Costa Rican border, the civil guard "has adopted Galil rifles and Uzi sub-machine guns as its official arms...
...SRAEL'S ARMS SALES TO NICARAGUA AND other Central American nations remained relatively noncontroversial until Nicaragua's Sandinista guerrilla movement (FSLN) gained momentum in its struggle to oust General Anastasio Somoza Debayle.' The savagery exhibited by Somoza's National Guard after the SepSalvadorean soldiers tember 1978 insurrection focussed international scrutiny on human rights violations, prompting Washington to ban further weapons shipments...
...He sold us arms...
...Hect6r Franc6s, "The War of Terror Against Nicaragua," The Black Scholar, Vol...
...Air Force Commander Rafael Bustillo admitted in 1984 that the Salvadorean military had purchased napalm from Israel which was used in El Salvador for a number of years, at least until 1981...
...Israel's Ambassador to El Salvador, Aryeh Amir, confirmed that Israeli community-development assistance would be channeled through the governmental Directorate of Community Development (DIDECO...
...1, no...
...The Americans know nothing...
...Colonel Sigifredo Ochoa P6rez credits his training by Israelis in both Israel and El Salvador in the mid-1970s for his military development...
...For Ochoa, Nicaragua would become the Central American Lebanon...
...aid to the contras...
...Over a period spanning more than two decades, Israel sold tanks, light aircraft, armored cars, automatic rifles and ammunition to the Nicaraguan armed forces...
...Agency for International Development (AID) agreed to finance Israeli agricultural technicians in El Salvador...
...Newsweek, October 8, 1984, p. 17...
...In addition to selling arms, Israel has assisted in a number of other military and security-related capacities...
...Though the issue remained high on the Israeli agenda, it did not resurface until last year...
...Dallas Morning News, January 21, 1985...
...New York Times, December 17, 1982...
...2 (March/April 1983), p. 12...
...Congressional aides acknowledge "that delivery of aircraft to Honduras could be the first calculated step of a U.S...
...7 In his book With the Contras, former Washington Post reporter Christopher Dickey notes that even as they scurried to leave Nicaragua in July 1979, the Guard "looked nothing so much as Israeli soldiers, with their Israeli Galil rifles, and for those who had not thrown them away, their Israeli paratrooper helmets...
...SIPRI Yearbook 1980, p. 97...
...Israeli social scientist Edy Kaufman comments that "the first arms negotiation with El Salvador [1973] preceded the announcement of the first exchange of embassies in Jerusalem and San Salvador by half a year...
...In an apparent effort to compensate for this $150 million loss and to appease Israel's congressional friends, the president raised Israel's 1978 U.S...
...1, no...
...The Nicaraguan government, on the other hand, finds it difficult to extend an olive branch to a country providing crucial assistance to forces which keep the country in a state of war...
...7. Miami Herald, November 18, 1978...
...5 (April 1985), p. 6. 46...
...Israel's delivery of 12 refurbished Dassault SuperMystire "fighter-interceptors" in 1977 provided Honduras with Central America's first supersonic bombers.' 9 The jet-fighter purchase was not Honduras' first from Israel, but it raised a few eyebrows in Washington...
...But Somoza had also bestowed latter-day favors on Israel...
...The point of concentrating troops would be to prevent the Sandinista Popular Army--once having forced it into armed confrontations-from being able to carry out strategically critical maneuvers within Costa Rican territory in its own legitimate self-defense...
...six Fouga Magister trainer planes...
...The Sandinistas impressed upon their guests the importance they attached to Israel's arms supplies to the contras, and they said this was one reason for Nicaragua's anti-Israel stance at international forums...
Vol. 21 • March 1987 • No. 2
