The Lavi project

The Lavi project is one of the most extravagant and wasteful deals the U.S. government carried out with Israel. The aircraft had no value whatever to U.S. defense needs and was built strictly for Israeli purposes, but the U.S. Treasury financed 90 percent of its total $1.5 billion price tag.

Israel turned the U.S. $1.5 billion boondoggle into a bonanza of at least $5 billion for its own coffers, and in the process bit hard the American hand that has been feeding Israel so generously for 40 years. The stolen technology will give China a decided edge over nearby Russia. It will also complicate America's long-standing mission to protect the security of South Korea and Japan.

Confronted recently about the secret and unlawful sale to China, the late Prime Minister Rabin answered limply: "I believe we can explain that."

Even though Yitzhak Shamir, leader of the Likud party, was prime minister when the duplicity began, Rabin could hardly claim innocence. He served Shamir as defense minister while the technology transfer was underway. As former chief of staff of Israeli military services and thoroughly experienced in Israel's intelligence activity, Rabin would almost certainly have been aware of the project.

In selling the technology to China, Israel violated a solemn agreement with the U.S. government. The United States gave the secret technology to Israel during its costly and ill-fated plan to produce a new fighter named the Lavi. It was donated under severe restrictions. The technology could be used only on the Lavi project and under no circumstances transferred to another government.

Midway in the ill-fated Lavi project, U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall offered an amendment to eliminate $250 million in funding, arguing that U.S. financing made no sense. If successful, the Lavi would be a direct competitor to the U.S. aircraft industry and take jobs from American workers. Rahall received the support of 39 other congressmen but that constituted less than ten percent of those voting. In a telling demonstration of the efficiency of the U.S. lobby for Israeli interests, those who voted for the Rahall amendment were thoroughly hassled by pro-Israel constituents.

The Lavi affair is not the first time Israel has sold secret U.S. technology to a potentially unfriendly power. Shamir transferred secret data to the Soviet Union that naval intelligence employee Jonathan Pollard, Israel's paid spy, had stolen from U.S. Defense Department files. Shamir made the transfer in an attempt to persuade the Soviet Union to release more Soviet Jews to Israel.


nice going america, just keep bending over for dear ol' Israel