[A-List] Israelis Wary of a US Radar Base in the Negev

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1846749,00.html>
Thursday, Oct. 02, 2008
Israelis Wary of a US Radar Base in the Negev
By Tim McGirk and Aaron J. Klein / Jerusalem

When a contingent of U.S. soldiers opens a radar facility on a
mountaintop in the Negev desert next month, Israel will for the first
time in its 60-year history have a permanent foreign military base on
its soil. And despite the early warning that the American radar would
provide if Iran launches a missile attack on Israel, some senior
Israeli officials are nonetheless wary about its presence. Complained
one top official, "It's a like a pair of golden handcuffs on Israel."

>From its mountain perch in Har Keren, the U.S. radar will be able to
monitor the take-off of any aircraft or missile up to 1,500 miles away
— giving Israel a vital extra 60-70 seconds to react if Iran fired a
missile, Israeli military sources told TIME. Israel has its own radar
system trained on Iran, but it's range is much shorter. Still, some
see several drawbacks for Israel in the radar, and blame Defense
Minister Ehud Barak for requesting its deployment in Israel without
consulting anyone other than his chief of staff. Some in the upper
echelons of the Israeli Defense Force fear that although the radar
will enhance Israel's protection against Iran, it may also open up
Israel's own military secrets to the Americans.

The radar will allow the U.S. to keep a close watch on anything moving
in Israeli skies, "even a bee", says one top Israeli official who
asked not to be identified. The U.S. may be a close ally, but Israel
nonetheless has aviation secrets it would rather not share. "Even a
husband and wife have a few things they'd like to keep from each
other," explains this source. "Now we're standing without our clothes
on in front of America."

Israel will have no direct access to the data collected by the radar,
which looks like a giant taco. It will only be fed intelligence second
hand, on a need-to-know basis, from the Americans — unless the radar
picks up an immediate, direct attack on Israel, Israeli sources claim.
And Israeli officials expressed concern that the radar's installation
may anger Moscow, since its range will enable the U.S. to monitor
aircraft in the skies over southern Russia. When the U.S. stationed
anti-missile radar and interceptor systems in Poland and the Czech
Republic — ostensibly directed at a future Iranian threat, although
the Russians believe their own missile capability is its real target —
Moscow warned those countries that the move could result in their
being added to the target list of Russia's missiles.

Israeli military sources say that Barak requested the radar from U.S.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in July, after U.S. requests to
station such a system in Turkey and Jordan were rejected. Barak was
eager to acquire the advantage of the early warning that the system
would provide in the event of a possible Iranian attack. But with the
Russians already peeved at Israel for having had military advisers
inside Georgia when war broke out over South Ossetia, the radar's
deployment in Israel, say officials, might make Moscow even more
likely to supply Iran and Syria with its highly-accurate SA300
anti-aircraft missile batteries.

The top-secret X-band radar will be staffed by around 120 American
technicians and security guards in the Negev, say Israeli military
sources. But Israeli planning and air force officials are perturbed
that Defense Minister Barak did not carry out any evaluation og the
radar's possible impact on Israeli military operations before
approving it. For one thing, Israeli defense experts are worried that
waves from the X-band radar might throw off the accuracy of a new Gil
anti-tank missile also being tested in the Negev. "The Bush
Administration is in the mood to give us anything, as long as we don't
attack Iran," gripes one senior official. "So why did we take this
radar?"