"Israel" Fears US Radar in Negev Will Expose Army

Source: Al-Manar TV, 03-10-2008

‘Israel' will install two massive radar antennae near the Dimona nuclear plant to bolster its defense measures against Iran, the Maariv newspaper reported on Friday.

The 400 meter-high antennae will be erected in the Negev desert near a top-secret military site where ‘Israel' is widely believed to have developed the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, the paper said.

An ‘Israeli' army spokesman said a new installation was being constructed but would not give further details, saying only that it was a "military facility serving current military activities."

The Dimona nuclear reactor is the source of plutonium for hundreds of ‘Israeli', if undeclared, nuclear weapons. Maariv said work on the twin masts, which would be the largest in the region, would begin in two weeks and would be completed in three months, but did not provide details on what the system would be used for.

The newspaper said the antennae were part of a massive new radar system that the United States will deploy in ‘Israel', a project announced by the Pentagon earlier this week.

The Pentagon was scheduled to deploy the radar to ‘Israel' in the autumn of 2009 for a joint exercise but moved it up a year following high-level talks in Washington. The United States deployed a similar radar to Japan in 2006 in response to a North Korean missile test.

Also known as X-Band, the AN/TPY2 radar is designed to track ballistic missiles through space and provide ground-based missiles with the targeting data needed to intercept them.

Data from the system will be provided to ‘Israel's' missile defense system, but the radar will remain owned and operated by the US military.

NOW WE ARE STANDING WITHOUT OUR CLOTHES IN FRONT OF THE U.S.

But ‘Israel' is wary of the deployment of the new US high-powered radar facility. "It's a like a pair of golden handcuffs on ‘Israel'," one top official told Time Magazine.

The magazine reported that Israeli army officials feared that although the radar would enhance Israel's protection against Iran, it might also reveal Israel's military secrets to the US.

The radar will allow the US to keep a close watch on anything moving in ‘Israeli' skies, "even a bee", a top ‘Israeli' official, who asked not to be identified, told Time. "Even a husband and wife have a few things they would like to keep from each other," said the official. "Now we're standing without our clothes on in front of America."

Time went on to say that ‘Israeli' officials had expressed concern that the radar might anger Moscow, since its range would allow the US to monitor aircraft over southern Russia, and might prompt Russia to supply Iran and Syria with its S-300 anti-aircraft missiles.

The magazine also reported that ‘Israeli' planning and air force officials expressed concern that Defense Minister Ehud Barak did not assess the radar's possible impact on ‘Israeli' army operations before approving it.

The magazine said that ‘Israeli' defense experts feared 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," said one senior official. "So why did we take this radar?"