Israel's Supply Line

If the U.S. were to take the highly improbable step of suspending all military and economic aid to Israel, the cutoff would sap Israel's military strength, but only in the future. Thanks to past American generosity, Israel has enough made-in-U.S.A. weapons to maintain its siege of Beirut almost indefinitely.

Since Israel became a country in 1948, the U.S. has given $14.9 billion in military aid. About a third has been in the form of outright grants, the rest in loans that must be repaid within 30 years. Israel's formidable fighting machine includes an air force in which fully 85% of the 602 combat aircraft are American-built. Among them: 40 F-15 Eagles, 75 F-16 Fighting Falcons, 138 F-4E Phantoms and 246 A-4 Skyhawks.

On the ground, the Israeli army has more than 3,500 tanks, of which 1,460 are from the U.S.: 810 highly advanced M-60s and 650 M-48s. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon effectively used the U.S.-made Ml 13 armored personnel carriers, of which Israel has 4,000. Nearly 1,000 American artillery pieces, including 175-mm self-propelled guns and 155-mm and 203-mm self-propelled howitzers, provide 90% of the Israeli army's powerful punch. Both the air force and the army rely heavily on U.S. missiles. The crunch in any cutoff of military aid would come only when Israel began to run out of spare parts. Israel buys some $500 million worth of such spares each year.

Currently in the pipeline to Israel is about $1.5 billion in assorted hardware, including eleven new F-15s, 800 more M113 personnel carriers, 200 self-propelled howitzers, 200 improved Hawk antiaircraft missiles and some 1,000 Maverick and Sidewinder missiles. Overall, military aid to Israel this fiscal year is expected to total $1.4 billion. Of that amount, $850 million will be in loans. Congress is considering the Administration's request that Israel be given $1.7 billion in military aid for fiscal 1983, $1.2 billion of it in loans.

While Israeli military officials appreciate the help, some of them contend that the high cost of modern weapons rapidly consumes the U.S. funding that Israel gets. Nearly half of Israel's 1982 military aid from the U.S., for example, would buy and equip only 20 F-15 jet fighters.

Beyond military help, the U.S. has sent entirely as a grant $7.15 billion in economic aid to Israel since its founding, including $806 million in the current fiscal year. Almost all this aid now is used to repay the U.S. for previous military loans. The Administration proposes to give Israel $785 million in economic aid for 1983, but $260 million will have to be repaid at an interest rate of roughly 14%.

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