Up in Arms

By MICHAEL DUFFY.

Considering the closeness of the two allies, the tactics seemed abrupt and heavy-handed. Twenty witnesses, including eight Israeli government purchasing agents, were hit with federal court subpoenas. U.S. Customs Service agents searched three American businesses. The Israeli Ambassador to Washington was summoned to the State Department, while in Jerusalem, the U.S. Ambassador hand-delivered a letter to Prime Minister Shimon Peres detailing the allegations: Israel was under investigation for illegally attempting to acquire U.S. machinery to manufacture cluster bombs, the deadly weapons that open in midair to spew out hundreds of dartlike bomblets. The U.S. prohibited the sale of cluster bombs to the Jerusalem government in 1982 during Israel's invasion of Lebanon.

Israeli leaders, stung both by the diplomatic exchanges and the press leaks that quickly followed, angrily protested. "I'm amazed at all the noise that's being made," said Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin. "All we asked for, and we did so in the most formal manner, was industrial equipment." Israel had done everything by the book, said Rabin, including applying for U.S. export licenses. Furthermore, the Israelis appeared to suggest U.S. law prohibits export only of bomb components, not bomb-manufacturing technology. The distinction was lost on U.S. arms-export authorities. "The Israelis are trying to tap dance around the regulations," said one.

The unusual recriminations may have grown out of the strain placed on the two nations by the case of Jonathan Pollard, a Navy analyst who spied for Israel and whose confession last month strongly suggested the existence of an Israeli spy network in the U.S. The charges last week also marked the fourth time in 14 months that the U.S. has announced probes of illicit arms buying involving Israel or its citizens. In May 1985 prosecutors in Los Angeles discovered a plot for smuggling to Israel high-speed electronic switches, known as krytons, that can act as triggers for nuclear weapons. Last December the U.S. Customs Service charged that Israel had tried to acquire U.S. technology illegally to extend the life of tank gun barrels. In April a Customs sting operation snared Avraham Bar-Am, a retired Israeli army general, and 16 others in an alleged scheme to sell Iran more than $2 billion worth of American-made arms.

The leaks about the cluster-bomb case may also bespeak a deeper disagreement within the Reagan Administration over how to handle an ally's transgressions. The Justice Department has made little effort to conceal its irritation over the spy and smuggling cases. Federal investigators are still trying to question Pollard's contact, Israeli Air Force Colonel Aviam Sella, but Jerusalem will agree only if it is done in Israel and Sella is promised immunity. Justice officials also complain privately that cautious State Department officials have been protecting Israel by dragging its heels in each of the investigations. Nevertheless, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs Service, which is working with the Justice Department on the cluster-bomb probe, took pains to explain that the latest case was not politically motivated: "We don't target countries or individuals. We target violations." On its part, the State Department issued only a firm "no comment" about the cluster-bomb charges, "without in any way confirming . . . cases that may be under investigation by the Department of Justice."

For the moment, Israel too is stonewalling the investigation. Jerusalem has said that the purchasing officers in its New York City mission enjoy diplomatic immunity and need not testify before U.S. grand juries. Israel also rejected an American request to turn over documents to investigators. In an editorial last week, the Jerusalem Post argued that "Israel is entitled to special consideration from the U.S., even to the extent of benignly overlooking borderline Israeli activities in America." For years that appears to have been the view of the U.S. Government as well. But among at least some officials of the Administration, that policy may now have fallen out of favor.

With reporting by Robert Slater/Jerusalem and Bruce van Voorst/Washington