Saudi crown prince meets Putin, foresees arms deal

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz(R) is greeted by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. The two leaders held talks expected to pave the way for the first purchase of Russian weapons by the kingdom.(AFP/POOL/Dmitry Astakhov)

"Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz held talks here Friday with President Vladimir Putin expected to pave the way for the first purchase of Russian weapons by the kingdom, a close US ally."

The Saudis may have some short-comings but they are not stupid.

Israel could get U.S.-made F-35 jets by 2012: report

Whatever Israel wants - Israel gets, and that's a "low-down dirty shame." You know, it doesn't really matter what type of aircraft you fly if you have no where to land them. I would think that Israeli runways, air-strips and other "landing zones," would be among the first things targeted by Syrian and Iranian missiles. Unless Israeli pilots have figured out how to land a jet fighter on the surface of the ocean, they are in deep sh*t.

Reuters, JERUSALEM - Oct 25, 2007

The United States has brought forward a planned sale of advanced F-35 warplanes to Israel as part of efforts by the two allies to maintain a military advantage over Iran, an Israeli newspaper reported on Thursday.

Quoting unnamed defense officials, The Jerusalem Post said the Pentagon had agreed to supply the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Israel as early as 2012, when the U.S. air force is scheduled to receive the first of the supersonic, radar-evading jets.

Israel, which is not among eight countries partnered with Washington in producing the F-35, had been expected to get the plane in 2014 or 2015. Its buying rights were briefly suspended during Pentagon protests over Israeli defense exports to China.

Israel is building up its arsenal for a possible showdown with arch-foe Iran, which the United States accuses of seeking nuclear weapons. Iran insists its atomic ambitions are peaceful.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak got U.S. agreement to accelerate the F-35 sale during talks with Pentagon chief Robert Gates in Washington last week.

"This plane can fly into downtown Tehran without anyone even knowing about it since it can't be detected on radar," the conservative daily quoted a defense official as saying.

Barak further overcame some U.S. objections to Israel installing its own technology on the F-35, a major point of contention in past talks, the Jerusalem Post said.

Israel's Defense Ministry and the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv had no immediate comment on the report.

Assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, Israel has hinted it could resort to preemptive strikes to prevent Iran from acquiring the bomb. Israel believes Iran could begin making nuclear weapons by 2010. Western intelligence agencies say it would take several years longer.

Why Israel Is Backing the Saudi Arms Deal

By Robert Baer - July 31, 2007

Israel has come out in support of a multi-billion dollar U.S. arms deal to Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. I can't remember the last time Israel supported a deal like this. Probably because it never has. So what exactly is going on this time?

Earlier this month I was in Nablus, the most radicalized Palestinian town in the West Bank. The Israeli Defense Forces enter it only in force — and preferably in armor. I was standing in the main square when a disabled man on an all-terrain vehicle came weaving through traffic. He bounced across the curb in front of me to avoid a vendor's cart, shouting, "We need Hasan Nasrallah here to impose a little order."

I was surprised to hear Nasrallah's name evoked in Nablus. Nasrallah, the secretary general of Lebanon's Hizballah, is a radical Shi'a. Nablus is Sunni, with segments increasingly attracted to Hamas radicalism. I walked around Nablus's old bazaar conducting an impromptu poll. To a person, everyone admired Nasrallah, for how he had fought the Israelis to a standstill in last summer's 34-day war.

Just to make sure Nasrallah enjoyed the support he seemed to I asked the head of an Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade cell holed up in Nablus's Balata refugee camp. He is wanted by the Israelis, and constantly moves from house to house to avoid them. When he heard Nasrallah's name, he put his fingers to his lips. "I love that man," he said.

The point of all this is that Hasan Nasrallah and Hizballah are the creation of Iran, the tip of Iran's spear pointed at Israel's throat. If anyone still has any doubts about Nasrallah's standing with Iran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a "greeting card" to Nasrallah to mark the first anniversary of last year's war. As Ahmadinejad put it, "the wonderful victory of the Lebanese people over the Zionist occupiers is a result of faith, unity, and resistance."

It's Nasrallah and Iran, then, that moved Israel to break with a 60-year policy of opposing arms sales to the Arabs.

And the Israelis make no bones about how we got here: the Bush Administration completely botched the Iraq invasion, allowing Iran to effectively annex Basra and a large part of southern Iraq. The Israelis' nightmare is that there will be some sort of domino effect, the Iranians moving down the Arab side of the Gulf.

The Israelis also believe the Iraq fiasco emboldened Iran to incite its Palestinian allies. Israel holds Iran at least partially responsible for Hamas's coup in Gaza. An Administration official, speaking privately, agrees. Today, Iranian couriers cross the border from Egypt into Gaza daily carrying bags of money to keep Hamas afloat.

The Israelis want to stop Nasrallah, Hizballah and Iran from making serious inroads into the West Bank. What keeps them awake at night is Iran in the Gulf. If it means our arming Israel's historical enemies, the Gulf Arabs, so be it.

Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East, is TIME.com's intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and, most recently, the novel Blow the House Down.