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http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-05-29T122419Z_01_L29367736_RTRUKOC_0_US-ISRAEL-NATO.xml

Israel tightens NATO ties amid Iran nuke jitters
Mon May 29, 2006 8:24am ET
By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel announced on Monday it would fully
participate in a NATO naval exercise for the first time, bolstering
defense ties with the Western military alliance in the face of arch-foe
Iran's nuclear program.

Israeli military officials said the exercise, dubbed Cooperation Mako,
would take place next month in the Black Sea and involve simulated
combat between missile boat fleets as well as search-and-rescue drills.

"This marks the first time a unit of the Israel Navy will fully
participate in an operational NATO exercise," said an Israeli military
statement. Israel had previously held only observer status in such
maneuvers.

Alon Ben-David, Israel analyst for Jane's Defense Weekly, said
Cooperation Mako aimed mainly to improve NATO security missions in the
Mediterranean and that Israel was especially interested in combined air
force exercises.

"Given Israel's strategic reality, it is crucial to be part of a
defensive coalition," Ben-David said.

Israel, Algeria and Morocco agreed in April to join NATO
counter-terrorist patrols along their shores.

Ben-David noted Israel has stepped up its cooperation with foreign
military forces as part of preparations for a possible showdown with
Iran, whose nuclear program and calls for the Jewish state's
elimination have raised concern in the West.

Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil exporter, says it seeks nuclear
technology for energy needs only.

Some Western officials have speculated that Israel would eventually
apply to join NATO's 26 member-states. "If Iran feels that Israel is
.... in the pact, it will behave differently," former Spanish Prime
Minister Jose Maria Aznar said in March.

But full membership is seen as unlikely in Israel, given its tradition
of going it alone on matters of top military priority.

Believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, Israel sent
warplanes to bomb Iraq's atomic reactor in 1981 and has not ruled out
similar action against Iran. For now, though, it backs U.S.-led efforts
to defuse the dispute with diplomacy.

"A defense pact has advantages and disadvantages," Israel's military
chief, Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, told the Yedioth Ahronoth
newspaper this month. "Under a NATO pact, every decision would require
consensus of 26 nations."

President Bush has pledged to defend Israel should it come under
Iranian attack. Some analysts interpreted the statement as an
admonition to Israel from its chief ally not to launch a preemptive
strike on Iran unilaterally.


Jan Rasmussen