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Wikileaks Revelations Spotlight Israel’s Refusal of $1Billion Russian Offer; Arab Pressure to Strike Iran

While hundreds of thousands of documents leaked to Wikileaks are being sifted through, Israeli officials are holding their collective breath, wondering what revelations will be the next headline-grabbers. For Israelis, arguably the most interesting information to surface so far in the leaked documents is Israel’s refusal to accept Russia’s offer of $1 billion for Israeli drone technology. Part of that deal included a promise to cancel to S-300 missile sale to Iran, but the deal died because Israel feared the technology would find its way to China. Also featured in Israeli coverage of the Wikileaks revelations is the degree to which Arab states lobbied the United States to take military action against the Iranian nuclear program. According to documents, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain all pressured Washington to strike. Israeli officials were told that the Arab world wanted the U.S. and not Israel to carry out the strike. Of interest to both Israel and the Palestinians is the revelation that Israel was turned down by both the Palestinian Authority and Egypt when each was asked whether it would assume control of the Gaza Strip after Operation Cast Lead in January 2009. A cable reveals that Israel had tried to coordinate its military operation into the Gaza Strip with the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority and President Mubarak of Egypt. The White House was embarrassed by the revelation that one week after Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad promised the American administration he would not allow new arms to be shipped to Hizbullah in Lebanon, proof of new shipments reached Washington.