News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) The United States has agreed to provide Israel with more advanced "smart bombs" than those it plans to sell Saudi Arabia under a regional defense package, according to senior Israeli security sources on Sunday.

The Bush administration last year proposed supplying Gulf Arab states with some $20 billion in new weaponry, including Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb kits for the Saudis.  Israel supporters in Washington objected to the plan, saying the JDAMs may be used against the Jewish state, which has possessed the weapons since 1990 and used them extensively during the Second Lebanon War.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dropped Israel's objection to the Saudi deal in July after receiving a US military allowance of $30 billion over the next 10 years and assurances that future JDAM sales to Israel would include technology superior to that which would be offered to the Saudis. According to the Boeing Company, manufacturer of JDAMs, the newest kits include laser navigators and glide wings to enable jets to drop munitions from a distance of more than 40 miles from the target.