Libya may have agreed to neutralize its threat to Israel and world peace, but now Israel is facing trouble from Saudi Arabia. The desert kingdom has launched a project to develop and expand the King Faisal Air Base in Tabuk, near the Israeli border - and the Bush Administration has lifted restrictions on the plan.
The United States had long pledged Israel to prevent modern Saudi jets, flown by US-trained pilots, to use the Tabuk air base. Now, however, the aircraft will be permitted to deploy there, Middle East Newsline reports, thus placing Israel in direct danger.
One scenario feared by Israeli officials is a 9/11-type attack into an Israeli skyscraper. Three months ago, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon warned of plans by Al-Qaeda to hijack a Saudi Arabian F-15E fighter jet and crash it into a major office tower in Israel, only about 200 kilometers from Tabuk. Israel's southern port of Eilat is only 150 kilometers from Tabuk. The Saudis flew some 50 jets to Tabuk this past March, and refused to return them to their bases in eastern and central Saudi Arabia.
Yaalon said in September that Israel has raised the issue with the United States, which sold Saudi Arabia the F-15s in 1982 and 1995. In 1978, then-Defense Secretary Harold Brown pledged to Congress that Saudi Arabia would not base the F-15 aircraft at Tabuk.
The American restrictions were apparently lifted in early 2003, allowing the Saudi air force to deploy its fleet of F-15 fighter jets anywhere in the kingdom. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld explained that the decision was based on the Saudi need to defend its air space amid the deterioration of its aging F-5 and Tornado fleets.
The United States had long pledged Israel to prevent modern Saudi jets, flown by US-trained pilots, to use the Tabuk air base. Now, however, the aircraft will be permitted to deploy there, Middle East Newsline reports, thus placing Israel in direct danger.
One scenario feared by Israeli officials is a 9/11-type attack into an Israeli skyscraper. Three months ago, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon warned of plans by Al-Qaeda to hijack a Saudi Arabian F-15E fighter jet and crash it into a major office tower in Israel, only about 200 kilometers from Tabuk. Israel's southern port of Eilat is only 150 kilometers from Tabuk. The Saudis flew some 50 jets to Tabuk this past March, and refused to return them to their bases in eastern and central Saudi Arabia.
Yaalon said in September that Israel has raised the issue with the United States, which sold Saudi Arabia the F-15s in 1982 and 1995. In 1978, then-Defense Secretary Harold Brown pledged to Congress that Saudi Arabia would not base the F-15 aircraft at Tabuk.
The American restrictions were apparently lifted in early 2003, allowing the Saudi air force to deploy its fleet of F-15 fighter jets anywhere in the kingdom. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld explained that the decision was based on the Saudi need to defend its air space amid the deterioration of its aging F-5 and Tornado fleets.