Israel: Heavy Turbulence

If Israelis appear surprisingly calm about the possibility of an Iraqi missile attack, it is largely owing to their faith in the air force, the elite military branch. Last week that trust was deeply shaken when air force Brigadier General Rami Dotan, former chief of logistics and Israel's leading expert on aircraft engines, started talking about his role in the biggest bribery scandal ever to rock the defense establishment.

Dotan, who was arrested in October after a lengthy investigation, has allegedly confessed to pocketing more than $10 million in kickbacks, bribes and fictitious charges from American and Israeli defense firms over an eight- year period. Four other Israelis, including the air force's chief quartermaster, have also been detained.

The government says the money was siphoned from the hefty military aid that Washington gives Israel ($1.8 billion this year), and officials fear the scandal will further strain relations with the U.S. Others have called for air force chief Major General Avihu Bin-Nun's resignation. For now, that seems unlikely, especially given the gulf crisis. In an apologetic letter to his staff last week, Bin-Nun wrote, "I trusted Rami Dotan in exactly the same way that I would trust the aircraft technician from whom I receive a plane before a flight."