A decade later, Israeli fears appear to have proved well-founded. America will not look kindly on Israel's development of a remarkable new military capability at such a delicate stage in the peace process. It makes it that much harder to get non-proliferation to stick in the Middle East. Despite a good personal relationship between Clinton and Ehud Barak, the Israeli prime minister, relations between the two countries have soured in recent weeks. On top of reports of the extraordinary extent of Israeli espionage in Washington, Israel's proposed sale of the spy plane to China has outraged American congressmen.
China has an option for three more such planes.
Relations have been strained further by other Israeli missile tests conducted without advance warning to the Pentagon. Last month the American navy criticised Israel for test-launching a Jericho ballistic missile off its coast in April when an American warship in the vicinity momentarily thought it was under attack. Pentagon officials said the missile landed about 40 miles from the warship.