Bush pressured Israel to seize Chinese aircraft

December 29, 2004

Some media sources are reporting that Israel is facing a diplomatic crisis over a number of "Harpy" unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) purchased by the People's Republic of China in the 1990s and returned to Israel for upgrades.

China and the United States are major trading partners with Israel, but discussions to resolve the incident in the Israeli Knesset were muted by a security blackout and delayed by the exit of four Knesset members in protest.