Troubles with a Prickly Ally

Shocks from Israel as Reagan tries to clarify his foreign policy

"They are trying to drive a wedge between us and the Arabs." That was the way one frustrated State Department spokesman summed up the latest dispute between the U.S. and its prickly ally in the Middle East. All week long, the Administration had been gearing up toward a formal announcement that the shipment of advanced F-16s to Israel, which had been embargoed after the attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor last month, would be resumed. In fact, some of the F-16s had been flown to...