TV REVIEW : ‘Frontline’ Examines Arms Ties Between U.S., Israel

Leslie and Andrew Cockburn, journalists who have dared go where others fear to tread, are at it again.

In the past, they have helped blow the lid on the secret operations in Central America in which a lucrative international drug trade helped fund arms shipments to the Nicaraguan Contras. Leslie expanded on this report that aired on “West 57th” for her 1987 book, “Out of Control.”

Now, the Cockburns have turned their sights on another dimension of the Iran/Contra scandal. “Israel: The Covert Connection,” tonight’s edition of “Frontline” (9 p.m. on Channels 28 and 15, 10 p.m. on Channel 50), shows that the scandal’s revelations regarding Israel’s go-between role as an arms supplier to Iran were part of a larger pattern. Indeed, they represented the latest chapter in a long, Machiavellian history about how a superpower uses a client state--and vice-versa.

Above all, “Israel: The Covert Connection” recovers the increasingly lost art of investigative journalism, which “Frontline” once regularly practiced.

Part of that art is finding the truth behind official statements. In this case, David Kimche, former director general of Israel’s foreign ministry and an ex-Mossad (Israel’s CIA) official, sits in the hot seat. Kimche was the liaison between the Reagan White House and Israel, especially during the reported arms-for-hostages deal with Iran.

He denies that Israel’s worldwide arms network has supplied weapons for internal security to dictatorial regimes, such as Guatemala.

He denies that Israel has had official or unofficial advisers in Central America.

He refuses even to discuss the Iran arms shipments.

In each case, the Cockburns go out into the field and talk with the covert masterminds behind these and other operations who contradict Kimche’s claims.

Even more compellingly, an historical record is laid out, with the help of Israeli Gen. Matti Peled, professor Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi and other experts, that traces the development of foreign relations between the United States and Israel. Once distant, the two nations became extraordinarily intimate during the Kennedy Administration. An example cited here is how the CIA funded Israel’s covert activities in Africa during the 1960s, and how the $20-million-per-year operation helped train, among others, Idi Amin.