For Chinese Leader, Life’s a Kibbutz

Chinese President Jiang Zemin floated on the Dead Sea and munched seedless watermelon in a desert hothouse Friday, taking a break from the hoopla over a spy plane Israel is building for China.

Jiang politely brushed off reporters asking about the Russian-built transport plane being equipped by Israel Aircraft Industries with an advanced airborne early warning system at a cost of $250 million. Israel has said it will go ahead with the sale of at least one aircraft to China, despite U.S. objections.

“About the aircraft, we spoke on that yesterday, and there will be a contract. Let’s deal with life on the kibbutz,” Jiang said during a tour of Kibbutz Ein Gedi, a desert communal farm of 700 residents overlooking the Dead Sea.

Jiang, accompanied by Israeli President Ezer Weizman, began the third day of his six-day visit to Israel at Zohar, an experimental agricultural station near the communal farm of Neot Hakikar in the Jordan Valley.

After taking off his suit jacket and putting on a white baseball cap, Jiang toured hothouses where peppers, melons and house plants are grown with salty water--an Israeli design that could be the answer to making China’s deserts bloom.

Ron Schwartz, a local farmer, said Jiang was interested in the most minute detail. At one stop, he tasted a seedless watermelon. At another, the Chinese president picked up a red pepper with one hand and a yellow pepper with the other, and was told by his guides that the red ones were more popular with the customers.

After lunch, Jiang took a dip in the Dead Sea, where salt content is so high that bathers can float without effort. Wearing black swim shorts, a blue bathing cap and goggles, the president was helped into the water by security guards. He bobbed on the water for about 15 minutes and waved to a few tourists.

In the afternoon, Jiang visited Ein Gedi, waving to kibbutz children who shouted “Shalom, shalom” and held up Chinese flags.

Friday’s tour shifted attention away from the planned sale of the spy plane, a deal potentially worth $2 billion. Washington has said the sale could upset the military balance of power in Asia, at a time when tensions are rising between China and Taiwan.

Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said Friday that Israel was committed by contract to selling at least one plane equipped with the radar system to China.

The minister said that the contract allows for the delivery of three to seven additional planes, but that he understood this was only an option, for both sides.

Asked whether Israel has considered not selling the additional planes, Sneh said: “We consider very sincerely and seriously the concerns which we hear now from our friends, and good and true friends in the United States, and we would consider it.”