Israel wants Berlin to finance two new warships

The Local - GERMANY'S NEWS IN ENGLISH ^ | 23 Oct 09 | The Local

[wolf78]

Israel is hoping to order two modern German-made warships without paying for them, daily Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Friday.

Sources within the German government told the paper that Israel wants the Berlin to finance the MEKO corvettes, a sum that would reportedly reach hundreds of millions of euros.

The paper reported that the government has not yet reacted to Israel’s request. But “influential politicians from northern Germany,” where the shipbuilding industry is suffering from the global economic downturn, are apparently supportive in the interest of keeping German shipyards in business.

[wolf78]

In other news: Sub order: Israel to ask for German cash

[knarf]

This is a weird report

[Your6]

Strange, if not the strangest bed fellows ever!

[wolf78]

This is a weird report

Yeah, it's been mangled by translation. What I get from German news is the following:

Israel wants an additional submarine and two MEKO (Mehrzweck-Kombination / multi-purpose combination) corvettes, after the LCS deal with the US became to expensive. Right now they are probably shopping for the best price / package deal. They could either build the corvettes in Israel, or have them build in Germany, where the shipbuilding industry is suffering from the economic crisis and state aid is likely. Most likely it's gonna be a package deal among friends (buy one SSK, get a corvette for free or something like that).

[wolf78]

Strange, if not the strangest bed fellows ever!

Strange bedfellows since 1960.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

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[SonOfDarkSkies]

Definitely a confusing report.

Financing the ships (i.e. loaning Israel the funds with which to purchase the ships) is not the same thing as making an outright gift of them to Israel.

[gogogodzilla]

That’s pretty sharp.

I guess they figured if FIAT can get a US automaker for free... that they can ask for a few free warships.

So politicians can claim they saved their constituents jobs, of course.

:-P

[Rummenigge]

Anyhow - I’d rather by Thyssen Stocks then FIAT.

[Jewbacca]

“Financing the ships (i.e. loaning Israel the funds with which to purchase the ships) is not the same thing as making an outright gift of them to Israel.”

Correct. More a a no-money-down purchase.