Posted on 10/25/2009 3:44:17 AM PDT by wolf78
BERLIN, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Germany has been asked to help fund yet another submarine for the Israeli navy.
Jerusalem plans to order another submarine of the Dolphin class from German Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG and has asked the German government to subsidize the order, German news magazine Der Spiegel reports.
Berlin has helped Israel pay for five previously ordered submarines. The first two (named Dolphin and Leviathan) were a gift by Germany after it surfaced that German companies were involved with Iraq's chemical weapons program.
To save the orders and jobs for the German shipyards, Chancellor Helmut Kohl decided to pay for the first two subs with tax money and subsidize half of the third model, named Tehumah.
When Israel decided to order two more subs, Berlin chipped in a third of those costs as well. Those two submarines -- No. 4 and No. 5 -- were delivered last month. They are upgraded versions of the original Dolphin and feature an air-independent propulsion system.
Now No. 6 is ready to be ordered, and Israel is due to ask Berlin to shoulder at least part of the estimated $750 million price tag. In Germany, critics of the Israeli submarine deal fear that the vessels could be used to fire nuclear warheads. Observers nevertheless expect Berlin to subsidize the order.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
ping
I don’t get it. Why is Germany paying for Israel’s submarines?
Don’t tell me German is playing Reaganomics!
huh? why should germany pay for Israeli submarines? i don´t get it. the military industry not interested in making profit any more???
There are 6 million reasons.
why aren’t they buying ours?
Ohhhh, guilt. That is pretty funny.
There are 6 million reasons.
oh come on. if this would be the normal case then every country in this world would have to pay reperations or “support” other nations forever. while the holocaust still was horrible it was not the first genocide and definitelly will not be the last genocide or horrible event in this world. so does this mean japan can now ask the US to pay for nuking them? can the french demand money because they helped in the independence war, or the indians for that “little” genocide the europeans brought them? blacks because of slavery...? the list goes on and on. if the german politicians really do this because of the sins of their for forefathers as you assume then they are just idiots! (at least in my personal impression) and if i would be a german citizen i would not vote a politician who is willing to give away my hard earned money because of something that happened long long ago before i was born.
oh i have spoken enought germans to know that most of them do not support handing over their tax money to israel because of this right now in 2009. maybe correct that many germans would not state this in public especially politicians (really don´t know why but at the end fine for me because it´s their money the government flushes down the toilet). if german politician still are willing to hand over money to Israel just only for not beeing called Nazis from other politicians who have like them not even been born in 1945 it´s ok for me. (but still crazy in my personal impression). i can only thank god that my country (Austria) isn´t stupid like that. so now i may be called a Nazi or an anti semite (”which i´m not” btw. this movement died in 1945) but at least my money stays home. and i have to say i have no problem with this fact nor feel i guilty for anything that happened even before my parrents have been born.
You're quite correct on the primary two reasons, but a third reason is that given fairly recent history we wouldn't be confident some of our submarine technology wouldn't then end up in the hands of the Chinese.
1)Germany supported Iraq under Hussein with weapon programs
2)Germany did not want to be tortured with its history again
3)Labor for the military industry
Do you want to make fun of their Navy with a big fat US made sub stuck in the Suez Canal (Well, could our subs swim through it?) :)
Plus Israel does not need nuclear power since they only have to care about potential enemies just far enough with conventional submarines to swim inside Middle East region. They are not going to need long journey swimming around the world like US and Russia. Plus conventional submarines are sometimes much more quiet than nuclear powered submarines.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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