Dear Leading American Defense Contractor:
If we don’t get your product we will make an equivalent or better product ourselves. We will also sell such a product to other countries to recoup R&D costs.
Please respond appropriately.
Israel
“If we don’t get your product we will make an equivalent or better product ourselves. We will also sell such a product to other countries to recoup R&D costs.”
I worked for the American division of what was then Israel’s biggest defense contractor. Israel can manufacture everything that they get from the US. AS far as I’m aware there are coproduction agreements in place for all critical items. What they lack is scale and efficiency. If you’re building hundreds of something, like we do in the US, then each item is cheaper. American sales to Israel have several purposes. They increase the cost efficiency for when the US buys the same item. More was manufactured so the US price is cheaper. They support the Israeli economy by letting them spend less on defense so they can spend more on economic development. Before everyone gets hyper about that, the US is not being magnanimous. The stronger Israel is, the less the US has to spend in treasure and lives to keep peace in the world. We can argue whether that’s in US interests, but that’s the reason. I’d argue it is in our interest as conflicts, once started, tend to have a lot of spillover. For decades we supported Iran. When we had a sudden change in policy...thank you Carter...we ended up with the Ayatollah. We’re changing policy to support Islam now. HUGE mistake.
I think politics is as much about what’s fashionable as it is about morality and logic. Israel is suddenly unpopular because the US government was pro-Israel for so long, the Democrats had to come out against it as they had to pick up the Anti-Israel vote. The pro-Israel vote was on the Republican side so there was no point in being pro-Israel if you’re a Democrat. Hopefully, the fashion will change again soon. Out with ripped genes and tie-died jerseys and back to a suit and tie.
“If we don’t get your product we will make an equivalent or better product ourselves. We will also sell such a product to other countries to recoup R&D costs.
Please respond appropriately.”
That’s what Israel should have already been doing.
I would love to see Israel become completely self-suffient on their armament manufacturing. Do not depend on ANY nation to help you. Old America is gone—for a season.