Posted on 10/20/2014 5:27:33 PM PDT by SJackson
TEL AVIV — The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to reduce military coproduction with the United States.
A leading Israeli analyst asserted that the Defense Ministry and the military agreed to reduce production of Israeli weapons and platforms in the United States. The analyst, Amir Rapaport, said the decision was based on the U.S. suspension of arms deliveries during the 50-day war with Hamas in July and August 2014.
“The Israeli defense establishment will reduce the production of weapon systems in the USA in the context of joint Israeli-American projects, and will rely more heavily on Israeli-made products,” Rapaport, editor of the authoritative Israel Defense magazine said. “Under a veil of secrecy, a decision has already been made at the Israeli Defense Ministry not to enable the production of at least one highly sensitive weapon system on U.S. soil, despite the fact that the manufacture of the said system in the USA may be funded through U.S. defense aid instead of being paid for in shekels with Israeli taxpayer money.”
Rapaport’s assertion was published on Oct. 16 on the eve of a visit by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to Washington. Ya’alon’s visit, hosted by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, was expected to focus on the U.S. weapons suspension, ordered by President Barack Obama.
“We mustn’t allow any disagreements to cast a pall over those interests and values,” Ya’alon said.
Israel, which receives $3.2 billion in annual American military aid, played down the U.S. suspension, saying it did not hamper the war against Hamas and its Palestinian militia allies in the Gaza Strip. But Rapaport, deemed close to the Defense Ministry and military, reported that the suspension marked a “major trauma in U.S.-Israel defense relations.”
“Things that had been taken for granted until Operation Protective Edge [the Gaza war], like the fact that Israel could always count on a U.S. airlift of ammunition in a time of trouble, are no longer certain at all,” Rapaport said.
As a result, the Defense Ministry and military plan to increase weapons production inside Israel. The plan envisioned the replacement of the U.S.-origin AGM-114 Hellfire missile with a model produced by Israel Aerospace Industries. During the war, Obama rejected an urgent Israeli request for Hellfires.
“Since Operation Protective Edge, Israeli defense industries have already received urgent procurement orders for arms and munitions worth billions of shekel,” Rapaport said. “This recent affair has led to a reassessment of the almost automatic reliance on an airlift of ammunition from the USA as a part of practically every wartime scenario.”
Hate say this I knew this was coming
A number of countries would love to sell arms to Israel.
Smart move on ISRAEL’S part .
Wonderful, thanks again Obama.
I know that some of the boots worn by IDF soldiers are made here in Michigan. Rick Snyder has spent a lot of time on trade deals with Israel.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Too bad, but it makes sense not to rely on US production.
Were the folks whose “uniquely national” potato food product we here In American chose to refer to as Freedom Fries...during the Gild War among those who chose to take retribution on us.... for out military participation in same? The French?
Hunter pointed to China hiking the prices on armor grade steel to the point where we had to scramble and find suppliers here (which was probably a good thing)
He also named Switzerland who stopped selling us some kind of computer chip needed for missile guidance.
I doubt boots will be in jeopardy. In fact Israel might replace critical weapons purchases with less critical supplies.
I vaguely remember that, more in the context of why were we buying critical components overseas in the first place.
I’m guessing Israel will try to keep buying from those of us they know are friendly.
China I get...
Switzerland....that escapes me.
Better late than never. A necessary decision when you’ve trusted your largest ally and it’s current “manchuristan candidate” administration arms supports and funds your enemies and cuts off your ammo right even you’re trying to defend yourself. O is an enemy to Jewish and Christian people everywhere.
Israel is missing a bet, here. While it should discontinue working with US defense corporations here, it should instead invite them to set up branch offices in Israel, freed from the constraints imposed on them in the US.
Lets see.
1. Truman arms embargoes them in the lead up to the 1947/8 war.
2. Eisenhower threatens economic sanctions and arms embargo in 1956 to force them to withdraw from Sinai.
3. Johnson arms embargoes them in the lead up to and during the 1967 War.
4. 1973 Nixon puts US nuke forces on alert in face of Soviet threat to intervene to save their Arab allies bacon...er sorry, the Arabs’ shawarma. (Yeah!)
5. 1973-1975: Gerald Ford threatens Israel unless it pulls back from the Sinai peninsula, captured in 1967.
6. 1981 Carter condemns Israel’s bombing of Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak.
7. 1982 Reagan outraged by Israeli bombing Beirut he pressures Israel into a ceasefire.
8.1990/91 Bush Sr. cuts Israel out of first Gulf War and demands they take Iraqi missile fire without retaliation so as not to upset Bush’s Arab allies.
9. 2009 Bush Jr speaks of the unbreakable bond between Israel and the U.S. deeper than any treaty, grounded in the shared link to the Bible. (Yeah!) Honestly, Bush Jr must a been thinking of Texas, not Washington DC.
10. Obama....I don’t even need to say a thing.
SOOOOOO......8 out of 10 times, Uncle Sam let the little fellas down.
Why are they trusting us with anything?
I thought Jewish guys were supposed to be smart.
Maybe with Obama, they are finally, finally wising up.
The Bible says the only way it ends is when the Israelis (and Israel’s God) kill so many Arabs that the Arabs beg them to stop.
Shalom boys. Shalom.
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