Israel’s Arms
YOSSI MELMAN
SHMA.COM
Two separate episodes, which occurred in September 2009, can shed a light on Israel's policy of arms sales. The first was
the “secret” visit of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to Moscow to meet with Russian
leaders. Mr. Netanyahu discussed with his hosts
the Iranian nuclear program — which, understandably, is of deep concern to Israel — and
tried also to persuade them to reverse their decision to sell Tehran the Russian-made anti-aircraft missile defense S-300. The second episode
Israel realized that it had to develop its own small
military industry to ensure that its needs would be
met in the event of another arms embargo.
Yossi Melman, an Israeli writer
and commentator with the
Israeli daily Haaretz,
specializes in writing about
defense, intelligence, and
security matters.
was the visit of Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman to five major African nations. While
the proclaimed aim of his tour was the discussion of malnutrition, hunger, and disease in
Africa, Lieberman and his entourage dealt with
less humanitarian and elevated subjects and laid
the groundwork for future weapons deals.
The two episodes illustrate Israel’s problematic and controversial behavior: On the one hand
it is asking the world to take into consideration
its security needs. On the other hand Israel itself
shows no consideration of other nations’ concerns. Israel preaches morality, values, and
ideals, and it portrays itself as the only democracy in the Middle East. Yet behind the scenes it
is involved in murky and dubious arms deals.
The request that Russia refrains from selling
arms to Iran in particular demonstrates a measure of chutzpa and hypocrisy. Israel has surpassed Russia already in 2008 as the world’s
third largest arms exporter. Israel has (almost)
no inhibitions in selling weapons on the global
market. And, in fact, Israel ignored Russian
protests when it equipped the country of
Georgia with military hardware, technology,
and military training.
Nevertheless, one shouldn’t be so naïve as to
ask Israel to be an exception to the dominant
rule, or to become a role model. The dream and
aspiration of the founding fathers of the Jewish
state, rooted in the ideals of the prophets to become “a light to nations,” have long ago faded
and crashed on the hard surface of Middle East
political and military reality. But one might have
expected Israel to play down its rule in this shady
and dark business. Instead of showing some remorse and justifying its arms sales policy as a necessity, Israel prides itself on and boasts about
becoming a leading power in the field.
With arms sales of between $4–7 billion annually in the last five years, Israel positioned itself as the third largest arms exporter after the
U.S. and France, and before world powers such
as the U.K., Russia, China, or India.
It all started modestly and humbly. During
the first 20 years of its independence, Israel had
difficulties finding sources of military supplies
to satisfy its legitimate defense needs. After approval from the then Soviet dictator Joseph
Stalin, Czechoslovakia provided Israel with airplanes, weapons, and ammunition, which
turned the balance in Israel’s favor in its struggle against the Arab invading armies in the
1948–9 War of Independence. But once the
Soviet Union realized that Israel would not become another “socialist” satellite, it abandoned
Israel in the early 1950s and Israel was forced to
search for new suppliers. The West was a natural candidate. But having strong oil interests in
the Arab world, both the U.S. and Britain rejected Israeli appeals. Eventually, temporary and
limited mutual interests formed a French–Israeli
alliance. It lasted for more than a decade and resulted in the 1956 conspiracy (together with the
U.K.) to invade Egypt during the Suez War.
France continued the cooperation by providing
Israel with its nuclear reactor and weapons. But
the “Bridge over the Mediterranean,” as the
French–Israeli alliance was dubbed, ended after
Israel found itself in another round of war with
its Arab neighbors. France declared an arms
embargo on Israel in 1967 and refused to honor
its commitments.
The 1967 Six Day War turned out to be a
watershed in Israeli history for several reasons,
among them: a smashing victory over the Arab
states and the occupation of Arab territories, a
rise in economic prosperity, and the replacement of France with the U.S. as its major political patron and arms supplier. Still, Israel
realized that it had to develop its own small
military industry to ensure that its needs would
be met should an arms embargo recur.
Originally the aim was to research and develop
state-of-the-art sophisticated systems, enabling
the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to maintain a
