Israel’s Rafael wins $30 million maintenance support contract from an Asian Navy

Israel’s Rafael wins $30 million maintenance support contract from an Asian Navy

Rafael wins maintenance contract from Asian Navy: Israeli defence company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. is announcing that it has won a new contract with an Asian nation to provide comprehensive maintenance support services for operational systems employed by its navy, the company announced on Wednesday (August 9). The multi-year agreement is estimated at 100 million Shekels (30 million…

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-Photograph Source: Matt Hrkac from Melbourne, Australia – CC BY 2.0 In December 2022, the Victorian government quietly signed a deal with Israel's Defense Ministry, sparking controversy. While the government claims it's for economic benefits and job creation, critics argue it supports Israel's military policies and ignores human rights concerns.   No official record of the deal exists on Victorian government websites, but it's listed on the Australian government's registry. This lack of transparency fuels suspicion, especially considering Israel's history of using military technology for controversial purposes. One key player is Elbit Systems, an Israeli drone manufacturer with a presence in Victoria. Their Centre of Excellence, co-sponsored by the state government, aims to develop drone technology for seemingly noble goals like disaster management. However, the company's drones have been used in conflicts, raising ethical concerns. The Victorian Greens strongly oppose the deal, demanding an end to the "secretive relationship" and severing ties with companies supplying Israel's military. They point to the high civilian casualties resulting from Israeli military actions. With legal action targeting Israel and a UN warning regarding potential genocide in Gaza, the federal government faces pressure to act. The precedent set by previous agreement terminations suggests the Albanese government has options. Overall, the deal raises critical questions about transparency, ethics, and potential complicity in human rights violations. The federal government faces a crucial decision on whether to endorse or reject the controversial agreement. This rewrite is SEO-friendly by: Using relevant keywords like "Israeli military," "drone technology," "human rights," and "genocide." Keeping the content concise and focused on the main points. Using clear and direct language. Structuring the information logically with subheadings. It remains factually accurate and maintains the original meaning while making it more accessible and impactful. Please note that this is just a suggestion, and you can further adapt it to your specific needs and preferences.

The US and Saudi Arabia have drafted a set of agreements on security and technology-sharing which were intended to be linked to a broader Middle East settlement involving Israel and the Palestinians.However, in the absence of a ceasefire in Gaza and in the face of adamant resistance from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government to the creation of a Palestinian state – and its apparent determination to launch an offensive on Rafah – the Saudis are pushing for a more modest plan B, which excludes the Israelis. Under that option, the US and Saudi Arabia would sign agreements on a bilateral defence pact, US help in the building of a Saudi civil nuclear energy industry, and high-level sharing in the field of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. An offer would be made to Israel of normalisation of diplomatic relations with Riyadh in return for Israeli acceptance of the two-state solution to the 76-year Israeli-Arab conflict. But under Riyadh’s plan B proposal, completion of the US-Saudi deals would not be made dependent on agreement from the Netanyahu government.

In remarks in Riyadh on Monday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, continued to link a US-Saudi deal to Saudi-Israeli normalisation and progress towards a Palestinian state. “The work that Saudi Arabia, the United States have been doing together in terms of our own agreements, I think, is potentially very close to completion,” Blinken told the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital. “But then in order to move forward with normalisation, two things will be required: calm in Gaza and a credible pathway to a Palestinian state.” However, there are signs of wavering in the Biden camp. US officials who were adamant last week that US-Saudi agreements were inextricably linked to Saudi-Israel normalisation and the two-state solution have become non-committal on the subject in recent days.

Believe it or not it is possible for people to agree with the fact that Jews are native to the land, while simultaneously thinking that does not give them the right in the here and now to establish their own state there (and displace the people who have been living there for several hundred years).

Believe it or not, recognizing that Jews are native to the Land of Israel, while denying them the rights that come from that, is not the great line of defence you think it is.

Native rights are not conditional.

A people does not lose its right to self determination, to self rule in their ancestral land, no matter what they had done at one point in time. The Cambodian Khmer Rouge massacred at least 1.7 million people, Cambodians and other minorities living in Cambodia, but I'm sure you don't go to the blogs of Cambodians on Tumblr, to tell them that they lost the right to their state in their own land. The Japanese committed atrocities during WWII, such as the Nanjing massacre, yet no one says Japan has lost the right to exist. And of course, Nazi Germany started the bloodiest military conflict in human history, and committed the most extreme case of a genocide, which was actually industrialized. I'm looking forward to you coming off anon, to show me the asks you sent to Japanese or Germans on Tumblr, telling them they don't have a right to their own state anymore...

If the only native rights you treat as conditional, are those of the Jews, your stance is antisemitic.

2. That's before we get to the part where you distort Jewish history to vilify Jews, and their national liberation movement. Zionists absolutely did try to coexist with the Arabs in Israel.

Here's one piece on Jewish attempts to reach peace with the Arabs before the State of Israel was even established. Here's another on the Weizmann-Faisal peace agreement between Jews and Arabs in 1919, in which both sides agreed to respect and help with the national aspirations of the other side. On Faisal's part, the agreement was conditioned on Britain's promise to help create a greater unified Arab state. This was never fulfilled, so the agreement became void, too. But I think its importance is in showing the Jewish attempts at peace, and the fact that following it, Faisal wrote a favorable letter about Zionism. If Zionism had been inherently anti-Arab and hellbent on displacing Arabs, this agreement wouldn't have existed, and such a favorable view of Zionism by an Arab leader would not have been possible, not even temporarily.

Most importantly, at the moment when talk turned into practice, as the UN voted in 1947 on a suggestion to divide the Land of Israel roughly equally and create a Jewish state and an Arab one there, the Jews accepted it, the Arabs did not (the latter also rejected the 1937 Peel Commission, which suggested a similar divide, except the Arabs would get roughly 81% of the Land of Israel).

The displacement you mentioned cannot negate the native rights of Jews in Israel, because they weren't the ones who caused it. The displacement of the Land of Israel's Arabs is a result of the war the Arab leadership started, due to their rejection of what was essentially a two state solution.

If your anti-Zionist denial of Jewish rights cannot stand without blaming Jews for the decisions of the Arab leadership, it is both antisemitic, and racist, erasing the agency of Arabs.

3. Now let's go back for a second to your implication that one group displacing another from the land, where the latter has lived for centuries, negates the former's right to self determination. I'm putting aside for a second the centuries of discrimination and persecution which Jews had suffered in Israel, I'm putting aside the religious persecution (for example, how the Arabs succeeded in their campaign of harassment of Jews praying in Jerusalem, and in their demand that the British arrest Jews for blowing the shofar, praying out loud, or bringing Torah scrolls to the Western Wall, the second holiest place to Judaism, after the Temple Mount), I'm putting aside the repeated massacres of Jews, and I'll only talk about displacement, since that's what you mentioned. Because in 1929, Arab violence towards Jews in Israel resulted in the displacement and ethnic cleansing of Jewish communities from places like Hebron, where Jews have lived for THOUSANDS of years, and Gaza (to name just two of the communities harmed), almost 20 years before the State of Israel was established.

Somehow, I have a hunch that you won't come off anon to denounce the right of Palestinians to a state of their own based on this displacement and ethnic cleansing of ancient Jewish communities. Do I really need to explain why such a discriminatory application of this (very flawed) logic, in the name of anti-Zionism, is antisemitic?

But, you know. Congrats on at least not erasing the fact that Jews are native to Israel, two seconds before most of the world celebrates the birth of a Jewish man in Israel, more than 2,000 years ago.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

According to research by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), the UK has licensed more than £472 million in arms exports to Israel since 2015. This includes tank components, armour-piercing ammunition and small arms, but, in keeping with the structure of the British weapons industry, aerospace components for fighters and drones predominate. It’s difficult to get clear numbers from the arms industry. The headline figure is taken from the value of standard licences, but the UK also operates a system of open licences that permit transfers of unlimited – and unspecified – quantities of particular military goods. Since 2015, 57 such licences have been granted for export to Israel, ten of those in 2022. They include British components for the American-designed F-35 aircraft, which campaigners estimate have been worth £336 million to the companies (primarily BAE Systems) producing them. Because the quantities of goods issued under open licences are not made public, groups such as CAAT have to back-engineer their value. In recent years the government has become increasingly hostile to Freedom of Information requests on arms, but there is enough publicly available data to be certain that the planes currently flattening apartment blocks and refugee camps in Gaza rely on components engineered and manufactured in Britain. There is little appetite in Westminster for reform of the domestic arms industry. For one thing, it is a rare economic success story. The UK is the second largest exporter of defence items in the world and, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Initiative, the sixth largest exporter of major conventional weapons (which means everything short of weapons of mass destruction), primarily aircraft. The total value of standard licences issued in 2021 was £10.7 billion, and the industry depends on its aerospace sector, which accounts for 72 per cent of export business. More than half of all British defence exports go to the Middle East – but to Saudi Arabia rather than Israel. Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, accuse BAE Systems of being party to Saudi war crimes in Yemen, where BAE-supplied (and serviced) fighters have bombed schools and hospitals.

James Butler, Up in Arms

since my last post about it did not clarify, Fran Drescher being anti vaccine mandate IS antivaxx. it doesn't matter that she, as an individual, got the COVID vaccine. claiming to be against the mandate, not the vaccine itself is a common tactic used by antivaxxers. Many antivaxxers also do still get vaccinated while advocating antivaxx sentiment. If someone, Fran Drescher or otherwise, was truly pro-vaccine, they would not have a problem with them being mandated, period. It's the same kind of faux mental gymnastics bigots use when they say shit like, "I don't have a problem with gay people. I just don't think the law should allow them to be married." Fran Drescher is antivaxx and she's also a massive financial supporter of the Israeli Defence Force, having donated millions in fundraising over the years to the IDF to support their occupation of Palestinian lands. Both those things are indefenseable to me and many others, but they also don't cancel out what she has done and continues to do for labour rights in the film industry. "Fran Drescher is antivaxx and pro-Israel" and "Fran Drescher is a vital leader in current labour rights movements in Hollywood," are not mutually exclusive statements. It just means there's more work to do, more people to listen to, and no one person should ever be touted as a symbol of resistance for all because human rights advocacy is never going to be achieved through reliance on individuals or exceptionalism.

By: Tim Black

Published: Oct 19, 2023

Over the past two weeks, the same phrase has been uttered by countless politicians: ‘Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people.’ US president Joe Biden has said it. British PM Rishi Sunak has said it. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, which rules over the West Bank, has said it (before his speech was redacted).

But something far stronger needs to be said. It’s not that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. It’s that Hamas is against the Palestinian people. It’s the enemy of the Palestinian people. Its interests as an Islamist terrorist movement, dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state in its place, stand in direct opposition to the interests and lives of the Palestinian people.

Make no mistake: Hamas has always treated the Palestinians like dirt. Since it seized power in Gaza in 2007, it has ruled as one would expect it to – as a brutal, oppressive, theocratic regime. It has tortured and killed those who deviate from its strict ‘laws’, and who dissent from its quasi-fascist ideology. Homosexuals have been regularly persecuted, tortured and killed. And political opponents have frequently been murdered, sometimes under the cover of its intermittent battles with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

Perhaps most despicable of all, Hamas has constantly sacrificed Gazans in its multiple conflicts with Israel, deliberately placing them in harm’s way. It has stored rockets in schools, mortar shells in hospitals and munitions in mosques. And, with incredible callousness, people have been ordered to remain in their homes during Israeli attacks, even when being told by the IDF to evacuate. This is still happening now. The IDF is telling those living in the north of Gaza to evacuate, while Hamas is ordering them to stay put.

Despite Western sympathisers’ attempts to downplay this horrific ‘tactic’, or to dismiss it as Israeli propaganda, Hamas has always been open about it. As one of its leaders boasted in 2008: ‘For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry… The elderly excel at this, and so do… the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women and children.’ During the 2014 conflict with Israel, another senior spokesman told Palestinian station al-Aqsa TV that wilfully sacrificing Gazans ‘attests to the character of our noble, jihad-loving people, who defend their rights and their homes with their bare chests and their blood’.

Hamas uses the phrase ‘human shields’, but this unjustly dignifies this tactic’s depravity. For Hamas, Gazans’ bodies are not shields – they are media fodder. Their lives are worth less to Hamas than their deaths – the images and videos of which offer valuable propaganda material to be circulated around the world as proof of Hamas’s victimisation at the hands of evil Israel. Again, this is what Hamas is doing right now. As the Israeli military readies itself for a ground invasion, Hamas is happy to turn hundreds of thousands of Gazans into bloody war propaganda.

Every dead Palestinian is useful for Hamas. Just consider the explosion at the al-Alhi Arab hospital earlier this week. This was immediately held up by Hamas spokespeople as proof of Israeli war crimes. They claimed that 500 innocent people had died in the blast. Yet it now seems likely that Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another Islamist terror group, was responsible. All too often, rockets fired at Israel fall short of their targets and end up killing Gazans instead. But this is of no concern to Hamas, which can exploit and weaponise these deaths to its own abhorrent ends.

There is no question that Gazans have suffered greatly over the past two decades. But their oppression and exploitation has only benefitted Hamas’s leaders. They have happily reaped the rewards of their reign of terror, growing rich on their control of the Gazan black market, the largesse of their regional backers and no doubt some of the billions of dollars Gaza receives in international aid. Long-time Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh pledged to live on ‘olive oil and dried herbs’ after he led Hamas to victory at the 2006 Palestinian elections. In 2019, he shook off his asceticism and left Gaza to go on what Hamas announced was a ‘foreign tour’. He has never returned. The multibillionaire now lives in luxury in Qatar. As does some-time chairman of Hamas, Khaled Meshal. Meshal and his family, estimated to be worth something in the region of $2.5 billion, own a Doha real-estate firm, four residential towers and a 20-story mall. And all the while, the vast majority of Gazans live in extreme poverty.

Hamas is clearly corrupt, brutal and nasty. Yet we rarely hear much about just how vicious a regime Hamas runs, because Hamas also arrests, tortures and detains journalists. It is eager for the local and international press to carry stories and images of Gazans’ deaths at the hands of an Israeli missile. But less keen for the media to carry stories and images of its own treatment of Gazans.

That Hamas can treat Gazans so callously and brutally should not surprise us. Formed by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987, Hamas does not share the interests of the Palestinian people. It is not concerned with establishing some form of Palestinian statehood, or securing rights and freedoms. No, its goals are near-enough apocalyptic – and genocidal.

Like the larger Islamist movement of which it is part, Hamas wants to wage war – perhaps the final war – against the Jews. It wants to destroy Israel, to cleanse the land of Jews ‘From the river to the sea’, as the slogan goes. ‘Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious’, reads one of the opening lines of Hamas’s 1988 founding charter. Hamas, it says, ‘is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy [Israel] is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realised’.

This genocidal anti-Semitism doesn’t just pose a danger to Jews in Israel – it also makes any sort of political resolution of the Palestinian question near impossible. After all, how can Israelis be expected to make accommodations with a group that openly calls for their extinction? Meanwhile, the lives of the Palestinians are treated as mere fodder in this obscene, racist campaign.

And yet there are still many Western leftists proudly celebrating Hamas right now. There are many ‘radical’ academics cheering on Hamas’s pogrom of Jewish civilians as an act of resistance. And there are many poseurs flooding social media with Hamas-style anti-Zionism. These are not friends of the Gazans. They are friends of Hamas. And that makes them the enemies of the Palestinian people.

==

Free Palestine... from Hamas. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the biggest victims of Islam are Muslims. Hamas needs to be hunted down and exterminated so that Palestinians can find peace with Israel. It's impossible with fundamentalist terrorists in charge, because they're conducting a divine holy war.

The same way Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, ISIS and the Taliban need to be wiped out, and the Iranian regime torn down.

Also, defund Gender Studies.

Alright, some context before I ask theis, because I don't want to misrepresent myself even by implication:

I am extremely economically right-wing. I am also pro-incarceration for quite a few crimes. I am generally not on the "democracy" side of the democracy to non-democracy scale. I think it would be okay if prisons were run hereditarily, if the position of Warden were generally given to the second or third son of a local Earl.

THAT BEING SAID:

There's no contradiction between prisons being a net cost to the taxpayer, and the demand for prisons being heavily driven by people who profit from them, that sort of thing happens all the time! The USA is rife with crony capitalism. It's not at all uncommon for something that is overall unprofitable to be promoted because it benefits a small group of wealthy and influential figures who can lean on politicians and media companies. Look at the defence industry. Look at protectionist tariffs. Look at corn syrup.

It's absolutely possible that if nobody were profiting from, for example, prison phone calls, or those prison dramas on American television like "OZ" or "Orange Is The New Black" (which make huge amounts of money, and are perceived as "realistic" or "gritty" because prisons exist) that there would be less incarceration.

Advertising, mass media, and campaign donations are not minor influences.

BTW, what's this about natural gas in Gaza?

there is absolutely a lot of crony capitalism going on in the us prison system, and this certainly creates some vested interest in engorging the prison population. but, like i said, it just cannot plausibly do all the heavy explanatory lifting ppl claim for it wrt the extent of us mass incarceration

its surprisingly hard to find much aggregated info on campaign finance and advertising in local judicial elections, but it kinda defies belief that they are the object of a vast industrial conspiracy to promote mass incarceration and that this more or less explains entirely why the us has so many of its ppl locked up. if it were so, one would to begin with expect the conspiracy to regularly promote judges to office with a consistent pro-imprisonment bent, rather than for sentencing severity to cycle with elections. indeed, it would be a hell of a lot more efficient to make sure these judgeships were all appointed, so the System could install them directly without the mediation of routine popularity contests. this doesnt look like the machinations of a crony capitalist cabal hand in hand with the state, it looks like individual mostly local elected bureaucrats pandering to a base that wants revenge all on its own

i probably am risking giving the impression i think judicial elections are the be all and end all of the crisis of mass incarceration in the united states. obviously thats not the case; states like cali with only limited electoral accountability for judges are hardly all bastions of freedom, and ofc this ignores legislative interventions like mandatory minimums and truth-in-sentencing laws. but it is useful as a way to point out the limitations of "just follow the money!"s explanatory power

"israel/us are bombing gaza for natural gas" was a silly theory being propagated on social media among some leftists

Israel's Elbit Systems wins $37 million Iron Fist APS order for US Army's Bradley IFVs

Iron Fist APS for US Army’s Bradley IFVs: Haifa, Israel – May 5, 2024 – In a move that significantly bolsters the defensive capabilities of the U.S. Army‘s Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs), Elbit Systems Ltd. (ESLT) has secured a $37 million contract to supply its Iron Fist Active Protection Systems (APS). The 24-month contract involves furnishing General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical…

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"Details of an agreement struck between Australia and Israel on defence industry cooperation will not be released publicly over concerns the information could damage Australia's "international relations"."

What could possibly be in Australia's new defence cooperation agreement with a country currently committing genocide that might damage Australia's international relations?

Palestinian trade unions call for end to ‘complicity’ in Israeli crimes

“A coalition of Palestinian trade unions has called on the international labour movement to ‘end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes’ by halting the trading of arms, all funding, and military research, as Israel prepares a ground invasion of Gaza amid horrific reports of a humanitarian disaster gripping the strip and mounting evidence of war crimes.

“An open letter signed by the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions and 18 trade unions and professional associations urged workers in relevant industries to refuse to build weapons destined for Israel, to refuse to transport weapons to Israel, and to take action against companies complicit in ‘implementing Israel’s brutal and illegal siege’ with whom unions have contracts.

“The letter also pushed for trade unions to pass motions in their branches to this effect, and to pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel.

“The letter said: ‘This urgent genocidal situation can only be prevented by a mass increase of global solidarity with the people of Palestine and that can restrain the Israeli war machine. We make this call as we see attempts to ban and silence all forms of solidarity with the Palestinian people. We ask you to speak out and take action in the face of injustice as trade unions have done historically.’

“The TUC, as well as several British trade unions, including the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association ... condemned the killing of civilians by Hamas as well as Israel’s onslaught against Gaza. GMB and Prospect – both of which represent members in the defence industry – are yet to issue statements.”

Russia-Ukraine Daily Briefing

🇷🇺 🇺🇦 Monday Briefing:

- Zelensky calls for rapid operations changes for soldiers, sacks commander - US Congress aiming to pass Ukraine and Israel aid before Christmas - Bulgaria fears new Russian sabotage in its defence industry - Around 3K trucks stuck at Ukrainian border due to Polish drivers' blockade - Kyiv fears winter bombardment after Russian major drone attacks - Ukrainian army says advancing at Dnipro river - Jailed Russian nationalist Girkin warns of 'sham' presidential election - The Russians snitching on colleagues and strangers - Ukraine says it has evidence of 109K Russian war crimes - Kazakhstan blocks Russian TV portal - Russia seeks to ban 'intl LGBT public movement' as extremist - Russian govt to block websites with instructions for bypassing website blocks

--------------------------------- 📨 More in a daily newsletter: https://russia-ukraine-newsletter.beehiiv.com/

💬 My socials: https://linktr.ee/rvps2001

Gaza isn't going to exist anymore in a few weeks, perhaps even days.

A territory half the size of London populated by 2 million people half of whom (according to age medians) are children that now has no water and no electricity, which has now been blockaded from foreign import and escape, that had, generously, a few tens of thousands of combatants - maybe almost a hundred thousand with Hamas' (who are likely to pull out now that they're done with their terror attack) troops and Hamas' scant soviet-era tanks and ramshackle technicals - almost all of them militia.

Vs

An industrial, nuclear nation of 9 million people, a quarter of whom are official military reservists (who have just been deployed) due to Israel's compulsory military service, and the rest of whom are perfectly able to use their government-issued weapons and training for "off the record" "engagements", all supported by an airforce, a navy, a missile assault/defence array, and mechanized infantry, PLUS the unilateral backing of every First World country who are tripping over themselves to send Israel more weapons and equipment.

Oh, and every action they take is going to be heavily painted with racism and devoted nationalism from being raised on propaganda (the children writing mocking messages on missiles and shells in 2006 are now armed, trained adults). In addition to the religious conflict underlining this whole thing.

The number of warcrimes about to committed by the IDF will be heinous. Anything Hamas done these last two days will be paled in comparison by a million or more soldiers storming an open-air prison filled with weakened civilians. Soldiers are soldiers are soldiers, and if a vindictive army built on the same operational doctrine as the United States, the current king of casual warcrimes, is on the offensive...

Well, we saw what happened with the "War on Terror".

This isn’t even slightly a suggestion that the deal be altered, canceled, or even threatened this is the response to a Freedom Of Information request.

Worth mentioning that FOI’s can absolutely be fulfilled with redactions so wholesale not granting the request at all is pretty damning.

Like what take away can you have other than:“gosh we saw how good you were at genocide and wanted some of that action here’s almost a billion dollars”

Fuck all of this

Today Israel confirmed that Germany is buying the Arrow air defense system. The overall cost is thought to be around $4 billion. Israel and Germany had been in talks since last year. The system was developed by IAI with support from Israel and the US. This system is designed to defend against the top tier of long range threats, such as ballistic missiles, the kind of missiles that are exoatmospheric.

This is a big purchase. It follows Israel selling David's Sling to Finland. What this means is that Israeli defense tech is now increasingly integrated throughout Europe. Hardly a week goes by without another announcement. Elbit, for instance, has a series of recent deals, including an EW deal in Germany announced this week for helicopters. Greece is getting Rafael's Spike missiles. Central and Eastern Europe is a big market.

As European countries empty inventories to send to Ukraine they need new and modern systems. Israel is well placed to provide systems that are proven. Also Israel exports are not an all-time high for defense products; a total of $12 billion last year. Of this around one quarter went to the Abraham Accords countries.

Israel is now more than just providing "weapons", these are systems and system of systems that help integrate radars in central Europe to countries defenses; and also provide multiple layers of defense tech. Israel also has strategic partnerships in India, with a lot of partnerships for India's local production; and with Azerbaijan and increasingly in Asia/Pacific. In the US Israeli companies partner with major US companies such as Lockheed and Raytheon; and unique Israeli defense products, such as items that protect against drones, or the Trophy system for tanks, are being outfitted to US forces. The talk and critique we hear sometimes of "the US should end aid to Israel" has no basis in reality. The R and D partnerships and deals are so deep and complex today that the critics have no idea what they are talking about.

Here is Israel's statement*

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the Israel Ministry of Defense and Israel Aerospace Industries welcome the German Ministry of Defense and the Bundestag’s Budget and Defence Committees’ approval of the commitment to initiate the necessary steps to acquire the Israeli “Arrow 3” air and missile defense system.

The professional teams led by the Director General of the IMOD, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Eyal Zamir, the DDR&D’s Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries are continuing discussions with their German counterparts to finalize the procurement contract. Israel Ministry of Defense officials maintain ongoing communication with the American administration to ensure the necessary sales approval.

The German commitment letter will be signed after the American administration grants approval for the sale.

Please find photos of the Arrow 3 system below for your use.

Photo credit: Ministry of Defense Spokesperson’s Office

Seth J. Frantzman

PERHAPS MORE than any other book published in recent years, The Palestine Laboratory demonstrates why Israel is a menace, not only to Palestinians and other Arabs whose countries it has invaded or bombed at one time or another, but really to people around the globe. Anyone who criticizes or mobilizes against their own authoritarian governments will likely have to contend with an Israeli weapon or technology designed to enhance government control over them and make dissent costly, if not impossible.

READ MORE https://www.wrmea.org/middle-east-books-and-more/the-palestine-laboratory-how-israel-exports-the-technology-of-occupation-around-the-world.html

Antony Loewenstein: Israel Is Testing New Weapons on Gaza as Arms Dealers Profit from Gaza War

NOVEMBER 14, 2023 Worldwide protests calling for a ceasefire are drawing attention to the role of weapons manufacturers and distributors supplying machinery to Israel’s assault on Gaza, with demonstrators blocking shipping tankers and entrances to weapons factories, and unionized workers refusing to handle military materiel over the war in Gaza. There is “a growing public awareness and anger” about the global connection between Western powers and the Israeli military industry, says Antony Loewenstein, who has investigated how Israeli weaponry and surveillance technology are used on Palestinians and exported around the world. “Israel is already, as we speak … live-testing new weapons in Gaza,” says Loewenstein. He also discusses what he characterizes as the “intelligence” and “political” failures of the October 7 Hamas incursion.

LISTEN READ MORE Transcript https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/14/israel_weapons

LINKS

"The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World"

19 October 2023

"Although we had always heard that people could be monitored through cell phones, we did not imagine that this could happen to us." +"When people ask us for something, we cannot afford to ask questions about ideology. The only type of regime that Israel would not aid would be one that is anti-American. Also, if we can aid a country that it may be inconvenient for the US to help, we would be cutting off our nose to spite our face not to.’ There’s rarely been a more honest appraisal of Israel’s entire weapons industry."

ISRAEL’S INSURANCE POLICY =>>"Israel’s arms sector, and its spyware industry in particular, is an insurance policy against political headwinds that may develop against the occupation."

"The lack of serious oversight benefits one actor in particular – Israel. As the lead exporter of these tools, the state is at the forefront of the intrusion technology industry. Founded in 2010, NSO Group Technologies Ltd is just one firm among a wider ecosystem of Israeli cyber-weapons companies. Of the 75 governments that have procured spyware and digital forensic technologies worldwide, 56 bought them from firms that are either based in or connected to Israel, such as NSO Group, Cellebrite, Cytrox and Candiru. These deals are all monitored and approved by the Israeli Ministry of Defence.

For Israel, spyware is not just a highly lucrative industry, but a strategic weapon to curry diplomatic favour."