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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 10/23/17

Israel maintains robust arms trade with rogue regimes

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That has made arms sales integral to the Israeli economy, accounting for possibly as much as 8 percent of gross domestic product. As many as 100,000 Israeli households are reported to be dependent on the arms industry.

John Brown, an investigative journalist with the Haaretz newspaper who writes under a pseudonym, said there was a long history of what he called "Uzi diplomacy" -- referring to the Israeli submachine gun that became a favorite with security forces around the world from the 1960s onwards.

"If countries want the best arms, then they probably go to the US and Europe. But when no one else will sell to you, then you turn to Israel," he told Al Jazeera.

"The benefits for Israel are not just measured in money. Often even more important are the diplomatic and strategic alliances Israel can gain from this arms trade."

A conduit for drones

Mack said that mounting international outrage over the plight of Myanmar's Muslim minority provided an opportunity to shine a light on Israel's long role in supporting regimes in the midst of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

In what sounded like a rare rebuke to Israel, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, said last month: "Any country that is currently providing weapons to the Burmese military should suspend these activities until sufficient accountability measures are in place."

Although the Israeli courts have blocked access to documents that could shed light on what arms have gone to Myanmar, activists have been able to identify some dealings from open sources.

In September 2015, Min Aung Hlaing, the commander of Myanmar's army, posted on social media details of a "shopping trip" to Israel that included visits to leading Israeli weapons manufacturers and a meeting with the Israeli military's chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkott.

A year later, Michael Ben Baruch, an Israeli defence ministry official in charge of exports, visited Myanmar to meet its army's top brass to sign a deal for patrol boats.

Shortly afterwards, the website of TAR Ideal Concepts, an Israeli company, posted images of its staff training Myanmar special forces and teaching them how to handle Israeli-made Corner-Shot guns.

Other analysts have suggested that Israel has also been acting as a conduit for Chinese weapons, including drones, to Myanmar, allowing Beijing to bypass the embargo.

"There is no statute of limitations on war crimes and crimes against humanity, so we will keep putting Israeli officials under pressure till the trade stops," Mack said. "They will have to endure a regular 'walk of shame' in the courts, forcing them to explain their policies and why the documents remain secret."

He noted that Israel's success in arms dealing was intimately tied to five decades of its control over the occupied Palestinian territories.

"Israeli companies exploit Israel's long experience there to sell arms, arguing that the weapons and training have been tested in real-world conditions."

Brown said that Israel appeared to be indifferent towards the victims of the violence it helped to stoke. This was especially evident during the so-called "Dirty War" in Argentina, through much of the 1970s, when 30,000 left-wing activists were "disappeared," he said. Israel is believed to have supplied the military government there with some $700m in weapons.

"Of those killed, probably some 2,000 were Argentinian Jews," he said. "Israel knew that the weapons it was selling were being turned on Jews, but that did not stop it selling arms. It simply didn't care."

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Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. He is the 2011 winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are "Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East" (Pluto Press) and "Disappearing Palestine: (more...)
 

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