'Palestine' declaration to lead to boycott of Israel?
Officials in Israel's defense establishment have expressed concern that a unilateral declaration of 'statehood' by the 'Palestinians' at the United Nations in September could lead to a boycott of Israeli military products. The concern, voiced by leading officials in the defense establishment, comes ahead of the Paris Air Show next month, where Israeli hardware will be on display in pursuit of new sales.We're borrowing trouble. Why would the defense establishment even raise anything like this? What is the point? There is no way we can stop the vote at the United Nations, and while Turkey, which is a Muslim country, may be willing to hurt itself by boycotting products from the country that has the best of the best, other countries - like those in Europe and Latin America - are less likely to do so. Do you think they're going to stop using cellphones and Intel computer chips too?
“We need to prepare for the possibility that a unilateral declaration of statehood by the Palestinians at the United Nations in September will lead to a boycott of Israeli military hardware,” a senior defense official said this week.
In 2010 and 2009, Israel was the fourth largest exporter of weaponry and military platforms in the world, behind the United States, Russia and France. Blue-and-white defense exports reached around $7.5 billion each year.
The defense establishment has already been concerned with how 2011 will end financially for the large companies – Israel Aerospace Industries, Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems – due to the global economic recession and to the West’s planned withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan.
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The two markets believed to be most at risk in the event of a boycott are Europe and South America. Sales to Europe have remained steady over the years but Israeli companies have been seeking larger contracts in South America.
Labels: boycott Israel, military equipment, unilateral declaration of statehood
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:36 PM
3 Comments:
Well, the usual Israeli left-wing nabobs and idiots are publicly calling on the EU members to recognize a Palestinian state. Vapors, moonshine, and self-delusion are the soup de jour.
http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-4074617,00.html
I supposed it depends on what a country wants from it's military purchases.
Since the '73 Yom Kippur War, the 1991 1st Gulf War, the 2003 2nd Gulf War, and various other tussles before and after, Russian and Chinese military weapons systems and equipment have shown themselves to be basically only good for target practice from the modern stuff from the US and Israel.
A classic example of that is the popularity of the American F-16 fighter/bomber. Wiki says over 4,400 built and being used by about 25 nations, whereas the Russians can't even give supposed competitor MiG 29s away anymore. In the roughly 30 year history of F-16 operations, an F-16 has only once been shot down in a dogfight. That was a Greek F-16 shot down by a Turkish F-16. By contrast, US and Israeli F-16s have downed many Syrian and Iraqi MiGs and Sukhois. India has given up on it's MiGs and is scrapping them all.
America and Israel are designing and building the best UAVs. With the US military taking up almost all UAVs being built in the US, it appears to be a potentially huge available global export market for Israeli UAVs.
As far as French weaponry goes, from what I've read, it's about as expensive as the American and Israeli weapons systems and equipment BUT not combat-proven as are American and Israeli weapon systems and equipment. Nothing succeeds like success, as the old cliche goes.
If Israeli diplomats and corporate marketers are as smart as Israeli scientists and engineers, I'd be bullish on the future of Israeli military exports.
Ehud Barak and top officials in the Defense Ministry are frightening Israelis for no good reason.
Should Israel roll over and die now?
What could go wrong indeed
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