Stopping the trickle

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Israel is repeating its past mistakes with the very minor response it chose to make to that incoming rocket on Independence Day. One shell fired by an IDF tank on an empty Hamas position. Is that how you create deterrence? Is that how you stop the daily trickle of rockets? The answer is no, of course not. But it seems there are those amongst us who find it difficult to learn the lesson, and those of us residing close to the border with Gaza will be paying the price. Because this ‘trickle’ is bound to grow.

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The Europeans’ powerlessness in the face of the growing numbers of illegals coming in is appalling. About half a million illegal immigrants are expected to arrive in Europe this year via the smuggling route going through Lybia, Italy and from there to the rest of the continent.

The human crisis in Africa is indeed great, but the Europeans’ helplessness allows terror elements to send into the continent hundreds and perhaps thousands of people, some of whom could, in the future, serve the Islamic terror networks already in place.

Dignified EU ministers sit in beautiful looking conference rooms, futilely discussing the issue without taking any action to stop the flow. They know full well their continent is changing drastically, and yet they do nothing. And all the while smugglers’ boats, the ones that don’t drown, continue to unload yet more desperate illegals on their shores.

The grandest example of helplessness we’ve see in a long time.

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Truth be told, sometimes products developed by the Israeli military industries are qualitatively better than similar products developed by American manufacturers. But this apparent truth is not always accepted by the Americans themselves, and this lack of acceptance on our allies’ part is hurting our military industries.

Reminder – Israel was required, in 1987, to shut down the production of the ‘Lavi’, the Israeli developed fighter Jet, due to US opposition. Then in 2000 Israel was required to cancel a sales agreement with China for the Israeli developed Phalcon AWACS – Airborne Early-Warning and Control systems, as well as compensate the Chinese for the cancellation.

Several months ago Washington forbade Israel to sell Poland its aerial defense system ‘David’s Sling’. Instead, the Americans sold Warsaw their less technologically advanced ‘Patriot’ system.

The way the Americans think about it is, that the fact we receive their aid money, used in part to develop new systems, means we shouldn’t compete with them. On the face of it this can seem to be true, but it is not.

Israel has the capability to develop advanced weapon systems because we have good developers and because the threat we are facing is very real and tangible. While with the Americans, the threat is on forces they send to the other side of the globe, far away. If we assume the US and Israel are allies, and that they have common goals, blocking sales of Israeli military industry products is wrong.

Take for example the F-35 Vice President Biden talked about at the Israeli Washington embassy reception this week. The VP said the United States would begin delivery of Lockheed Martin’s new F-35 jets next year and received a round of applause for it. In practice, though, Israel receives the aid money in order to buy American military industry products. The aid money does return to American hands, it is not exactly a present.