[WCUSP] Fw: Israeli arms dealers -- out of control

[Libby or Mort Frank]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jewish Peace News " <jpn at jewishpeacenews.net>
To: <LMFrank1 at verizon.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 10:55 AM
Subject: Israeli arms dealers -- out of control


>
>
>
> Focusing on an aspect of Israel's accelerated militarization, the 
> practices of Israeli arms dealers, Haaretz journalist Yossi Melman calls 
> Israel's defense industry, "the tail that wags the dog". He highlights a 
> large and dangerous zone of systematic unaccountability involving 
> "thousands of Israelis, IDF generals, police officers, division heads in 
> the Shin Bet and the Mossad, and petty officials", people entrusted with 
> public offices and roles pertaining to Israel's 'security', who have been 
> authorized, among other things, to "sell weapons or to instruct security 
> forces for regimes that were . corrupt." Melman describes a current 
> process in which Israel's government, under intense U.S. pressure, is 
> introducing controls and checks. It remains to be seen to what extent 
> these will be enforced and followed. Notably, results in this hush-hush 
> area are difficult to trace and follow. No less notably, they are often 
> measured in the loss of human lives. However, the inkling he offers
>  as to
> the decades throughout which no such controls were even attempted, 
> provides a chilling idea of the kind of Israeli society and state that 
> militarization has engendered. Rela Mazali
>
>
> w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
>
> ------------------------------------------
>
> Last update - 02:25 18/10/2007
>
> Business under fire
> By Yossi Melman
>
>
> Yitzhak Rabin's government decided, more than 10 years ago, that Israeli 
> companies may not sell arms to Burma (Myanmar). Despite that, two large 
> transactions were carried out: In one case, the Israel Military Industries 
> sold Burma several million dollars' worth of rifles, automatic rifles and 
> ammunition, and Soltam sold 18 155-millimeter cannons, worth about $20 
> million. The middleman in these deals, and several others, was Koor Trade, 
> which then had an office in neighboring Thailand.
>
> Since that government decision, Israeli dealers, middlemen and weapons 
> companies have requested several times to the Defense Ministry's Foreign 
> Defense Assistance and Defense Export Organization that they be allowed to 
> sell more weapons, but the answer has been unequivocal: absolutely not.
>
> Although Israel has maintained its embargo, this did not prevent the media 
> from publishing information about ostensible arms deals between the two 
> countries. Most reference a 2000 article published in the British defense 
> weekly Jane's. But that article was not accurate. This week, at the 
> request of the Israeli firm Elbit, Jane's corrected itself and dropped 
> Elbit's name, which was still in its data base. Elbit convinced the weekly 
> that as opposed to what was published, it did not sell arms, knowledge or 
> other materiel to Burma.
>
> The military dictatorship in Burma does not particularly need Israel in 
> order to purchase weapons. The generals have enough money, almost all of 
> which comes from producing and smuggling drugs. Burma is apparently the 
> second-largest drug producer in the world, after Afghanistan. The generals 
> have straw companies that are registered and operate mainly in Singapore. 
> And they have a long list of suppliers. Ukraine sold them surface-to-air 
> missiles and radar systems. Russia supplied them with helicopters. And 
> they have help from India, Singapore and China, which protects the 
> oppressive regime and blocks any proposed international sanctions against 
> Burma.
>
> That does not mean that there are no Israelis who may have been involved 
> in selling weapons to Burma. It could certainly have happened, mainly 
> because of an absence of proper legislation and supervision here. For 
> years, Israeli governments have considered arms dealing a strategic asset. 
> It began out of national necessity, in order to establish defense 
> industries, which would provide the Israel Defense Forces with the 
> equipment it needed and would reduce its dependence on external suppliers.
>
> But over the past two decades, the defense industries have become the tail 
> that wags the dog. The IDF is not enough of a client for them to support 
> their tens of thousand of families. They have to sell abroad. The Defense 
> Ministry has encouraged them to sell more and more, to any taker and 
> without conditions. Although it is forbidden to sell weapons to Burma, the 
> Defense Ministry in the 1980s and the 1990s allowed Israeli companies and 
> individuals to sell weapons or to instruct security forces for regimes 
> that were no less corrupt.
>
> The Defense Ministry ignored UN resolutions and dragged its feet when 
> asked to cooperate in international investigations against Israeli arms 
> dealers who had violated international sanctions. Israeli law ruled that 
> they had to ask Defense Ministry permission to conduct arms sales 
> negotiations over Israeli-produced weapons or IDF surplus. The law does 
> not relate to Israelis who received a permit to purchase non-Israeli 
> weapons and non-IDF surplus in countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, 
> Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine or Belarus, to be sold to countries in Africa, 
> Asia or South America.
>
> This involves thousands of Israelis, IDF generals, police officers, 
> division heads in the Shin Bet and the Mossad, and petty officers. 
> Everything was legal and kosher, but smelly. Israeli arms dealers and 
> defense industries did not hesitate to sell weapons or to be involved in 
> arms deals with countries undergoing civil wars (Angola, Rwanda, Congo, 
> Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Sri Lanka) or at war with 
> their neighbors (Ethiopia and Eritrea, Peru and Ecuador), or to sell 
> outdated and even defective weapons.
>
> Arms dealing involves large bribes. This is a system that corrupts public 
> officials and officers in the countries purchasing the equipment, but in 
> the end, it also corrupts officials and officers in Israel. Israel has 
> never been alone in this shady clandestine zone. Frenchmen, Britons, South 
> Africans, Brazilians, Russians, Ukrainians, Serbs and many others have 
> done similar things, but Israel has earned itself a bad name, as a leader 
> in the dubious arms trade.
>
> In effect, this disgraceful trade is not even a big financial bargain. 
> About 90 percent of Israel's income from arms sales and defense export in 
> recent years (an average of about $2.5 billion annually) comes from deals 
> with the U.S. government, NATO countries, India, Turkey, Romania and 
> Poland. In spite of the reservations of the Foreign Ministry, human rights 
> organizations and the media, probably nothing would have changed without 
> U.S. pressure. The American administration was furious about what is saw 
> as an Israeli attempt to defraud it and to upgrade drones sold to China. 
> Furthermore, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 
> (OECD), which Israel wants to join, pressured Israel to adopt its 
> criteria.
>
> A year ago, the Defense Ministry established the Export Control Division, 
> and took away from the Foreign Defense Assistance unit the right to grant 
> negotiation permits and monitor weapons sales. The head of the new 
> division is Eli Pincu, a senior military official with experience in 
> supervision and investigation. Pincu was, among other things, the deputy 
> in charge of security in the defense establishment and head of the Defense 
> Ministry delegation in Paris. Upon assuming the job, he decided to adopt 
> an entirely new approach, exercising more strictness and more 
> international cooperation.
>
> Recently, for example, the UN turned to Pincu's division and asked to find 
> out how isolated Israeli-made weapons (Galili and Tavor rifles) came into 
> the hands of the Muslim militias of Sudan, which are carrying out genocide 
> in Darfur. After the UN gave them the weapons' serial numbers, Pincu and 
> his staff checked the matter and told the UN that the weapons had been 
> sold legally to the army of Chad, and had fallen into the hands of the 
> Janjaweed. This answer satisfied the UN.
>
> Under current Defense Ministry policy, arms may not be sold to Sudan, 
> Liberia, Ivory Coast, Congo and Venezuela. The ministry is also 
> particularly sensitive to requests to sell defense equipment to China. 
> After many years of refusal, the Defense Ministry agreed to a change in 
> the law regarding defense export supervision, which is expected to go into 
> effect at the end of 2007. For the first time, the law grants great 
> importance to the Foreign Ministry's judgment in discussions as to whether 
> to approve an arms sale to a particular country.
>
> It also rules specifically that every Israeli citizen or foreigner who 
> lives mainly in Israel must receive a Defense Ministry permit if he wants 
> to sell weapons - not only Israeli-made or IDF surplus, but also those 
> manufactured by another country. Anyone who violates the law can expect a 
> fine of up to NIS 10 million and imprisonment of up to five years.
>
>
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