European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 28, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                No one then me to talk about it but Israel has become one of the world s top ten arms exporters Here a pm let fighter and israeli businessmen Are among the world s leading arms merchants. Kew Vert to photo israeli arms sales a matter of survival by Thomas l Friedman new York times Sarah hoped it would be Diller enl. The Day would come he prophesied when Israel could beat ils swords Inlo Plo shares and its Spears into pruning Hooks True Israel Loday produces More than its share of plows and pruning Hooks bul it produces even More swords and Spears in Iho form of Lanks fighter jots rockets machine guns and military advisers. A one there likes to Lalk about it but Israel Wilh Only Lour million people has become one of the lop ten arms exporters in the to to and israeli businessmen Are among the world s loading arms merchants. Israel competes head to head with such major Industrial Powers As Britain. France. Brazil and Wisl Germany. Although the continuing Lur Rover Iho iranian guns Lor hostages Allair has brought Israel s role As global arms supplier Inlo rare Public View it revealed Only a Liny slice of Israel s exports of $1.2 billion in arms and Security services each year. The Ligure amount to More than a Quarter of Israel s Indus anal exports roughly $500 million world is shipped to the Mlod Stales a Quick glance across the Globe Linds israeli advisors training and arming elite troops in Cameroon and Zaire israeli Kfir fighter jews being town by the ecuadoran air Force. Israeli made patrol boats guarding the shores of sri Lanka and israeli Cannon 111 led to upgraded chinese tanks the rebel forces in Nicaragua have israeli Marc weapons As do the regular armies of Honduras Argentina South Africa. Chile Belgium Holland. Kenya. Singapore Malaysia Taiwan and Thailand to name bul a Tew. Israeli made Security systems guard Oil reserves in Australia army bases in Taiwan and Industrial plants in Korea. Even London s Buckingham Palace is protected by an israeli made Security Fence. Much o the israeli arms Industry is government owned and financial Dala Are secret. But according to widely used estimates As Many As 140,000 israelis about 10 percent of the work Force Are involved in manufacturing or setting military hardware. Israeli arms manufacturers have reached such a level of production and importance within the israeli Economy Hal exporting weapons has become an economic imperative said Aaron s. Klieman a political scientist at Tel Aviv University who is Israel s leading expert on arms sales. He said thai cuts in the ministry of Welense s budget had sharply reduced ils orders to Domestic arms manufacturers. This has left israeli arms producers with no choices but to look abroad if they Hope to maintain anything close to full production or full employment he said. Bul economic necessities can make for diplomatic advantages. The israeli arms safes to Iran Ai Only the latest example of How Israel can use military exports to establish contacts Wilh regimes that would otherwise shun the jewish slate. Like in or not. Say Israel military experts arms sales Are now an integral to lot israeli foreign policy. Were israeli defense marketing strategies to fail it would have a profound Impact on israeli Security economic viability and diplomacy Klieman said. Arms sales in the 1980s Are a strategic National commitment Lor  such statements Embarrass Many israelis the idea that the jewish stale should be so dependent on weapons sates for ils economic of diplomatic survival is profoundly troubling to some people there. Clashing with Bolh choir self image and their vision of the zionist Utopia but Many others. The so called  counter that arms sales Are a fact of Lile for All nations but especially Tor an israeli society that has always lived close to the Edge if Israel did not sell arms others would and Jerusalem would be deprived of the economic and strategic benefits such sales bring Wilhour having changed the world a while. The argument goes. Anyway the Realises argue survival is As much a moral imperative As nonviolence better a tarnished Utopia than a dead dream. During a recent Knesset debate about arms sales to Iran these two schools clashed head on. Rabbi Menachem Hacohen of the labor parly put the moral argument succinctly when to declared on the parliament floor Israel should revert to its Normal size and avoid involvement in the Sale of arms to corrupt regimes. Can the jewish slate afford to Supply weapons or dark and deadly purposes Pessary Gruper & liked bloc member shot Back let s get off the subject of arms to Iran there Are More important things to talk about than ethics and ideology. When a country lives in a state of War you can t Tell the government to be choosy about its arms transactions for the foreseeable future Gruper s arguments will carry the Day a Quick look at the circumstances that gave birth to the israeli arms Industry makes that Clear. Israelis went into the arms business in the mid 1940s, before Independence when a weapons embargo was in effect and the Sci Pientl jewish army As badly in need of Light arms and explosives. It was a shortage of arms not of lighters. Hal almost Cost the jews their slate. After the War of Independence the prime minister of the time David Ben Guenon. Voiced never again to be so vulnerable. He consolidated the nation s scattered weapons factories into a single inn sly which was soon manufacturing Small arms most notably the Uzi sub machine gun producing mortars and ammunition overhauling and upgrading tanks and aircraft and developing electronic systems. One of the first and most controversial foreign sates was Ben Gurion s Secrel 1959 decision to sell �50.000 israeli made mortar shells to. Of All places. West Germany. Ben Gurion later justified the Sale to the Cabinet saying that Israel would sell arms to foreign countries in All cases in which the ministry of foreign affairs has no  even Ihen. Klieman said the sate followed a pattern that has continued right up through the recent Iran affair decisions were reached at a secret sub Cabinet level. The defense ministry As opposed to the foreign ministry dominated decision making and there was. No comprehensive policy Only a Case by Case approach based upon a predisposition to sell by the Lale 1950s the three major elements of israeli s government owned arms Industry were in place Israel military industries specializing in Small arms artillery and ammunition Israel aircraft industries specializing in aircraft missiles and naval vessels and the Rafael armament development authority specializing in research and development and in missile systems. Later these giants spawned smaller privately owned High Lech military and electronics firms such As Tad Iran Elop Erbil Elisa and scores of others some of them publicly traded listed in a government published. 314-Page Israel defense safes directory. Many of these companies owe their real expansion to the years after the 1967 War. No one did More while trying to do less for Israel s arms Industry than Charles de Gaulle. France had been Israel s main arms supplier. But alter the 1967 War de Gaulle Cut military ties with Israel and imposed an embargo even for products already bought and paid or. The net effect was that Israel s military industries quadrupled in Weir output during the three years immediately alter 1967, As the government vowed to make at least one of each major weapons system. The result was the Kfir fighter Jel built ironically Wilh plans of the French Mirage Iii stolen by israeli secret service agents the me Kava tank and the Saar 3 Navy patrol boat. During the 1970s and 1930s, the israeli weapons and Security Industry continued to expand in size and sophistication. The foreign buyers became crucial in the 1970s, a defense Industry official said because As we started to produce More sophisticated weapons systems the development costs became More and More  David Ivri Iho director general of the defense ministry said there Are several actors explaining Israel s ability to compete Wilh much larger nations in arms sales. First israeli salesmen can offer stale of the Arl technology stamped tested in Battle by the israeli  a1 times israeli arms manufacturers will sell a product at a loss to the israeli army or air Lorce simply Logain the endorsement Lor overseas markets. Second the combination of the israeli army s diverse demands and the israeli arms Industry s High level of technology creates innovative weapons systems Hal might not occur to other manufacturers. The Small pilotless planes Israel uses id gather Battlefield intelligence Are one example. Page 18 the stars and stripes sunday december 28,1986