Thursday, March 18, 2010
Including bunker busters? There's some "explosive" stuff in this article at World Tribune, if true. BUT, it feels like I've heard this sort of thing before, and it's the type of thing that gets exaggerated easily. Is this really the sort of thing that can be kept quiet from all but the formidable World Tribune? Hmmm...Obama blocks delivery of bunker-busters to Israel
The United States has diverted a shipment of bunker-busters designated for Israel.
Officials said the U.S. military was ordered to divert a shipment of smart bunker-buster bombs from Israel to a military base in Diego Garcia. They said the shipment of 387 smart munitions had been slated to join pre-positioned U.S. military equipment in Israel Air Force bases.
"This was a political decision," an official said.
In 2008, the United States approved an Israeli request for bunker-busters capable of destroying underground facilities, including Iranian nuclear weapons sites. Officials said delivery of the weapons was held up by the administration of President Barack Obama.
Since taking office, Obama has refused to approve any major Israeli requests for U.S. weapons platforms or advanced systems. Officials said this included proposed Israeli procurement of AH-64D Apache attack helicopters, refueling systems, advanced munitions and data on a stealth variant of the F-15E.
"All signs indicate that this will continue in 2010," a congressional source familiar with the Israeli military requests said. "This is really an embargo, but nobody talks about it publicly."...
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I originally wrote this in response to the discussion about the possible withholding of arms for Israel. This evolved into a discussion of arms trade involving Israeli inventions, the US prevention thereof and some other issues that got me thinking... Read More
I don't know about an American embargo but the Brits effectively have put one in place although they claim "this isn't an embargo:"
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1099701.html
This should come as no surprise to anybody who has read a history book.
BUT it sucks.
I sure hope this isn't true on our part.
Whether true or not, the writing is on the wall. Israel had better find a new supplier & partner, at least for the next 3 years. Obama will be doing his best to help his Islamic brethren.
For starters Israel has to unequivocally terminate its involvement in the F-35 JSF program.
Pretty sure the Israelis have been courting the Chinese, with US technology transfers to China, already.
EV you base this on what?
I think you are outright lying.
Google is your friend.
http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=israel+china+weapons&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
Are you talking about the Common Dreams piece?
I see some others linked too but most are years old and pretty speculative about Israeli sales of American stuff but it's a fact and a significant issue that there is technology Israel has developed and which the US won't allow it to sell. China is the main fear, you're correct about that, though they do get most of their stuff from Russia I think.
The fact is the US has blocked Israel from selling its very own inventions. This costs them a lot of money which is ironic considering that people turn around and bitch about the loan guarantees we make to Israel for weapons which have to be bought here.
In fact that's a common theme on the blogs since The Great Apartment Calamity - people are hammering the Israelis for receiving aid - usually the amount quoted is vastly out of proportion to reality - and aid to the Arabs is not mentioned of course - let alone vast rivers of oil money - and Israel is thus seen as Biting The Hand That Feeds It.
It's depressing. Theoretically Israel is a sovereign state. But actually it's a vassal and probably more vulnerable to us than Lebanon is to Syria. When people like Samantha Power start talking about attacking the Israelis it scares me.
This also serves to keep the Israelis dependent upon us and in the past this has been a problem for them, for example in 1973.
The Brits wouldn't resupply them at all which is why Israel developed the Merkava.
It makes one wonder what the Brits expected to happen - I don't know if you've read much about 1973 but it was a near disaster and the defense of the Golan is now a classic example of defensive warfare but the cost was appalling. Had Kissinger not finally prevailed upon Nixon to send some supplies - Nixon has actually been quoted as saying he wanted to see the Israelis bleed.
I honestly don't know what is expected of Israel. Their backs are up against a wall and have been since Day #1 and before that there was the Holocaust and that was on top of centuries and centuries of abuse. Even so they've created a very dynamic and complex society and managed to integrate people from all over the world, plus Arabs, Muslims, and Christians and all while fighting nonstop for their lives.
Why are America and Europe so equivocal about Israel's existence? The US is better than Europe but we haven't always been very supportive and now we're arming the Palestinians. What if the "security forces" trained by General Dayton and armed and supported by us turn on the PA and/or Israel or go over to Hamas? I also think Europe or at least many people in Europe, particularly in Britain would be ok with Israel being destroyed. I hope I am wrong.
PS, if I had known that Commondreams was considered a reliable site in this neck of the woods I'd have used it to substantiate my assertion that Reagan sold biological and chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein.
EV, I'm shocked. Here you are quoting a "progressive" blog, working for change and all.
I'm impressed.
EV,
US technology transfers to China
Clinton did something far worse than anything the Israelis have done and besides, go do some research and find out how much Israeli technology is being used by the US and what proportion of Silicon Valley is basically Israeli created, and for example back in 2005 or so the State of Virginia was looking for Israeli biotech startups to set up shop in there.
I didnt know Google was a progressive blog.
Anyways, there is a history of Israel courting the Chinese with US (and Israeli) technology, which has cyclicly pissed off the US.
Cynic, Im not really interested in that, though I have no doubt that what you say is true, that the Israelis are smart whips and have been influential to US Silicon Valley and Biotech industry....and vice versa.
That is really besides the point of Israel courting the Chinese with US technology transfers.
And yes, I know all about Clinton's reclassifying National Security technology, transferring it to the Commerce Dept, and transferring it to the Chinese, all the while raking in the campaign donations, clandestine side business interests in Asian firms, and Chinese spies in the White House, while Commerce Secretary ends up dead in plane crash in the Balkans under mysterious circumstances.
Clinton is a schmuck.
EV,
Cynic, Im not really interested in that, though I have no doubt that what you say is true, that the Israelis are smart whips and have been influential to US Silicon Valley and Biotech industry....and vice versa.
Not what I was trying to get across.
A lot of the technology transfer was as simple as the American made battery that was used in a weapons platform.
The case of the AWACS type plane was purely Israeli technology but the US got uptight at the thought of the Chinese being able to watch things in the South China Sea.
If it wasn't for the algorithms developed by Israeli mathematicians it would have been a darn sight harder to get all those pics from Mars, for example.
And then of course all those changes to American weapons platforms that the Israelis R&Ded.
So all that the Israelis accomplished can only be be for the bully on the block?
Brushing aside such considerations while attempting to paint the Israelis as untrustworthy, to put it mildly, does nothing for your integrity when pleading for the sake of the whites in Europe.