The Russia & Israel 'Drone' Deal Highlights The Importance Of Economics Over Humanity
The deal struck by these two countries, whom most of us believed did not get on, shows us the global reach that cash has. Not even religion holds as much sway in this day and age. Cash is the king! This is no major revelation to most of us, but this latest international 'defence deal' does show us the ridiculousness that goes on in global politics. It's crazy to think that Russia, one of the biggest supporters of the Palestinians and the Iranians, would make defence purchases from Israel. No matter how big or small the purchase, it will surely benefit the development of the Israeli defence industry in general, which could only hamper, or possibly end, the lives of many Palestinians in particular. Let's not forget it was Israeli drones that guided the Israeli missiles which killed so many civilians in its recent invasion of Gaza.
July.01.2009 - George Valentine Corr, Blatant News Editor
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THIS POLICY IS WIDESPREAD
Russia is not on it's own, a great many countries do exactly this kind of thing. Our governments sell arms to other governments which they then publicly vilify for humanitarian reasons. We say that these contracts are worth a great number of jobs in our countries, and then people just assume that it is for the public good. But this is not the case. The vast majority of income from most defence contracts will actually end up in the pockets of the companies' owners. This is an industry afterall! Generally the government holds the 'talks' and signs the contracts, and then the deal is presented to the media & public. But after that the governments usually have very little to do with those contracts. They have been negotiated on behalf of private defence contractors, and it is them who will be engaged in the deal. They will manufacture, distribute and make profit from their military wares, and the local economy will benefit from jobs created, hence more cash in the economy, and also from jobs created in support industries that may be needed. But generally it is assumed that these defence contractors draw considerable percentages of profit from these deals, so it actually mystifies me as to why our governments would publicly announce them as if they are some great hospital-building scheme for the greater good.
THE RUSSIAN-ISRAELI DRONE DEAL
During the recent Russian-Georgian conflict, Russia had used a Tipchak 'Unmanned Ariel Vehicle' (UAV) drone to gather surveillance, but they found it far inferior to the Israeli drones which the Georgians were using. Since then some Russian military chiefs have praised the Israeli drones in the media, an unusual move for the Russians, and now we know why. Russia have done a deal to take an un-named number of unmanned surveillance drones from Israel for about US$50m. The Russians say that they will reverse-engineer the drones and use whatever technological advances that the Israeli's have come up with, to bring the technology in their own drones up to date. It seems that profit does not come into it, as the Israeli's are willing to give away their technology for a paltry sum, by defence standards, so there must be something much bigger to play for.
REASONS FOR THE DEAL
Israel is apparently being out-straight about why they are selling the UAV's to the Russians. They want to build bridges with one of the major supporters of the people of Gaza, the West Bank and Iran, some of Israel's most passionate adversary's. Russia says it is doing this deal simply for the technology. But there are also geo-political issues surrounding this deal, and of course the economic realities. Although Russia has always supported the Palestinian's in times of crisis', it has never sent troops to defend it's people. A common notion for this is the perceived threat of America hanging over the Russians, so they could never act. But the Russians have also been involved behind the scenes with the Israeli's for many years, and in Moscow there is a very strong Israeli lobby group who have been working hard for decades to bring the Russians around. And they see economic partnerships as being the best way to achieve some togetherness with the Russians, tactics which are beginning to pay off over the past few years.
OTHER RUSSIAN-ISRAELI DEFENCE DEALS
Nowadays there are many other defence contracts that link the two nations. Over the weekend on Irish radio I listened to a senior Israeli civil servant speaking about the deal, and his belief is that the two countries are in a long-term strategy of trying to corner certain sections of the defence market, as a double entity. They are currently the biggest defence suppliers to India, one of the world's biggest buyers, and only recently they have delivered some AWACS early-warning surveillance aircraft to India. It is a Russian-made aircraft with an Israeli radar onboard, and part of a US$1bn defence deal which Israel has with India. India is expected to purchase up to about $US100bn of military equipment and arms in the next 10 years, and recently they have done deals with Israel for missiles, and with Russia for fighter jets. As part of the drone deal that Russia and Israel have just signed, Russia has agreed not to sell an advanced air defence missile system to Iran, as had been planned. It has also stopped the sale of fighter jets and a similar air defence missile system to Syria. It seems that Israel's enemies are fast running out of places to buy their weaponry.
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