It’s widely known that Israel is one of the largest arms exporters in the world. It is the seventh largest exporter of weapons systems worldwide, while it’s GDP, $350-billion, ranks 32nd in the world.
Israel profits from its status as a permanent garrison state engaged in perpetual war with its frontline neighbors in order develop, test, and deploy advanced weapons systems which maximize the death and suffering of its enemies. Then it turns around and exports not just the weapons systems, but the suffering they cause. In effect, just as Israel destabilizes the Middle East with its constant invasions, assassinations, air assaults and repeated military operations outside its own borders, so it offers its customers the same capability to inflict damage on their own rivals and enemies. Israel is a major force for destabilization among the nations of the world.
Half of its weapons sales are to India, whose government is also engaged in an illegal occupation of Muslim Kashmir. It is the largest supplier of weapons to India as well.
What is much less well-known is that Israel has willingly sold weapons to some of the worst human rights violators in the world. Among them, a number of states engaged in genocide. It has engaged in this trade over many decades. The list includes Rwanda, South Sudan, Serbia, and Myanmar.
Israeli Arms Sales to Sri Lankan Army Engaged in Genocide Against Tamils
Today, Israeli human rights activists appealed to a district court to lift a gag order censoring official documents which prove that the defense ministry approved sales of advanced weapons systems to the Sri Lankan government and its avowed enemy, the Tamil Tigers. This aided its extermination of the Tamil Tigers rebel group which had fought a decades-long civil war.
Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese leaders have been accused of genocide and war crimes. Over 100,000 died at the hands of both the rebels and government forces. In one particularly gruesome 2006 attack, an Israeli Kfir war plane bombed an orphanage housing 400 children. 52 of them were killed along with two caregivers. Earlier, in 1999, another Israeli war plane attacked a school, killing 21 children and teachers.
It’s no wonder that after the conclusion of his Sri Lankan military service (when he was responsible for many of these massacres), its chief of staff was appointed the nation’s ambassador to Israel.
Unfortunately, the Israeli judge ruled against the activists claiming that protecting the secrecy of the arms sales (even though Sri Lanka itself has already publicly exposed the trade) was more important than the public’s right to know. One has to ask: how does suppressing evidence of the military’s participation in genocide protect the Israeli state? As I’ve written here many times before, you must have a tremendously warped notion of what constitutes national security to believe that keeping such information secret actually protects the country. Only in a national security state can such a notion exist. No democratic nation would see rendering such things secret as healthy.
John Brown, the Israeli journalist who wrote this report in Haaretz, appealed on Facebook for readers to read his article before the judge ordered it suppressed. I’ve linked to an archived version in case he does so.
UPDATE: I don’t know what took the judge so long (apparently he doesn’t read this blog) but he’s finally done what Brown expected and censored a portion of the Haaretz story. But as I mentioned, if you follow the link above you can read the original, uncensored article which has been archived.
When Duterte Came Shopping for Israeli Guns
Philippines’ President and accused war-criminal, Rodrigo Duterte, just completed a highly successful visit to Israel, during which he signed contracts to purchase some of Israel’s most advanced weapons. Duterte stands accused of the murder of tens of thousands of Filipinos targeted in so-called drug busts. Among the shrines this thug visited was Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the Holocaust. The Philippine leader has, in the past, expressed admiration for Hitler and likened himself to the Nazi dictator, presumably because the former saw himself as eradicating the plague of drugs in his country as Hitler eradicated the “plague” of Jews.
There appears to be no dictator too brutal, no thug too murderous to be considered treif as far as the Israeli arms industry is concerned.
It’s worth nothing that Duterte expressed special praise for Israel’s ask-no-questions approach to weapons sales. Unlike the U.S., Israel placed no restrictions on their use. It asked no questions and expected no answers from clients.
Arming Serbian and Rwandan War Criminals
In 2016, Brown also revealed that Israel supplied military training and weapons to the Serbian war criminal, Radko Mladic, who commanded Serbian forces which perpetrated the massacre at Srebrenica. Israel appears to have flipped Will Rogers famous saying, “I never met a man I didn’t like,” on its head: it has never met a ruthless genocidaire it wouldn’t do business with.
Yet another Israeli court refused to release documentary evidence that Israel armed the Rwandan militias which ultimately murdered 800,000 Tutsis during the genocide. Apparently, a court determined that Israel’s facilitation of genocide was news the world should not hear, because it would hurt the country’s reputation.
You’re damn straight it would. Israel, which touts itself as the protector of world Jewry in the aftermath of the Holocaust in which 6-million Jews were exterminated, has been a willing participant in some of the worst instances of genocide since the Holocaust. This is unspeakable behavior.
Myanmar’s Ethnic-Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims Aided by Israeli Naval Warships
Last year, during the ethnic cleansing of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority, the same group of Israelis activists led by attorney, Eitay Mack, brought to the public’s attention Israeli arms sales to the Myanmar military junta. As the world shrinks in digust from former Nobel Peace Prize laureate and genocide apologist, Aung Sun Suu Kyi, Israel embraces her generals who’ve wiped out entire villages in Rakine State. Nevertheless, the Israeli military and their arms dealer partners became so uncomfortable they suspended such arms sales. Of course, this means that as soon as the furor around the expulsion of 500,000 Rohingya from their homes dies down, the commerce will resume.
IDF Acknowledges for First Time Supplying Arms and Ammunition to Syrian Islamists
Another major story that broke today in Israel is the censoring of a Jerusalem Post article (displayed here) which confirmed for the first time that the IDF has supplied weapons and ammunition to the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra. I’ve reported here before that the Israeli military has physically coördinated with these Islamist rebels, providing intelligence gathering and communications gear. It also built a camp just inside the Israeli occupation zone in the Golan which housed the families of Syrian militant fighters.
Until now, Israel only touted its humanitarian and medical aid to Syrian rebels, pretending that this somehow served as Israel’s contribution to ameliorating the suffering of Syrians during the civil war. Otherwise, Israel has falsely claimed it is either neutral in the Syrian conflict, or restrained in its involvement. It is neither. But that hasn’t stopped credulous journalists from parroting the Israeli line. It has flown hundreds of air sorties attacking Syrian air bases and targeting Hezbollah and Iranian weapons convoys. Further, it has assassinated leading Syrian, Iranian and Hezbollah military commanders inside Syria.
It’s hard to know why an IDF officer offered this information to an Israeli reporter, while the army censor countermanded him and declared the story treif and censored it. It appears the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.
Israel has made these alliances with Syrian Islamists as its prime minister has toured the world boasting that his country is the last bulwark against Islamist terrorism; that the West should thank Israel for warning of such terror attacks on European soil; and that ISIS and al-Qaeda seek first to destroy Israel and then follow up by invading the west. It doesn’t seem to bother him at all to make common cause with the self-same al-Qaeda when his country’s interests are aligned with Israel’s. Few world leaders or journalists have noted the ultimate cynicism of this Israeli gambit. I presume that in the brave new world of IHRA-era Great Britain, such news would be greeted with charges of anti-Semitism.
Good. I’m glad all of this is out on the table for the Israelis who read this blog because their [spoiler title=” “]country[/spoiler]
check that, their army censorship board is too cowardly to let the citizenry of Israel know just where the weapons IMI Systems (Ta’as) and the IAI built are going to after they are sold…..and it turns out they are being sold to crazy regimes and insurgent forces that act as proxies for Israel! Truly should fill their hearts with pride, knowing Israel is pulling similar stunts to the ones Russia and the United States have been pulling for decades.
Hi Richard,
Please provide some proof that the Indian State of Kashmir and Jammu is illegally occupied by India.
I searched the web, and I can find no proof of your claim.
Please provide some proof to the claim that the Sri Lankan government engaged in genocide against the Tamils.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch haven’t made claims of genocide. What’s your source?
Richard, you’ve been claiming for some time that Israel had provided weapons and aid to the al Nusra terrorist organisation. Now that Foreign Policy magazine has exposed Israel’s support of Syrian rebels, where’s the proof that Israel supported al Nusra? According to Foreign Policy, Israel did aid some Syrian militias, but al Nusra isn’t named as having received Israeli weapons or aid, as you claim. So who’s right?.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/06/in-secret-program-israel-armed-and-funded-rebel-groups-in-southern-syria/
@ Li Hing Lo: I repeat: I don’t do your homework for you. You do that BEFORE you post ill-informed, ill-researched comments.
Here are some links declaring India’s occupation of Kashmir illegal:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Kashmir-illegally-occupied-by-India-JNU-professor-says-in-controversial-speech/articleshow/51329622.cms
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/10/day-kashmir-marks-1947-indian-army-arrival-171027122649223.html
https://www.mediamonitors.net/indias-occupation-of-kashmir-illegal/
Furthermore, do not ever try to turn this into a challenge game in which you demand that I offer proof of my claims. If you believe my claims are wrong, you prove that they are with credible sources. I don’t need to prove my claims to you. And I don’t play this stupid game of…”now please prove this” or “prove that.”
As for the Syrian rebels, who do you think they are? They are al Nusra of course, which is affiliated with al Qaeda (despite claims it has renounced such a connection). Any short Google search would prove this. Again, don’t waste my time. If I say Israel supports al Nusra it does. If you don’t believe it’s true then find a source that argues otherwise and try to prove me wrong. You won’t. But if you find a credible source countering what I’ve written, bring it on.
Sources confirming Israeli aid and close coordination with al Nusra:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/israel-squares-showdown-iran-syria-180212121132930.html
https://electronicintifada.net/content/why-has-israel-embraced-al-qaidas-branch-syria/14619
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5038195,00.html
I’m sorry. I thought that France, along with Egypt and South Africa, was the major arms supplier to the Rwandan government during the early 1990’s.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-gallimore/a-closer-look-at-where-rw_b_5135559.html
I thought that most of the killings in Rwanda in 1994 were carried out with machetes and clubs during a 100 day period, thereby ruling out Israel as an accessory to genocide.
Does author Linda Melvern state anywhere in her book, ‘Conspiracy to Murder’, that Israel supplied arms to Rwandan genocidaires. No she doesn’t.
https://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-Murder-Genocide-Linda-Melvern/dp/1859845886/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
@ Li Hing Lo: WHen you post a comment, read carefully what I’ve written and respond directly and precisely to that. If I say for example that Israel supported the Rwandan mass murderers, do not argue as if I claimed that Israel was the “major arms supplier” to them. Because I didn’t say that. So deal with what I write, not what you’d prefer me to have written.
As for the methods of mass murder: yes, many killers used what was at hand. But the machete-wielders were backed by the soldiers with Israeli weapons. Without this “muscle” the machete wielders would have themselves been overwhelmed and massacred.
As for Linda Melvern, I have no idea who she is nor why I need to respond to the fact that she allegedly doesn’t mention Israel in her book about Rwanda. I have never heard of her. So whether she considered a credible scholar or authority on the subject, I have no idea. But I have read numerous articles in Haaretz, 972 Magazine and elsewhere which provide clear and compelling evidence of Israeli arms trade, military training & overall culpability for the genocide:
https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-the-israeli-guns-in-the-rwanda-genocide-1.5355564
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/did-israel-arm-rwanda-during-1994-genocide-518122380
https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/172000/afr020141995en.pdf
Firstly, The Jerusalem Post article you cite DOES NOT SAY that Israel provided weapons and ammo to al Nusra.
It simply doesn’t say that.
Second. The conclusory claims of one ‘researcher’ and one university professor, doesn’t come close to proving that the Indian States of Jammu and Kashmir are ‘illegally’ occupied. Sorry.
Lastly, and most important, the Amnesty report states that, “Reports of secret arms flights to the exiled former FAR and Interahamwe via Goma [Zaire] airport date back to July 1994.”
This means that the Israeli arms, probably shipped by unscrupulous arms dealers, and not the State of Israel, were sold to the Rwandan Army AFTER they were defeated in the field by Tutsi rebels and exiled from Rwanda to Zaire.
This means that no Israeli weapons were ever used to commit the genocide of April-July, 1994.
Still waiting to hear back on those Tamil genocide claims.
@ Li Hing Lo: The sources I offered (and there were many others, I chose to list only three) confirm that Israel provided weapons to al Nusra. I don’t care what the Post does or doesn’t say. The other sources do confirm it and they are only two of many other possible sources to offer.
As for Kashmir, you didn’t ask me to prove to your satisfaction that India occupies Kashmir (a challenge I’d reject anyway). You only asked me to provide sources which claim this, which I did. My job isn’t to make you happy or satisfy you. It’s to be clear and accurate and tell the truth.
Regarding Rwanda, I don’t care how you are interpreting one of the many sources I offered. You’ve conveniently omitted the others because you know they do prove that the Israeli government officially supported the genocidaires. Of course, Israel supported Kagame too and continues to do so, despite his having become a genocidaire himself.
It means nothing of the sort.
You are rapidly becoming insufferable. Do not make claims you cannot support with credible sources. Do not use a single source and ignore other inconvenient sources which contradict you. You are arguing in bad faith, which is characteristic of hasbaroids.
And as for Sir Lanka, you don’t speak on behalf of human rights NGOs as to what they believe. If you have evidence that Amnesty & HRW do not believe Sri Lanka committed genocide, then offer it with credible sources. Your word is not a credible source. Here are numerous sources which say it was genocide (which it clearly was):
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kwxz4m/death-of-a-tiger-0000710-v22n8
http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/sri-lanka
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/11/04/sri_lankas_hidden_genocide.html
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/very-fair-to-say-sl-army-committed-genocide-former-un-staffer/articleshow/62673044.cms
I can feel your time rapidly coming to a close here. Make sure to keep your ticket to Ben GUrion with you so you have it when you need it.
Do not comment further in this thread.
I do believe Israel had been involved with government it really shouldn’t have. I’m surprised you didn’t bring up the nuclear dealing with South Africa.
But… You really didn’t answer to Li about Kashmir. You wrote the ruling of India there is illegal. Period. No question marks. But at most it is contested (or you may choose another word). There is no one UN condemnation of India.
Maybe Israel sales to Spain should join the list because of Catalans or the Philippines because of the Muslims in the south island.
@ Yoni: Isn’t it an interesting coincidence that settlers and their fellow travelers refuse to say the West Bank is “occupied,” but rather call it “contested.” As if the world understands there are two parties with an equal claim to the territory–which there aren’t. India occupied Kashmir. No one in the world recognizes Kashmir as Indian.
As for Israeli arms sales to the Philippines, didn’t you bother to read the post? That was part of my post. Do NOT write a comment here without reading the entire post and all of the links in it. Doing this will eliminate embarrassment for you (if it’s possible for you to be embarrassed).
Do not comment further in this thread.
Great, great article. Hope this gets republished a few times.
Yossi Cohen clearly believes also that creating a whirlpool of instability around Israel serves Israel. In many ways, it does. But the instability doesn’t only create opportunities for Israel. Israel can destabilize, but it matters more who fixes it. So, the policy justification is weak. The demonstrated evidence shows that Israel’s destabilizing actions have concluded in backfire and benefit to Israel’s opponents nearly every time.
Israel complains at the same of Iranian presence in Syria. What/who provided the Iranians pretext to be in Syria and have to engage militarily on whatever level in that theater? Israel and its destabilizing strategy. Israel went to destabilize Syria; Iran came in and stabilized it.
Finally, and most aggravating to me personally, is how there is zero concern for blow-back against Jews worldwide here based on Israel’s sinister actions pretty much everywhere.
Israel destabilized Syria???
I guess it also destabilized Algeria, Egyptand Libya during the Arab Spring.
Richard writes – “constant invasions, assassinations, air assaults and repeated military operations outside its own borders” – but I really have hard time figuring out to what he refers. Last big operation outside of the borders was 2nd Lebanon war in 2006.
@ Yoni: Israel generally meddles in the affairs of frontline states like Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, etc. It only meddles in the affairs of other Arab states if they’re directly involved in activities perceived to threaten Israel. So no need to intervene in Algeria, etc. since it’s not a threat. But Israel has intervened in Egypt contrary to your claim. But not to support the democratic forces, but to support the military murderers who it prefers to rule. Similarly it did destabilize Libya, again contrary to your claim, by supporting another military murderer, Gen. Haftar.
As for Israeli assaults, what do you call Gaza? Part of Israel? If so, thanks for acknowledging Israel occupies Gaza. Most hasbaroids try to avoid this admission like the plague. Israel routinely pummels Gaza and has done so multiple times in the past few years. Israel also routinely participates in attacks against Islamist rebels in Sinai on behalf of the junta killers who rule there. Israel intervention inside Syria is a massive undertaking as well involving hundreds of air sorties, assassinations, military patrols inside Syria, supplying al Nusra fighters there.
Yoni: face it. You’re not up to this. Please tell Hasbara Central that we require a suitable adversary in the comment threads. Don’t send a [hasba]boy to do a man’s job (sorry for the unspoken misogyny in that phrase).
[comment deleted: comments must contain a cogent argument and be directly related to the subject of the post. Yours wasn’t.]
Didn’t you claim lately that the fence between Gaza and Israel isn’t a border at all?
And deleting messages is an infantile way to deal with arguments you can’t answer.
Do you Yoni claim that the walls and fences between Israel and West Bank are not a border, but the Gaza fence is? Do you claim that the walls and fence between Poland and Warsaw Ghetto were not a border, but the Gaza fence is? Is Yoni the fence around Synagogue in Helsinki a border or only a fence?
@ Yoni: Listen closely. My patience is wearing thin. I make editorial decisions. Not you. If you don’t like my decisions, go elsewhere. If you complain about my editorial decisions that will make your stay here that much shorter. I don’t delete your comments because I can’t answer them. I delete them because I have clearly written comment rules and they state that a comment must have a point, an argument, something substantive about it. If you rail or snark or offer your own unsupported opinion, that violates the rules & will get your comment deleted. Follow the rules and that won’t happen to you.
I have no idea what the Gaza fence has to do with anything. Another good idea is to place into context whatever you’re trying to say. Relate it in some way to whatever your point is. Otherwise, no one can follow what you’re saying.
I told you not to comment further in this thread. You did. Therefore you are moderated. Only future comments respecting the rules will be published.
@ Elizabeth: I pitched this post as an article to The Nation, which I was really hoping would take it. Alas, it didn’t.
“an Israeli Kfir war plane“ , “another Israeli war plane” – please fix to Israeli-made. This is misleading!
@ Yoni: No, it’s not misleading. I never said Israelis piloted the planes. Clearly, Sri Lankans did. I said the planes were Israeli and they are.