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Israeli Security Delusion
Israeli Security Delusion
Arab
neighbors as well as violent Palestinian factions. However, in recent years, the threat to Israel has
drastically decreased and yet the Israeli government still plays the security threat card. This is
quite ironic, seeing as how in today’s world, Israel has no serious threats to its security and is
able to defend itself.
Israel has stated multiple times in the past that other Middle Eastern nations want to attack it, but
most recently the focus has been on Iran. Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated that Iran is
“barreling toward developing a nuclear weapon, and openly declaring their desire to destroy
Israel. In the face of these repeated pledges to remove the Jewish state from the earth.”[1]
However, this ignores the fact that Israel gets tremendous amounts of military aid from the
United States. This year alone they are to get $2.85 billion and from 2013-2018, Israel is to
receive $3.15 billion in American military aid annually. [2] The US government has said that
America’s commitment to Israel is “unshakable, and [the United States] should understand the
consequences of threats to the Jewish state.” [3] Going back to Iran, in April 2011 Common
Dreams stated:
While the Israeli government constantly sounds alarms about imagined Iranian
nuclear weapons - though its intelligence services now suggest Iran won’t have even
one before 2015 at the earliest -- Israel remains the region’s only nuclear power for the
foreseeable future. It possesses up to 200 nukes, in addition to “a significant number” of
precision-guided 1,000 kg conventional bombs. (emphasis added)
While 2015 is only a mere four years away, in late 2010 the Ha’aretz newspaper stated that
“Israel's multi-layered air defense network will be fully deployed by 2015, combining short-
range rocket interceptors with kamikaze satellites that blow up ballistic missiles in space.” [4]
Thus even if Iran gets nuclear weapons, Israel will be able to sufficiently defend themselves.
A second argument that Israel consistently uses is that they are threatened by Hamas rockets.
However this can no longer be used as Israel now has the Iron Dome which was proven
successful on April 7th as it successfully knocked out “a Grad rocket fired towards the southern
city from the Gaza Strip.” [6] The Iron Dome can now defend Israel from Hamas rocket attacks.
Finally, a major reason why Israel has been able to defend itself is due to US military aid, as was
touched on earlier. In a 2010 Congressional Research Service report on Israel, it read that for
2011
The Israeli government can no longer play the security threat card. No matter how one cuts it, at
the end of the day, Israel is more than capable of defending itself and thus the Israeli government
must put an end to its paranoid mindset that somehow the entire Arab world is out to get them.
Endnotes
1: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-iran-wants-to-destroy-israel-and-the-
world-remains-silent-1.284074
2: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/foreign_aid.html
3: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/30/hillary-clinton-israel-commitment
4: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-missile-defense-to-be-completed-by-
2015-officials-say-1.324836
5: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-
+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian+terror+since+2000/Victims+of+Palestinian+Violence+and+Ter
rorism+sinc.htm
6: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4053837,00.html
7: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf
8: http://www.jewishisrael.org/eng_contents/articles/70/article7035.html
9: http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-comparison.asp