The American Honey Trap

The stealth deal is leading us exactly in the opposite direction — increased dependence on American weapons, obstruction of Israeli industry and another obstruction to our ability to protect the country from threats to our existence.

Did you hear what Obama proposed?

What?

Stealth F-35 fighter airplanes!

And why do we need that?

Are you asking seriously, or are you kidding…

No, no — deadly serious. Why do we need American fighter aircrafts?

Did you forget that Israel is under an existential threat, that our neighbors want to eliminate us?

And what is the biggest threat?

The Iranian nuke, of course!

But why don’t we bomb the Iranian nuke with the American fighters we already have?

Do you think that Israel can do whatever she wants? There is international pressure; we’re lucky to

have the Americans still standing by us.

And what are they going to do if we bomb anyway?

They are going to stop selling us aircraft parts.

Stop selling parts for the aircrafts they have supplied?

Yes — this is how the experts explain it. We don’t bomb Iran, because if we do, they won’t sell us

parts for American aircrafts.

So, you’re saying that we’re not capable of defending ourselves from the most dangerous threat because we have American fighter jets.

Ah?

And now you want to add some more American aircrafts so that we would even be more unable to cope with the most serious existential threat we face.

Just a moment — so what are you suggesting, that we throw the American fighters into the trash?

The sooner, the better.

We have also won without American weapons

There is nothing more harmful for the security of Israel than American arms, and it seems to me that the little exercise we have explains that in a very clear way.

And what are you going to fight with — sticks and stones?

Until 1967, we didn’t have American weaponry, yet in the War of Independence, the Sinai War and in the miracle war known as the Six-Day War, we obtained a far more convincing result than in all of the war campaigns to come later — when we already had these weapons.

Today, our defense is indeed based on them, and to get rid of the American arms in the same day is impossible. But Israel can develop and produce the most state-of-the-art weapons in the world. She has already proven that, and she needs to enter an accelerated process of transition to develop Israeli systems — including fighter jets.

Why do you think the Americans are not ready for you to insert Israeli schemes into F-35s?

Because they know that Israeli avionics is more advanced from what they have to offer, and they want to block local development. They want us not to do exactly what we have to. They’re doing so both in order to safeguard their arms industry from competition and in order to preserve our total dependence on them.

The platform for stealth aircraft could be produced by Israel jointly with air industries of other countries that are looking forward to such a cooperation. Alternatively, Israel also could produce the platform by herself — just as she did in the Lavi project*. What’s certain is that the F-35 deal leads us exactly in the opposite direction — increased dependence on American weapons, another obstruction in front of Israeli industry and most importantly, another barrier in front of our capability to protect our country from the gravest threats to existence.

*Translator’s note: An Israeli combat aircraft developed in the 1980s.