[DOWNLOAD] "Israel's Eastward March, Arming India (Israel-Report: Israel-Arms)" by The Weekly Middle East Reporter (Beirut, Lebanon) * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Israel's Eastward March, Arming India (Israel-Report: Israel-Arms)
- Author : The Weekly Middle East Reporter (Beirut, Lebanon)
- Release Date : January 18, 2009
- Genre: Reference,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 65 KB
Description
The day that Osama bin Laden's suicide squads unleashed their terrible wrath on the United States, Major General Uzi Dayan, who in 2001 headed Israel's National Security Council and was a key adviser to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was conducting a "strategic dialogue" in New Delhi with his Indian counterpart, Brajesh Mishra, and other top officials. Dayan's presence in the Indian capital on September 11 was, of course, pure happenstance. But it underlined how events in the Middle East and Asia are becoming increasingly entwined and how Israel's influence in South and Central Asia is forging ahead by leaps and bounds. The events of that fateful day cemented a strategic relationship that has never stopped growing from its clandestine beginnings in the 1960s. Since India recognized Israel in 1992, the Jewish state has become one of India's most important defense suppliers, second only to Russia. Over the last decade or so, Israel has sold India weapons systems and military technology worth an estimated $10 billion. Even so, the Israelis are reluctant to discuss this burgeoning relationship with India, whose often bumpy relationship with the US has strengthened immensely since the 9/11 attacks. Ephraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, recently noted: "It's an extremely sensitive issue. With both countries basically facing similar threats of terrorist incursions, I believe the Indians have come to value more than ever their strategic cooperative relationship with Israel because of the weapons, technology and operational experience we offer them." The alliance may have blossomed with both countries facing the common threat of Islamist terrorism. But over the years it has expanded into a much more profound relationship, nurtured by the United States. This is changing the geostrategic landscape in the Middle East and Asia, primarily targeting Iran and China. The Americans have often used Israel as a stalking horse in extending Washington's influence. General Ahmed Abdel Halim of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs noted recently: "The US has allowed Israel to become a broker for procuring weapons in cases where the US does not want to demonstrate direct engagement, such as in the case of India, or when the US desires to improve its political and economic relations by consolidating direct technological and military cooperation between Israel and India."