The Israeli arms industry has always been infused with hubris. This arrogance is due to the state selling weapons, surveillance tech and drones to more than 140 countries in recent decades.
Much of the world has come to rely on Israeli expertise in this area, with weapons and tech tested first on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Israel has used its mass slaughter in Gaza as the ultimate showroom for killer drones, mass destruction, AI-enabled warfare and the strategy of bulldozing entire neighbourhoods.
And yet now, two years after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the first hint of fear has entered the industry.
Amid news that Spain is cutting multiple arms deals with Israel to protest the Gaza genocide, a source in the Israeli defence sector told the local financial outlet Calcalist: “After the war, they will come back on all fours. They need our weapons more than we need them. Spain is a small market, but we must remain vigilant about other, larger markets.”
Perhaps western countries will come begging again, and many European nations continue to buy Israeli arms – but the image of Israel as a pariah state wasn’t nearly as mainstream as it is now, after an avalanche of photos, videos, testimony and evidence of Israeli war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories and beyond.
Another Israeli arms executive told Calcalist that Israel could continue to trade on its battlefield-tested armaments: “Israel’s technological superiority is undeniable, and many countries want our systems,” the source said. “But they prefer to wait until the Gaza war ends and global attention shifts.
“Meanwhile, customers can’t wait forever. Some are already exploring alternatives. Defence contracts take years to finalise. If this situation continues, we will see a decline in exports by 2026 and feel the blow fully in 2027. If deterioration is stopped now, demand and Israel’s strong reputation can still carry us. But if recklessness continues, we could face a very different reality.”
Catastrophic collapse in support
The latest official figures for the Israeli arms industry are for 2024, and they show a massive and growing sector, worth just under $15bn – giving the impression that there’s a mammoth global appetite for Israeli weapons and tech.
The Economist last month ran a story with the headline: “How Israel’s arms exports have made it sanctions-proof”, amid Europe’s desperate need to protect itself from perceived and real Russian aggression. “Israel gains diplomatic insurance by supplying weapons crucial to Europe’s defence,” the magazine noted.
There’s an element of truth in this statement. The arms industry has never been one to embrace morality, and India and Arab states continue to trade with Israel. This will not likely stop without a global and sustained movement to fully isolate Israel economically. We are not there yet.
But the headwinds are moving in a direction without precedent in living memory. Public opinion in most western countries is reflecting a catastrophic collapse in support for Israel and the Netanyahu government, including among American Jews.
Nonetheless, Israel still enjoys a great deal of success, because decades of dehumanising Palestinians has rendered them “unpeople”; or, as British historian Mark Curtis explains, “expendables” who are discarded in the pursuit of nefarious state goals.
Palestinian lives and suffering are routinely mocked (or just ignored) in much of the western mainstream media. The New York Times can editorialise about the Gaza war and urge Palestinians there to be deradicalised, while ignoring the arguably more important fact that Israeli Jewish society has carried out a genocide since 7 October 2023, while holdings extreme views about Arabs and the rights of Palestinians to even live in the same land.
Israeli journalist Nir Hasson, writing for Haaretz, says the catastrophe unleashed by Israel in Gaza has “destroyed the foundations on which the State of Israel was built: the international legitimacy, the diplomatic and economic relations with the Arab world and the solidarity within Israeli society”.
‘Israel cannot live as Sparta’
It’s this legitimacy that Israel and Zionism have always craved, and they’re currently facing a deficit that hundreds of millions of dollars in propaganda are unlikely to shift.
But here’s the rub: the Palestine laboratory has thrived for so long because countless nations and their leaders have not cared that Palestinians were the guinea pigs for the weapons and surveillance tech that they so desperately craved to oppress their own peoples and unwanted minorities.
Has this calculation changed since 7 October 2023? In some nations, there’s no doubt. Look at Spain and Colombia. But is it enough to radically affect the Israeli defence sector and bring it to its knees? We can live in hope, but I remain sceptical.
The ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and the hopeful end to the war, will only encourage Israel to push for more weapons deaks, in the hope that international pressure and attention will decrease.
There are too many awful regimes, both democratic and despotic, that don’t care about human rights or equality, and would love nothing more than to buy spyware or killer quadcopters from Israel.
Let’s end on a more positive note. Another defence insider recently told Calcalist that the industry felt under siege: “Our situation is very far from easy. Even our remaining allies feel dragged down with us. Who wants to be friends with a pariah? Israel cannot live as Sparta.”
Source: MEE
