The Israeli War Machine & Arms Industry
Needs Continuous Conflict:
Non-Violent Resistance and BDS as Counterpunch
Professor Colin Green
Emeritus Professor of Surgery, UCL
UNESCO Chair in Cryobiology
Academician, Ukraine Academy of Sciences
Questions to Answer
• How on earth does Israel get away with it?
• Why does the international community and UN allow
Israel to blockade and besiege Gaza for 7 years with
absolute impunity?
• Why is Israel allowed to commit piracy in international
waters to prevent merchant ships reaching Gaza?
• Why does Israel need such a huge war machine?
Amputation cases
- Beit Hamin village, Gaza.
Unconventional Weapons
Trialled in the Gaza Assaults
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White phosphorus shells
Flechette shells
Keshet mortar bombs
Kalanit shells
Small diameter bombs
Depleted uranium tipped shells
Dense inert metal explosives (DIMES) (?)
Thermobaric weapons(?)
Israeli Demographics and
Defence Budgets
Population total 7,800,000 comprising:
• Jewish ancestry
5,920,000
• Palestinian ancestry
1,760,000
• Druze
• Migrant workers
Economy
• GDP (2013 estimate) US$256 billion (per capita US$33,000)
• Defence Budget
US$17 billion (estimated as 7% of total GDP)
• Military Aid
US$ 3.1 billion (USA)
Israeli War Machine
• Israel ranked the world’s 13th strongest military power (not
including nuclear capability) GlobalFirepower Index (2013).
“Most militarized nation in the world” (GMI 2012; 6th year
running)
• Percentage of Israeli GDP Spent on the military:
7% in 2013 (average of 8% between 2002-2012);
(by contrast: US 4.5%, UK 2.5%) SIPRI 2013
• Military budget of $17 billion (2013) SIPRI 15.1% of overall
budget
Israeli War Machine
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WMDs: 240-300 nuclear warheads; chemical; biological (Klingberg)
Ballistic missiles (Jericho 1,2)
Combat naval surface vessels: 58
Submarines (Dolphin Class): 3 at sea, 3 to be delivered by 2015
Main battle tanks (Merkavas): 2,442 active or in store
Armoured personnel carriers: 1,265 active
Artillery (self -propelled guns, mortars, multiple rocket launchers): 2,754
active or stored
Combat aircraft and helicopters (F15, F16, F35A; Cobra, Apache, Sea
Stallion): 620 active
Missile systems: SAM, Iron Dome, Patriot, Hellfire, Walleye, Sidewinder,
Popeye1/2
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or ‘drones’): Hermes450/900, Heron
Israeli Army
Personnel: 26,000 regulars; 107,000 conscripts (total 133,000) plus
400,000 reserves
Equipment:
• Main Battle Tanks (Merkavas): 480 active; 1,962 in store (total 2,442)
• Armoured Personnel Carriers: 1,265 active
• Artillery:
– 155mm self-propelled, 250 active (300 in store); towed, 406 (all in store)
– 227mm multiple rocket launchers, 30
– 81mm mortars, 250 active (1,768 in store)
• Air Defence Batteries SAM missiles
• Anti Tank missiles
Israeli Navy
Personnel: 7,000 regulars and 2,500 conscripts
Surface Combat Ships:
• Corvettes
3 (Eilat)
• Patrol Craft( Missiles) 19 (8 x Hetz, 2 x Reshef, 9 x Super Dvora)
• PBF
18 (5xShaldag, 3xStingray, 10xSuper Dvora)
• PBT
15 (Dabur)
• Landing Craft Tanks
3
Submarines:
• Dolphin Class
• Dolphin Class
3 (on active service at sea)
3 (under construction and due delivery by 2014/15)
Total Fleet: 64
Israeli Air Force (1)
Personnel: 34,000
Combat Aircraft: (Total 456)
• A-4N Skyhawk
• F-15A/C Eagle
• F-15l Ra’am
• F-16A/C Fighting Falcon
• F-16l Sufa
• F-35A (priority delivery from US)
Combat Helicopters: (Total 174)
• AH-1E/F Cobra
• AH-64A/D Apache
• AS 565
• CH-53 Sea Stallion
• S-70A/UH-60A Black Hawk
102
42
25
161
101
25
43
47
5
29
50
Israeli Air Force (2)
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or drones): (Total not known)
• Heavy: Hermes 450; Hermes900; Heron (Shoval); Heron TP (Eitan); RQ-5A Hunter
• Medium: Searcher Mk2
• Light: Harpy
Air Defence:
• Surface to Air Missiles (SAM)
• Iron Dome
• Patriot
• Anti Aircraft Guns (920)
Missile Systems:
• Air to Surface: Hellfire, Walleye, Popeye1/2, DelilahAL, Maverick
• Air to Air: Sidewinder, Python 4, Python 5
• Active Radar Homing: Derby
Israel and the Global Pacification Industry
The Global Pacification System: Liberal Capitalism’s Need to Pacify
Enforcing Hegemony: The Three Hegemonic “Tasks”
1) Maintaining Hegemony over
the World System
2) Maintaining Hegemony over
the Peripheries
3) Maintaining Ruling Class Hegemony
over the Core
“Challenges” to Hegemonic Rule and MISSILE Responses
(Conventional Warfare;
Warfare Amongst the People;
Securocratic Control)
Security Politics: Serving the Hegemons By Globalizing Palestine
Israel’s Four “Niches” of Pacification
1) High-tech weaponry and components,
force protection and security services
2) Weapons of suppression,
militarized security and police
3) Matrix of Control
4) Framing
Case Studies in Security Politics
(US/NATO, Sri Lanka, Equatorial Guinea, Brazil/favelas, Core MISSILE complex, Lawfare)
Global Pacification Systems
Need to maintain hegemony  “Challenges” to hegemony  MISSILE responses
Law
Enforcement
Military
Internal
Security
Intelligence
Surveillance
Israel and the Global Matrix of Control
The Israeli Arms & Security Industry
• Arms exports: $8 billion (2013); Ranked 6th by Janes; 10th by SIPRI /(Israel
exports 75% of arms produced; Israel produces 18,000 “defense” commodities;
issues 30,000 marketing licenses to 190 countries/end-users)
• 25% exports are aerial defense systems/missiles; 14% radar systems; 10%
naval systems; 3% UAVs (IDECA)
• Focus on India, China, Poland, South Korea, Australia, Thailand, US, Columbia,
Brazil & Chile; Azerbaijan & Vietnam growing
• Israel the 10th largest supplier of major conventional weapons (23% to South
Asia; 19% to ME; 18% to Europe; 18% to LA; 9% to SE Asia; 4% to Africa)
(SIPRI 2013)
• More than 1,000 companies dealing with arms in Israel; 6,784 people deal in
arms; 300 homeland security companies
• 3 Israeli arms companies in SIPRI Top 100 (Elbit (#34): sales $2.68 billion in
2011; IAI (#41): sales $2.5 billion; Rafael (#51): sales $1.9 billion)
Israel & Global Pacification
Israel’s Four “Niches”
Niche 1: Specialized areas of conventional warfare: high-tech
weapon systems & components; force protection &
logistics support services; upgrades for aircraft and
other systems
Niche 2: Surveillance/monitoring of movement; intelligence
gathering; weapons of suppression & securocratic
control: drones, sensors for automatic weapons,
police weaponry
Niche 3: A model of permanent pacification a Global Matrix of
Control
Niche 4: Framing
Niche 1
Shavit Satellite Launcher
ISTAR capabilities: intelligence,
surveillance, target acquisition and
reconnaissance
The Jericho III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) entered into active service prior to
2008. Capable of carrying a payload of 1,000 to 1,300 kg – or a single 750 kg nuclear
warhead.
Estimated range: 4,800 to 11,500 km (2,982 to 7,180 miles), significantly greater if fitted with
a smaller payload (like one of Israel’s smaller nuclear warheads). That gives Israel a nuclear
strike capability covering the entire Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia and almost all parts of
North America, as well as within large parts of South America and Oceania. Jericho III’s
extremely high impact speed enables it to avoid ballistic missile defenses.
Jericho III ICBMs more likely to be used on an attack on Iran than traditional bombing.
The Gabriel Series of sea-skimming
anti-ship missiles
RAFAEL’S POPEYE air-to-surface standoff cruise missile, with nuclear
capability, deployed against such high-value targets as power plants, bridges,
bunkers and missile sites. Popeye Turbo SLCM type, with a range of 1,500
kilometers (940 miles), could reach Iran with a warhead weighing up to 200
kilograms (440 pounds).
Rafael’s LITENING
Airborne Targeting Pod
Electro-optically (EO) guided
weapon for all-weather, day and
night precision strike capability
increasing combat effectiveness
for a wide variety of aircraft
Rafael’s SPIKE MISSILE SYSTEM: “the most suitable system for
both the traditional battlefield and modern urban warfare.”
Electro-optically guided Spike missiles penetrate, disable or destroy
armored vehicles: tanks, armored personnel carriers or ships. Can be
carried and launched by a single infantryman or mounted on helicopters,
naval vessels or combat vehicle.
“TROPHY”
RAFAEL’S ACTIVE ARMORED VEHICLE PROTECTION SYSTEM
BATTLESPACE:
“CHICAGO” IN THE NEGEV
GNR, NBIC & NCW
GNR (genetics, nanotechnology, robotics)
NBIC = convergence of
• Nanotechnology
• Biotechnology
• Cognitive Science
• Information Technology
NCW (Network-Centric Warfare)
An information superiority-enabled concept of operations that
generates increased combat power by networking sensors, decision
makers and shooters to achieve shared awareness, increased speed
of command, higher tempo of operations, greater lethality, increased
survivability and a degree of self-synchronization.
Elbit’s Hermes 450 Drone
Niche 2
• Weapons of suppression & securocratic
control: drones, sensors for automatic
weapons, police weaponry
MICRO-AIR VEHICLES (MAVs)
An Israeli Butterfly Weapon
THE IDF’S GUARDIUM UGV (Autonomous Unmanned Ground System
“The World’s First Robot Soldier”
RAFAEL’S SENTRY-TECH
REMOTE WEAPONS STATION
“Spy-and-Shoot”
CornerShot, for SWAT Teams
VIPeR (Versatile, Intelligent, Portable Robot)
Niche 3: The Matrix of Control
• Military Dimension:
– Limited Military and Counterinsurgency/Counterterrorism Operations
• Security Dimension:
– Ongoing Internal Security Operations and Militarized Policing
• Administrative Dimension:
– Military Orders, Bureaucracy, Partisan Planning and Law
• Physical Dimension:
– Doctrines, “Facts” and Strategic Nodes “On the Ground”
• Economic Dimension
– Israeli Control, Palestinian Dependence and International Support
• “Marketing” Dimension:
– Framing and Spin
Niche 4: Framing
• Lawfare
• Media Control
• Public Relations
• Propaganda
Questions to Answer
• Were the attacks on Gaza in 2008 and 2012
carefully planned for sinister reasons?
• Could the siege and attacks really be about:
– testing of new weapons and missile defence systems
– control of warehoused populations
– control of immense natural gas resources in the
Eastern Mediterranean?
• Can non-violent resistance and BDS be effective
against such a huge war machine?
Rogue States:
The Premier League
The commonly accepted definition of a rogue state is:
One which totally ignores all international law and mores; holds
and threatens to use weapons of mass destruction; and
conducts on a frequent and routine basis state terrorism….the
use of violence against civilian populations to achieve political
ends.
If you add in apartheid, ethnic cleansing, politicide,
dispossession of an indigenous people, piracy, long term
military occupation, frequent military attacks on neighbouring
states, siege and paralysis of the UN through its proxy vote in
the Security Council…..who would you place top of the league
table out of: North Korea, Iran, Iraq (Bush’s Axis of Evil) or
USA, UK, Israel ?