Israel-US defense tech ties could get big boost from Congress

A bipartisan effort is making its way through Congress that could see new support for Israel-US defense cooperation. It is a unique effort that now includes both a bill in the Senate called the United States-Israel Military Capability Act of 2020 and H.R. 7148 in the House of Representatives “to establish a US-Israel Operations-Technology Working Group.”

Israel and the US are already close partners and allies in the realm of defense. Not only does Washington provide Jerusalem with funding through the 10-year Memorandum of Understanding – $38 billion between 2016 and 2026 – there is also key cooperation in missile defense, anti-tunnel defense and counter-drone technology. This is the “enduring and unshakable commitment,” the US has to Israel’s security, and is a bond between the American people and Israel, according to the US Embassy.

There are also joint exercises with the US, including the recent Blue Flag drill and other joint work with F-35s and American and Israeli military-to-military discussions. In addition,

Israel’s missile defense systems, such as Iron Dome, are not only for the benefit of the Jewish state, but are also on their way to potentially being used by the US. The technology Israel innovated – such as Trophy, a system that protects tanks – saves American lives.

Israel’s big three defense companies, Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael, have numerous cooperative projects with the US. These include Elbit’s state-of-the-art helmets, Rafael’s targeting pods for F-16s and IAI’s wings for the F-35.

Building on that success, Brad Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and

that annexation was connected to China.

Still, the official admitted that all elements are factored into the US-Israel relationship.

The US has been asking its allies in recent months to sever ties with China in areas with security risks and reduce its overall economic ties to China.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated this position in a speech to the Virtual Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Friday, saying “the Chinese Communist Party strong-arms nations to do business with Huawei, an arm of the CCP’s surveillance state. And it’s flagrantly attacking European sovereignty by buying up ports and critical infrastructure, from Piraeus to Valencia.

“Every investment from a Chinese state-owned enterprise should be viewed with suspicion,” he further called on US allies to “take off the golden blinders of economic ties.”

Yet the NTA – Metropolitan Mass Transit System’s NIS 15 billion tender to plan, build and maintain the systems and train cars for the green and purple lines of the Tel Aviv Light Rail has remained open to Chinese companies.

Submissions for the tender, which are in the prequalification stage, end in July, and a winner is expected to be chosen by December. Six international construction groups have bid to build the light rail lines, three of which include Chinese companies, which are state-owned.

US concern about Chinese companies’ involvement in major infrastructure projects in Israel, which Pompeo specifically expressed during his visit to Israel last month, is partly due to the ability of Chinese operatives to gather intelligence while working on them, as well as the massive economic, social and environmental losses, and even casualties, which could be inflicted if that infrastructure is damaged.

Last month, amid major pressures from the Trump administration, Israel selected a local company, IDE Technologies, over the Chinese firm Hutchison, to construct Sorek 2, the world’s largest desalination plant.

Beyond the concerns the US has about any Chinese company’s involvement in critical infrastructure, nearly all of the companies bidding to build the Tel Aviv Light Rail have ties with Iran. The difference between Chinese companies that do business with both Israel, Iran and other companies is that the Chinese ones are state-owned and the government is directly involved in their actions.

China Railway Engineering Corporation is building a high-speed rail line in Iran between Tehran and Isfahan via Qom, as well as a second subway line for the city of Ahvaz. China Harbour Engineering Company has a branch in Iran, China Communications Construction Company signed an agreement to work on the Tehran-Shomal Freeway. In addition, China Railway Construction Corporation built a 263 km. railway line between Kermanshah and Khosravi in western Iran, and CRCC, the world’s largest supplier of rail transit equipment, has supplied Iran with 100 subway cars.

These partnerships are being weighed even after Israel has repeatedly called for Europe to join US sanctions on Iran.

A report by the RAND research institute for the US Department of Defense published this year warned that China has close ties with Iran, and that “the Chinese government might require Chinese companies

doing business in Israel to share insights with the Iranian government in order to win friends and influence in Tehran.”

China could also try to use the fact that the same companies build infrastructure in Israel and Iran to try to put political leverage on Israel to support its positions. It has used this kind of leverage in the past, such as in 2013, when it conditioned a Beijing visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his stopping defense officials from testifying in a New York federal lawsuit against the Bank of China for laundering Iranian money for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) official Harel Menashri went even further, warning in the RAND report that “if Israel seeks to strike Iran, China could damage infrastructure operations in Israel to signal to Israel that it should not attack.”

The US has specifically encouraged Israel to establish a more robust system of weighing the risks of foreign infrastructure investments, similar to the Committee on Foreign Investments in the US.

Israel has a committee on foreign investments, established late last year, with representatives from the Finance and Defense ministries and the National Security Council, but its recommendations are nonbinding, and it does not have the power to cancel deals.

It is also voluntary, meaning that regulators in different fields can choose whether to bring a potential investment before the committee. In addition, investments that don’t already need government approval won’t be brought to the new committee at all.

The committee only gives advice on investments in finance, communications, infrastructure and energy. This excludes the tech sector, the category in which most Chinese investments in Israel in the last decade fall under.

In addition, since the committee was not formed through legislation, there is almost no transparency about its membership or mandate and none at all about its meetings. •

is an evacuee from Sa-Nur, one of four northern Samaria settlements Israel destroyed during the 2005 Disengagement.

Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz told his faction in the Knesset on Monday that “annexation would turn Israel into an apartheid state, controlling Palestinian residents with no rights.”

Horowitz said that “except for some extremists among the settlers, no one in the world understands the obsession with annexation.” He said Ambassador Friedman was the only American official who still backed the plan.

“No one understands why Israel is inviting this intolerable economic burden, harm to relations with Jordan, Europe and countries around the world, irreparable harm to our bond with the PA and possible bloodshed,” Horowitz said.

Omri Nahmias in Washington contributed to this report. •

Now the concept is to formalize that. A follow-up statement was made by the senators on May 21.

The Jewish Institute for National Security of America praised the senators’ efforts in a March press release. JINSA noted that since 2018, a US-Israel security project led by Adm. James Stavridis had been spearheading efforts to strengthen US-Israel security relations. One of those ways is through R&D cooperation.

NOW US Reps. Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, and Lee Zeldin, a Republican from Maryland, have cosponsored a House version of the Senate initiative. In the House, RepubicanSouth Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson is the sponsor of H.R. 7148. In the Senate the version is called S 3775 and is referred to the Foreign Relations Committee. It has been joined in sponsorship by Republican Sens. Martha McSally of Arizona, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Josh Hawley of Missouri. On the House side it is making its way through the House Armed Services and House Foreign Affairs committees.

Supporters of this initiative assert that systematically identifying gaps is important for working together on developing the best systems for the future battlefield. A working group could be a point of contact and it could provide a place to process and share issues and provide a timely response.

But there are other issues involved. The US likes bureaucracy and committees, and Israel has generally performed better without multiple layers of army futures command, as well as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and all the whole menagerie of institutions in the US that ostensibly are supposed to make American warriors have the best possible technology.

What is unique in the US is that despite it being an election year and the extreme polarization in politics, the ability to work on this bipartisan issue can transcend other issues taking place. The concept is that eventually, this technological working group could foster ideas and get to the leading edge of emerging technology.

But will companies and militaries share all this information or do they prefer working the way they already do? A key issue may be funding. The US has put targeted funding into issues like air defense. Without funding, a working group could be an incubator or it could wither on the vine.

drill using a Laser Weapons System Demonstrator.

This is where the future is going – but to make it move faster, it may be good for countries that both excel at this technology to work together. That is what embodies the current congressional efforts. •