Dennis Prager Show - Low Supplies Of Western Weapons To Israel ft. Michael Oren
Aired: 2024-08-11
Duration: 04:26


=== Why Israel Must Produce Its Own Munitions (04:26) ===

[00:00:00]  The point you made was, I can't believe I hadn't thought of it.
[00:00:04]  I hate when I hear a great point and I think, why didn't I think of that?
[00:00:09]  The depleting of Western arms because of the war in Ukraine.
[00:00:14]  So even if places wanted to send arms to Israel, there isn't the quantity that was normally available.
[00:00:21]  Did I hear you correctly?
[00:00:24]  Correctly.
[00:00:25]  Because nobody in the West has any.
[00:00:27]  Ukraine itself is short on these types of arms.
[00:00:29]  And I've been a longtime advocate when I was in government.
[00:00:33]  Remember, I was in Knesset and I was the deputy minister.
[00:00:35]  I was a longtime advocate of establishing munitions independence for the state of Israel.
[00:00:40]  Not to be dependent on anybody because I was very much influenced by a decision made by the Obama administration back in 2014 in an earlier war with Hamas where the administration said we were killing too many Palestinians.
[00:00:52]  And they began to delay the supply of vital munitions.
[00:00:55]  And I concluded that Israel can never be in a situation where it's dependent on any foreign government to that degree.
[00:01:01]  And I thought maybe we could get into another war that would be far larger.
[00:01:07]  And all of a sudden, someone's going to turn off the faucet.
[00:01:11]  And that is what has happened.
[00:01:14]  And it greatly constrains our decision-making and our maneuverability.
[00:01:20]  I assume that the reason that they didn't take your advice, although obviously they do have their own arms industry in Israel, is simply the economics of it.
[00:01:33]  Because Israel has a budget and it can't be so imbalanced toward armaments.
[00:01:42]  Is that the problem?
[00:01:44]  Well, that was the argument that the Army gave me.
[00:01:46]  The Army is a very powerful lobby in Israel, and they said, listen, we've already spent the money.
[00:01:51]  But American armed aid to Israel, and of course we deeply appreciate the aid, it comes to about $4 billion a year.
[00:01:59]  And once upon a time, that was a huge share of Israel's defense budget.
[00:02:03]  It was about 50%.
[00:02:04]  Today it's about 15%.
[00:02:06]  And the question is, okay, what are the opportunity costs that are lost by receiving the $4 billion?
[00:02:11]  We can't sell it to whom we want.
[00:02:13]  We have to buy things that basically the United States tells us to buy because those $4 billion are in essence a subsidy for the American arms industry.
[00:02:21]  All that money is spent in the United States on American arms.
[00:02:24]  And I think also that type of relationship where we are the receiving of largesse from the United States opens us up to charges by politicians, and I won't name them, but you know them who will say, well, we can criticize Israel because we give you money.
[00:02:40]  And I don't think that's appropriate for a country which is strong, which is affluent, and lives in a tough neighborhood.
[00:02:46]  We can't afford to broadcast that type of dependency and weakness.
[00:02:49]  So I recommend that we get into a relationship of equality, of cooperating with the United States, and not being on the receiving end, but really being a partner in areas like cyber defense, laser defense, certainly intelligence, weapons development.
[00:03:05]  And that's a healthier relationship, and I hope we go to that.
[00:03:08]  At the same time, we will achieve Munitions production independence in the future.
[00:03:16]  So would it be a curse or a blessing or mixed if, let's say, next year an American administration would announce no more military aid to Israel?
[00:03:31]  Well, it depends if we were in a position at that point to be independent.
[00:03:33]  It would be very, very difficult if we weren't.
[00:03:36]  And then, you know, we would be grievously exposed to aggression by all our enemies.
[00:03:41]  So conclude.
[00:03:42]  How long would it take Israel to become independent, in your view?
[00:03:48]  It would take several years, I would imagine.
[00:03:51]  It depends, you know, if we really expedite the process.
[00:03:53]  I know there were certain types of munitions that even during...
[00:03:56]  I was in the second Lebanon war in 2006, and the Bush administration even gave us criticism for using certain types of munitions.
[00:04:04]  And we concluded that we had to make those munitions for ourselves.
[00:04:07]  And we did.
[00:04:07]  And I'm told I'm not an artilleryman.
[00:04:10]  I'm a paratrooper.
[00:04:11]  I'm an infantryman.
[00:04:13]  But I'm told that our munitions are actually superior.
[00:04:17]  That's right.
[00:04:18]  And Israel would then be in a position to do what America and others do, as you mentioned, sell.
[00:04:24]  So it would cover some of the costs.