Israel looks to the East

Israel makes an effort to strengthen ties with China.

By DAVID PARSONS
Israel looks to the East (photo credit: IDF)
Israel looks to the East
(photo credit: IDF)
Over the past year, Israeli political and military leaders have made a deliberate effort to explore the vast potential of expanding diplomatic, security and trade ties with Asian nations. Israel already enjoys good relations with a number of the democracies and economic “tigers” of the East, including close cooperation with India on defense and technology exchanges, so the biggest push is being made toward China.
In the latest sign of this Sino courtship, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz paid a historic visit to Beijing in May for high-level talks with the Chinese defense establishment. Gantz was the guest of Gen. Chen Bingde, the top commander of the People’s Liberation Army, who visited Israel last August. It was the first time ever that a Chinese military chief had visited the country.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other senior Israeli military and intelligence officers also made junkets to Beijing last summer, and most of these forays were meant to impress upon Chinese officials the seriousness of the Iranian nuclear threat. However, potential new markets for Israeli goods and expertise, and perhaps even arms sales, were also part of the agenda.
Such overtures to China have been watched warily by the United States and Israel’s other traditional allies in the West. In fact, Israel had significantly downgraded its defense ties with China in recent years due to American pressure, and Israeli companies have been forbidden from selling weaponry to the Chinese military.
In 2000, Barak – then prime minister – caved in to US pressure and suspended the sale of four $250 million Phalcon advanced early-warning aircraft to China, due to concerns that they had American technology installed.
In 2005, Israeli-US defense ties hit a low-point after Jerusalem agreed to upgrade Israeli drones that were sold to Beijing in the 1990s. As a result, the US downgraded Israel’s participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
Yet Israeli leaders are hoping that present realities will enable it to explore upgraded partnerships with China and other Asian nations, without undermining its essential ties to America. Given their remarkable economic development and the vastness of their markets, Israeli businesses share the growing global sense that Asia is the future. Israel also feels an urgent need to sway China into being more cooperative in confronting Iran’s renegade nuclear program.
No one in Jerusalem is expecting Beijing to suddenly replace Washington and start casting vetoes for Israel at the UN Security Council. But in reference to China and India, Netanyahu recently stated that in the “coming decade new powers will arise [with which] Israel must create vital interests from a national strategy point-of-view.”
One specific project that could boost Israeli ties with China is the proposed new 200-mile train link between the port of Eilat on the Red Sea and the Tel Aviv area on the Mediterranean.
Government leaders here hope a special freight line to Ashdod will create an alternative to the Suez Canal for Asian- European cargo. The Israeli cabinet’s preferred contractor for this huge project is a company owned by the Chinese government.
Netanyahu has said that both China and India have expressed a great deal of interest in the project, and that the rail link has “strategic, national and international importance.”