Israel Update Week Ending June 17
Political Chaos, Biden Visit, First Women Division Commander and the economy
DEFENSE
In last week’s newsletter, I briefly mentioned that the latest Israeli attack on Syria seemed more significant than most others. At that time, we had been unaware of any details of the attack — the most important being that the strike put Damascus’ civilian airport out of service for almost a week. This offensive made the Russians unhappy and they expressed their consternation.
The interesting question is, why did Israel do it? I suggest two reasons: First, is simply the fact the Iranians have been using the airport and civilian aircraft to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah. Israel made clear it would stop those weapons transfers, whatever the cost. Second, the attack was a clear message to the Russians — The balance of power has shifted. You no longer have a say regarding what we do in Syria. You can try to stop us, however, the war in Ukraine has shown you are incapable of doing so (i.e., if your Air Force remains unable to stop the Ukrainian Air Force, then …) Furthermore, we are capable of doing you much more harm if we start supplying our advanced tech to the Ukrainians. This is just a supposition, but ...
The IDF announced that the first of Israel’s new troop carriers, the “Eytan,” has now been delivered to an operational unit of the Nahal. The Eytan is a vast improvement over previous APCs used by the IDF. However, it’s not clear how quickly these vehicles will be delivered.
Lastly, Colonel Reut Rettig-Weiss became a full colonel today, and was made commander of a combat artillery division. Retting Weiss is the first women to command a combat division.
POLITICS
Neither Ra’am, nor Meretz, managed to get their houses in order this past week. Both renegade MKs (one from each of the aforementioned parties) have refused to resign. Even though some progress was said to have been made toward that goal, nevertheless, now, several Yamina members seek to bring down the government — among them, MK Nir Orbach, a close personal friend of Bennett, recently announced he can no longer support the coalition.
Orbach has left for summer vacation. The big question is whether he will return later this week to vote in support of the Likud’s bill to dissolve the Knesset. If Orbach votes in favor of the bill and the Knesset is dissolved, Yair Lapid immediately becomes Prime Minister (based on the agreement signed by Lapid and Bennett at the creation of the current government).
Members of Yamina seem unable to withstand the constant false propaganda against the government. Facts don’t seem to matter. The three MKs who have now left the coalition are all religious. There is no doubt, that the family pressure in their communities must be extremely high. The one religious member of Yamina who has not defected is Matan Kahana — but then, Kahana was a fighter pilot in a previous life, and is clearly made of tougher stuff.
Kahana created a stir this past week, when he gave a speech at a Yeshiva, in which he stated he wished he could just press a button and magically find all the Arabs in the country on a train to Switzerland. If he had stopped there, it really would have been problematic. However, Kahana went on to say that that is obviously not possible, and therefore, we must learn to live together. This line was preceded by a statement asserting he does not believe in a two-state solution, since the Palestinians would never accept us in any part of Israel. A storm of criticism followed, some claiming Kahana had called for genocide of the Palestinians. However, taken in context, what Kahana said was mainly a statement of reality.
Mansour Abbas provided the best response. Abbas said he understands Kahana, but he does not accept the fact that we “must live together because we have no choice,” but rather, do so because we want to live together. The reality is Kahana’s statement clarifies the difference between the Israeli left and the right. The right-wing understands the Arabs are not going anywhere, but has not figured out how to keep occupying them and remain a democracy. Still, to many, the land is more important than democracy. The left-wing understands we cannot keep occupying another people, and believes in a two-state solution, but has not figured out how to guarantee our security alongside a Palestinian State.
The police investigation into the handling of the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was completed. The report was not made public, but police did say the actions of law enforcement that day were in error. No disciplinary action will be taken. Given that outcome, I’m not sure there was any point to this investigation.
BIDEN’S VISIT
Plans are being made for President Biden’s visit here, planned for the second week of July. Expectations are that the trip, combined with his visit to Saudi Arabia, will strengthen our relations with that nation. It’s also expected that Israel will show off its new laser defense system, and ask Biden to participate financially in the further development of the system.
This week, Israel, Egypt and the EU signed an agreement to export Israeli gas to Europe via Egypt. Israel has a pipeline, which was once used to bring Egyptian gas to Israel, now available for the reverse. Egypt has a facility to liquify natural gas, so it can be transported on ships. This effort is part of Europe’s attempt to free itself from reliance on Russian gas. However, how much gas will actually be exported is unknown.
JEWISH AGENCY
After one year without an official leader at the helm, the Jewish Agency has finally found its new Chairman — General (Reserves) Doron Almog, former IDF commander of the Southern Command. Since his retirement from the army, Almog created a very successful youth rehabilitation village in the Negev. Almog is not seen as a political appointee, but rather, as a consensus candidate. How much experience Almog has with diaspora Jewry, and what vision he might have for the Jewish Agency are both unknown. Nevertheless, at least now the JA finally has a chairman.
DEFENSE INDUSTRY
This has been the week of Eurosatory 2022, the most prominent defense exhibition in Europe. As a result of the War in Ukraine, this year portends to be a good one for Israeli Defense companies.
Elbit, Israel’s leading arms manufacturer, unveiled:
1. “DaiR,” an innovative simultaneous multi-mission tactical radar: A new X-band software-defined radar system that makes target prioritizing redundant, hereby enabling a step-change in the effectiveness and efficiency of border security and perimeter protection. The new radar incorporates hundreds of digital receivers, sophisticated algorithms, and computing cores with Artificial Intelligence capabilities. DaiR is capable of simultaneous detection and tracking of thousands of objects of various sizes and velocities, with no need for target prioritization.
2. ‘Sabrah’ light-tank & turrets: An ASCOD AFV with the ‘Sabrah’ 105/120mm turret installed will be presented. The ‘Sabrah’ Light Tank turret is the latest generation of two-man/optionally unmanned turret, featuring an automatic loader, advanced sights, the Iron Vision Head Mounted Display and the Iron Fist Active Protection System.
REST, a new Air-to-Surface Range Extension and Guidance Kit: REST is a Range Extension & Smart Tail kit for air-to-surface warheads. Already ordered for several warhead types, REST transforms almost any type of air-to-surface warhead into a high penetration standoff precision-guided munition. The REST kit is a modular solution that includes a smart tail for navigation and guidance, and upper wings for range extension. The REST kit provides all-weather pinpoint ‘fire and forget’ capability to ranges of up to 120km and is capable of a steep impact angle for enhanced penetration of hard targets.
It was also announced that the Israel Ministry of Defense will begin testing a robotic unmanned vehicle (M-RCV Medium Robotic Combat Vehicle), developed by the Ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D), the Tank and APC Directorate, and Israeli security industries. The vehicle will also incorporate sights, an IAI missile launcher, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems’ “Spike” missiles. The M-RCV’s capabilities include a highly autonomous solution for forward reconnaissance and controlled lethality in all-terrain conditions. It is operational during the day and night in all-weather scenarios, while emphasizing operational effectiveness, simplicity, minimum operator intervention, and integration into heterogeneous unmanned arrays.
BUSINESS
Aidoc, a provider of healthcare AI solutions, closed a $110 million Series-D round investment, bringing its total funding to $250 million. The round, co-led by global growth investors TCV and Alpha Intelligence Capital (AIC), with participation from AIC’s co-investor CDIB Capital, will power the continued expansion of the Aidoc AI Care Platform. The platform enables hospitals to tackle their most prominent challenges, especially in the post-pandemic reality of physician and nursing shortages, rising supply costs, and an increasingly challenging economic environment.
Canditech, the Israeli startup helping companies accurately assess job candidates with the world’s first online job-simulation platform, today announced that it has raised $9 million in seed funding led by global software investor Insight Partners and StageOne Ventures. The funding will fuel Canditech’s expansion into new markets and help more companies streamline their hiring processes in a bias-free manner.