Arms sales to China have caused crisis in US-Israel ties

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For years the US has sold weapons and technology to both allies and enemies alike. We have bandied about the world attempting to play both sides of multiple fences while maintaining our place at the top of the economic and militaristic heap. When the angry crowd snipes at how the US has mistreated various nations throughout the world, this is one of the issues that gets brought up. Iraq is a timely example. We sold weapons and the French sold weapons to Saddam Hussein's Iraq and then we he became too impossible to deal with for one reason or another, we used reported possession of said weapons as an excuse to invade. This isn't about Iraq though. This is about yet another example of how the world is changing ever so quickly right under the feet of the United States. We no longer have a monopoly on selling arms to both friends and enemies. We cannot even rest assuredly on the idea that selling arms to oppositional camps is a good way to maintain international equilibrium. This jig is up, as they say.

I've been keeping tabs on the various alliances being forged in Eurasia through tactical and economic agreements. The common thread in all of these articles is that the US objects.

For example, Washington has called India’s decision on Monday to sign a US$22 billion gas import deal with Iran a “small wrinkle” in US-India ties. New Delhi says the deliveries are vital for meeting India’s growing energy needs. India signed an agreement on Monday with Iran to import five million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually for the next 25 years, beginning in late 2009 or early 2010. The agreement was signed between the National Iranian Gas Export Company and a consortium of Indian firms. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanghaneh told reporters after talks with his Indian counterpart, Mani Shankar Aiyar, earlier this week that the two sides had reached an agreement on the price of the natural gas to be imported. He said Iran would begin exporting natural gas to India in 2009. The two sides also said discussions would continue between New Delhi and Teheran over awarding India exploration rights for the Jofeir oil field and the Yadavaran gas field in Iran’s Khuzestan province. Meanwhile, Iran has reportedly agreed to give major Indian energy corporations a share in the Persian Gulf’s vast North Pars gas field for the production of LNG and its export to India and other countries. India and Iran have also signed a memorandum of cooperation for the construction of a gas pipeline that would run from Iran to India via Pakistan. The agreements have caused concern in Washington. The US has called on India and Pakistan to abandon the gas pipeline project with Iran and has indicated its willingness to work with Islamabad and New Delhi on alternative ways to meet their growing energy needs. (read more)

The latest objection, and in my humble opinion rightly so, is to Israel selling arms to China. The article states that, "Israeli arms sales to China have provoked a "crisis" in relations with the US but the Jewish state must retain a measure of independence from its key ally, an influential deputy said yesterday.

The comments by Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, came after the Pentagon confirmed on Monday that the Bush administration had raised concerns with Israel about its sales and transfer of military equipment and technology to China." (Taipei Times)

The US has reacted by imposing a series of sanctions on Israel's defense industry and has barred the Israeli defense industry from involvement in key military development projects. The US has also frozen the transfer of sophisticated technological equipment to its Middle Eastern ally.

Other than what has become almost an irrational fear of competition, the reason Washington has reacted so harshly to an Israeli-Sino weapons deal is that they feel those weapons, which the Israeli's got from or because of the US, will end up being used on Taiwan. As I've written before, if Taiwan is attacked there will be war between Washington and Beijing.

It wasn't all that long ago that the US also sandbagged an arms deal between the EU and China. A series of stories reported that the EU, led by the French, were planning on dropping the 16-year arms embargo against China. After US pressure, it was blocked by among others, the British. The Chinese are reportedly a bit upset and are stepping pressure to resume talks about dropping said embargo. (Read more)

From my vantage point, if one were to sum up a common denominator in international events today, it wouldn't be Islamofacism or the War on Terror. That's really only a fraction of what is turning the globe these days. What's really happening is that slowly but surely, the countries that once depended on the US because of state of the world in during the Cold War, are distancing themselves from the US. Israel is close to Britain as our most staunch ally and even they are hedging their bets by cozying up to China when given the chance. How long before China is powerful enough to safely exert itself against the US? There is a reason Rumsfeld is currently criticizing China for increasing military spending despite the absence of a threat from another country and has said that Beijing risks diminishing its global influence unless it opens up its political system.

Rumsfeld also questioned why China has stationed hundreds of missiles within range of Taiwan.

"I just look at the significant rollout of ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan and I have to ask the question: If everyone agrees the question of Taiwan is going to be settled in a peaceful way, why this increase in ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan?"

Turnabout is of course fair play. We've been selling arms to Taiwan forever now in the face of China exerting it's right to bring the island back into the national fold. Is there any wonder why China is arming itself to the teeth and will buy from anyone, even the hated Israeli's? What I'm afraid of, as an American, is that when it all goes down and we begin to look for allies, we will be left wanting. Our free trade mad scientists have created a monster that may in time reframe a world that no longer relies on the US as the economic engine pushing everyone else forward.

In the words of Bill Murray from the movie "Ghostbusters," "Whoa! Somebody's comin'!"