The Israeli Arms Industry:
the need for continuous conflict
Professor Colin Green
will give a public talk at 7.30 pm
on
Thursday 13th February 2014
Friends Meeting House
Friargate (off Castlegate)
York YO1 9RL
- Colin Green is Emeritus Professor of Surgery at University College, London. He has been actively involved in medical research and teaching for over 40 years.
- He helped establish Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in 1984 and with them was closely involved in setting up the first Palestinian Medical school in Al Quds University in 1994.
- Through the charities Foundation for Al Quds Medical School (FQMS) and the International Medical Education Trust in 2000 (IMET2000), he is actively promoting medical education in Palestine.
- Since the assault on Gaza in 2008/9, he has extended his interest to Israel’s arms and security trade and, in particular, to evidence of Israel’s use of novel weapons against the people of Gaza.
- He is currently working closely with the Israeli activist Jeff Halper and Desmond Travers, the co-author of the Goldstone Report, on a book on the Israeli arms trade and its impact on the possibilities for world peace.
Synopsis of Talk
Israel, created primarily by Ashkenazi Jews who had suffered terribly over many centuries from oppression and victimisation in Europe, is a classical warrior state in which a tiny population of 5.82 million citizens of Jewish ancestry (mindlocked into years of victimhood) is determined to never suffer the same humiliations, and has put virtually all its economic activity in to the global military industrial complex combined with homeland security industry. They have made themselves absolutely indispensable to the global arms trade both in hardware weaponry (particularly indispensable to the globalarms trade both in hardware weaponry (particularly drones) and in expertise and skilled personnel for hire to other states or mega-corporations.
Just like any other corporate enterprise they want an expanding market which in turn demands continuous conflict both for sales and for marketing with proof of good value after testing in the field. At the last count, Israel is known to possess the following: between 240 and 400 nuclear warheads; chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction with missile delivery systems; 2000 combat aircraft including the latest F16 fighter-bombers and Apache helicopters; 7 German built and donated Dolphin Class submarines (possibly rising to 9 soon) each capable of being armed with nuclear warheads and already deployed in waters near Iran; a modern navy of 20-30 warships which regularly exercises with NATO Fleet in the Mediterranean; an unspecified number of drones (but many); a highly trained army with 3800 heavy Merkava tanks, numerous armoured troop carriers and jeeps,1500 heavy artillery with diabolical ordnance specifically designed to create havoc in civilian populations; and a regular force of military personnel of 175,000 with reserve personnel of 500,000 who have been forced to train for mandatory periods each year of their life. A conservative estimate of the cost for the economic support of that massive investment in war is £10 billion/year. The official financial support from the USA of 3.5 billion dollars each year to Israel has to be a fraction of the reality.…the true figure not to be revealed to the poor American taxpayer. And what advantage can this be to the USA, intent on world hegemony enforced by its huge military power? I intend to provide some suggestions to answer this question during my talk.
This talk is jointly organised by
The York Palestine Solidarity Campaign
and
York Against The War