In an enlightening article posted on the Nation website on Thursday, Naomi Klein unravels the mystery of Israel’s ‘roaring stock market and growth rates nearing China's’.
Israel's economy isn't booming despite the political chaos that devours the headlines but because of it…Israel now sends $1.2 billion in "defense" products to the United States--up dramatically from $270 million in 1999. In 2006 Israel exported $3.4 billion in defense products--well over a billion more than it received in US military aid. That makes Israel the fourth-largest arms dealer in the world, overtaking Britain.
Much of this growth has been in the so-called "homeland security" sector. Before 9/11 homeland security barely existed as an industry…The key products and services are high-tech fences, unmanned drones, biometric IDs, video and audio surveillance gear, air passenger profiling and prisoner interrogation systems--precisely the tools and technologies Israel has used to lock in the occupied territories.
…Israeli defense giant Elbit, which plans to showcase its Hermes 450 and 900 unmanned air vehicles. As recently as May, according to press reports, Israel used the drones on bombing missions in Gaza. Once tested in the territories, they are exported abroad: The Hermes has already been used at the Arizona-Mexico border…and Elbit, one of the companies behind Israel's "security barrier," has partnered with Boeing to construct the Department of Homeland Security's $2.5 billion "virtual" border fence around the United States.
…Gaza and the West Bank are…laboratories where the terrifying tools of our security states are being field-tested. Palestinians--whether living in the West Bank or what the Israeli politicians are already calling "Hamasistan"--are no longer just targets. They are guinea pigs.
I think that more or less speaks for itself. Klein’s new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, which she says explores these issues in greater detail is due out 18 September.
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