How Israel Outsources War
Outsourcing is a modern business practice in which a local company uses an external provider to carry out business practices that would otherwise be handled internally. My local bank, for instance, uses Visa to process all its credit and debit cards.
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Last Friday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, calmly picked up the secure telephone and ordered Yoav Gallant, the Defense Minister, to attack Hezbollah. He then strode to the podium to address the United Nations General Assembly. It was an amazing piece of theater by Israel’s always-measured and controlled leader.
But what was most amazing about this production was the carefully proscribed part Israel played in its production. When Minister Gallant turned to order the I.A.F. Air Force to commence, he was ordering his U.S. trained fighter pilots to board their U.S.-made fighter jets, likely the General Dynamics F-16 Fighter Jet (although the other two I.A.F. Fighter jets are also American, The F-15 and F-35), and then to drop the feared Bunker Buster Bomb, the GBU-28. This bomb was designed during the Second Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom, to take out Saddam Hussein’s underground bunkers. Only two of these bombs were dropped in that war, both with devastating effect.
Two more of these 4,000-pound bombs were dropped Friday on Hezbollah’s underground compound, with equal devastation. All of Hezbollah’s leadership, including its General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah, were killed — effectively decapitating the entire Hezbollah leadership.
However, while the stage was in Lebanon, and the principal actors were Israeli, much of the production and equipment were “made in the U.S.A.” This did not go unnoticed by all the onlookers who filed past the gaping hole in the ground — while prayers for the dead were heard, there was also the sentiment that this was, in considerable measure, an American production.
This type of warfare was impossible before the advent of a global economy. Most of what Israel utilized in this attack, and indeed how the Israeli economy survives, is through “leverage.” This means using other countries’ materials, commodities, and components to assemble a final product. It’s how Israel, a country with few resources and few traditional industries, works.
Five years ago, Forbes Magazine described Israel as a “Manufacturing Minnow…But An Industrial Technology Power.” Many considered Israel the model of a new, outsourced economy, which some call “Smart manufacturing.” For these thinkers, Israel had all the benefits of a new economy without the regrettable side effects, like pollution and environmental degradation.
However, the reality that the current war with Hezbollah reveals is that Israel has moved those “nasty” manufacturing functions off-shore to the United States, much like the U.S. Has been doing to Asia for the past 50 years.
Israel has “outsourced” America’s war-making capability and called it their own. Just the way so much of our new “global economy” does it.
Israel’s prowess has been in providing software or component upgrades to existing products. Standout products created by Israeli innovation include self-driving software Mobileye, a G.P.S. app WAZE, and a public transit app MOOVIT. All are valuable “add-ons,” but they fall short of manufacturing the automobiles, buses, and trains that actually provide transportation.
In the same sense, Israel has produced “add-ons” to much of its war machinery but not the actual weapons, planes, and tanks themselves.
This raised the question: how long could Israel continue any war without the United States' supply of weapons and equipment? Even more pertinent, how long could Israel continue a war without imported oil, chiefly from Turkey? Israel may be far more dependent upon outside energy and resources than its current aggressive posture reveals.
Today, Israel Invaded Lebanon
For the third time in recent memory, Israel has invaded Lebanon in an effort to take out Hezbollah. Axios reports that a senior Israeli Official has said that this is a short-term tactical operation designed to move Hezbollah back from Northern Israel.
“We have no intention of drowning in the Lebanese mud. We will go in and go out at the end. This is a tactical operation that is limited in time and scope,” the official said.
https://www.axios.com/2024/10/01/israel-lebanon-hezbollah-middle-east-wars
Of course, Israel’s strategy is intimately connected to services and data provided by the United States. Although specifics are highly classified, it’s reasonable to assume that American Geo-positioning services, targeting, weapons, and equipment will be involved.
Provider Vulnerability
Following this line of thinking, two important points are raised. Each provider presents a potential vulnerability. Israel is totally reliant upon the U.S. to maintain complete silence on any of the data presented to the I.D.F. Any American “leak” would be deadly for the Israeli soldiers.
But the reverse is also true.
Is it possible that Israel has recently been able to exploit a security leak within the Hezbollah or Hamas outsourcing system? In other words, has Israel exploited other vendor relationships to spy?
Beginning in March 2023, Israel has adopted a dramatically new and deadly strategy of taking out the leadership of their enemies. After less than 16 months, Israel has now decapitated the leadership of both Hamas, killing Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh and now all nine leaders of Hezbollah. It represents both an escalation of the conflict and a remarkable ability of Israel to track these individuals.
Many have speculated that MOSSAD, Israel’s chief spy agency, has perhaps infiltrated these groups. Others have speculated that communication devices, such as cell phones and pagers, were compromised somewhere along the supply chain. Either or both of those may turn out to be true. But a third possibility is that Israel has somehow compromised the networks that provide cell, pager, or other services.
Conclusion
Over the past year, the Middle East has steadily escalated hostilities. In another week, it will be exactly one year since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. Since that time, we’ve seen the near destruction of much of the Gaza Strip, with its countless loss of life. At the same time, Hezbollah, as well as the Houthis, have launched missiles against Israel.
Today is one more step in that steady escalation to a major regional war. The question that needs asking, as the chief provider of Israel’s military, will the United States be able to avoid becoming even more involved?
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