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Despite International Controversy, Israeli Defense Industry Had Record Setting Year in 2023
Crews work on an Israeli Air Force F-15 Eagle in a hangar, said to be following an interception mission of an Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel, in this handout image released April 14, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
Israeli defense companies signed a record $13 billion in defense exports in 2023, marking the highest total in the country’s history, even as international criticism builds against the Israeli defense industry.
Israeli defense companies signed new export orders worth a record $13.073 billion last year, the Ministry of Defense International Defense Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT) reported on Monday. This is the third consecutive year in which the record has been broken, with new orders worth $12.5 billion in 2022 and $11.3 billion in 2021.
Increasing interest in Israel’s air defense systems included the historic $3.5 billion sale of Israel Aerospace System’s (IAI) Arrow 3 to Germany and the sale of Rafael’s David’s Sling to Finland for $317 million. SIBAT’s figures showed that 36 percent of the exports in 2023 was in air defense systems, compared with 19 percent in 2022.
“Even in a year when the State of Israel is fighting in seven different arenas, the defense exports of the State of Israel have succeeded in continuing to break records,” said Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. “This fact is a badge of honor, first and foremost, for our defense industries and the creative and talented minds that work in them and drive them to heights of breakthrough and innovation. This year’s figures show that even though our defense industries are harnessed in their order of priority for the success of the war effort, they continue to sign more and more significant export deals.”
The report was published just a day before a French court struck down severe restrictions requested by the French Defense Ministry on Israeli companies at the Eurosatory 2024 defense show, one of the largest events in the industry. The Paris Commercial Court found that the order would lead to discrimination — a criminal offense in France
The order suspended “the execution of the measures adopted against the Israeli companies whose stands were prohibited at the Eurosatory 2024 exhibition, until the closing date of the exhibition.”
The original ban had not only prohibited Israeli companies but also barred exhibitors from promoting Israeli weapons or engaging with Israeli representatives at their stands.
The event began on Monday and runs through Friday. Seventy-four Israeli firms had been due to participate.
The post Despite International Controversy, Israeli Defense Industry Had Record Setting Year in 2023 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations
Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was a Polish-Jewish artist whose work reflected the historic times he lived: the two world wars, the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the birth of the State of Israel. In 1940, with the support of the British government and the Polish government-in-exile, he visited Canada to popularize the struggle against Nazism. […]
The post Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., June 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
President Joe Biden embarks on a series of fundraising events across two states on Saturday as he works to stamp out a crisis of confidence in his re-election campaign following a feeble debate performance that dismayed his fellow Democrats.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit the upscale New York beach enclave known as the Hamptons for a campaign fundraiser hosted by hedge-fund billionaire Barry Rosentein. Later in the day, he will travel to New Jersey for a fundraiser hosted by wealthy New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat.
Fellow hedge-fund founder Eric Mindich and his Tony Award-winning producer wife Stacey, celebrity couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and actor Michael J. Fox are all listed as members of the host committee at the New York event, according to an invitation seen by Reuters.
Biden told a rally in North Carolina on Friday he intended to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential election, giving no sign he would heed calls from Democrats who want him to drop out of the race.
Biden‘s verbal stumbles and occasionally meandering responses during Thursday night’s debate heightened voter concerns that the 81-year-old might not be fit to serve another four-year term.
The Biden campaign on Saturday boasted it had raised more than $27 million between debate day through Friday evening, but questions remain about whether the debate performance will hurt fundraising, at least in the short term.
The post Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group
Mourners carry a coffin during the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Selm, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
i24 News – The Arab League no longer defines Hezbollah as a proscribed terrorist group, an official said on Saturday.
Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Shiite militia and a proxy of the Islamic regime in Iran, boasts the world’s largest rocket arsenal of any non-state actor. It is animated by the antisemitic ideology of jihad and is committed to the destruction of Israel.
“In earlier Arab League decisions, Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organization, and this designation was reflected in the resolutions,” Hossam Zaki, the assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, was quoted in Arab media as saying.
“The League’s member states concurred that the labeling of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization should no longer be employed,” Zaki said, adding that the regional body “does not maintain terrorist lists and does not actively seek to designate entities in such a manner.”
Hezbollah has unleashed numerous rockets, mortars and drones on northern Israel in the past eight months starting on October 8, a day after the Jewish state suffered the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust at the hands of the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas.
The post Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.