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Israel’s Defense Exports Hit Record $15 Billion in 2024 Despite European Pressure, Calls for Arms Embargo

Israeli troops on the ground in Gaza. Photo: IDF via Reuters
Israel reached a new all-time high in defense exports in 2024, nearing $15 billion — the fourth consecutive year of record-breaking sales — despite mounting international criticism over the war in Gaza and growing pressure from European countries to suspend arms deals.
In a press release on Wednesday, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced that defense exports reached over $14.7 billion last year — a 13 percent increase from 2023 — with more than half of the deals valued at over $100 million.
According to the ministry, Israel’s military exports have more than doubled over the past five years, highlighting the industry’s rapid expansion and growing global demand.
“This tremendous achievement is a direct result of the successes of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and defense industries against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the Ayatollah regime in Iran, and in additional arenas where we operate against Israel’s enemies,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
“The world sees Israeli strength and seeks to be a partner in it. We will continue strengthening the IDF and the Israeli economy through security innovation to ensure clear superiority against any threat – anywhere and anytime,” Katz continued.
In 2024, over half of the Jewish state’s defense contracts were with European countries — up from 35 percent the previous year — as many in the region have increased their defense spending following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Despite increasing pressure and widespread anti-Israel sentiment among European governments amid the current conflict in Gaza, this latest data seems to contradict recent calls by European leaders to impose an arms embargo on the Jewish state over its defensive campaign in Gaza against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
On Wednesday, Germany reversed its earlier threat to halt arms deliveries to Israel, reaffirming its commitment to continue cooperation and maintain defense contracts with Jerusalem.
“Germany will continue to support the State of Israel, including with arms deliveries,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told lawmakers in parliament.
Last week, Berlin warned it would take unspecified measures against Israel if it continued its military campaign in Gaza, citing concerns that exported weapons were being used in violation of humanitarian law.
“Our full support for the right to exist and the security of the State of Israel must not be instrumentalized for the conflict and the warfare currently being waged in the Gaza Strip,” Wadephul said in a statement.
Germany would be “examining whether what is happening in the Gaza Strip is compatible with international humanitarian law,” he continued. “Further arms deliveries will be authorized based on the outcome of that review.”
Spain and Ireland are among the countries in Europe that have threatened or taken steps to limit arms deals with Israel, while others such as France have threatened unspecified harsh measures against the Jewish state.
According to the Israeli defense ministry’s report, since the outbreak of war on Oct. 7, 2023, after the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, the operational successes and proven battlefield performance of Israeli systems have fueled strong international demand for Israel’s defense technology.
Last year, the export of missiles, rockets, and air defense systems reached a new high, making up 48 percent of the total deal volume — up from 36 percent in 2023.
Similarly, satellite and space systems exports surged, accounting for 8 percent of total deals in 2024 — quadrupling their share from 2 percent in 2023.
While Europe dominated Israel’s defense export market in 2024, significant portions also went to other regions. Asia and the Pacific made up 23 percent of total sales — slightly lower than in previous years, when the region approached 30 percent.
Exports to Abraham Accords countries fell to 12 percent, down from 23 percent in 2022, while North America remained stable at around 9 percent.
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Shock Poll: Most Jews Approve of Trump’s Job Performance, Strike on Iran
The post Shock Poll: Most Jews Approve of Trump’s Job Performance, Strike on Iran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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The Anti-Israel Mob Never Mentions Women’s Rights in Israel — Compared to the Middle East

Paris 2024 Olympics – Judo – Women -78 kg Victory Ceremony – Champ-de-Mars Arena, Paris, France – August 01, 2024. Silver medallist Inbar Lanir of Israel celebrates. Photo: REUTERS/Arlette Bashizi
In parts of the Middle East, women still live in deeply patriarchal, often brutal systems. Changes exist more on paper than in practice. Power remains in the hands of men, religious systems, and political elites — and this repressive treatment often goes unchallenged.
This happens in places like Gaza under Hamas, in Afghanistan under the Taliban, in Iran under the ayatollahs, and even in Saudi Arabia, where “reforms” like women driving made headlines in 2018.
Let’s be clear: not every Muslim-majority country treats women this way. In places like Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey, many women work, study, and participate in public life. But even there, legal protections and personal freedoms often lag behind. And in the four examples mentioned — Gaza, Iran, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia — women face severe, institutionalized oppression. These are not fringe cases; they reflect the governing ideologies of millions.
Now contrast that with Israel.
In Israel, the only liberal democracy in the region, both Jewish and Arab women live with rights and freedoms unheard of in most of the Middle East.
In Israel, women:
- Vote and run for office
- Serve as Supreme Court judges, ministers, professors, doctors, and CEOs
- Join the military, even in combat roles
- Protest publicly without fear of being shot or jailed
- Choose how to dress, where to work, whom to marry, and what to believe
- File police reports and expect legal protection
Women in Israel are not just present, they lead. They command battalions, fly fighter jets, debate in the Knesset, run start-ups, and shape policy. Gender equality is not perfect — no country is — but legally, all women are fully protected.
And this is the part that’s almost never said: Arab women in Israel also enjoy more rights than in any Arab country. They study in top universities, vote freely, become doctors, lawyers, and leaders. Yes, some face traditional cultural pressures in their communities, but under Israeli law, they are citizens with equal rights, and legal recourse when those rights are violated.
Can the same be said for women in Gaza, ruled by Hamas? For women under the Taliban in Afghanistan? Or for the brave Iranian women imprisoned for removing their headscarves?
If you are a self-respecting feminist in the West, this should be a moral line: Israel is the only place in the Middle East where women are truly free. In Tel Aviv, if a woman is raped, she can go to the police. She’ll be heard, investigated, supported.
In Tehran, she might be blamed. In Riyadh, she could be imprisoned. In Kabul, she might be killed. In Gaza, she might be forced to marry her rapist.
So ask yourself: if you support women’s rights, why are you aligning with regimes or movements that strip women of their humanity?
Something is deeply broken when women in free societies chant slogans for groups that would silence, veil, and imprison them. When feminists march with Palestinian flags, are they aware that under Hamas, there is no LGBTQ+ freedom, no feminist activism, no legal protections for women?
You don’t have to support every policy of the Israeli government to recognize this truth: Israel is the only country in the Middle East where a woman can live as a full, free citizen.
Western feminists need to wake up. When you champion groups like Hamas or regimes like Iran “for the cause,” you are betraying the very values you claim to fight for.
Until that realization comes, I ask just one thing: If you truly care about women, why on earth are you standing against Israel?
Sabine Sterk is the CEO of Time To Stand Up For Israel.
The post The Anti-Israel Mob Never Mentions Women’s Rights in Israel — Compared to the Middle East first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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The Mob’s Efforts to Colonize the American Mind

Tucker Carlson speaks on July 18, 2024 during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
A few days before Israel began Operation Rising Lion, Facebook blocked my account. I cannot thank Mark Zuckerberg enough for that mitzvah. Instead of having to watch neo-Hellenistic Jews do anything possible to hide their Judaism and people try to to steal the spotlight, I got to witness an endless array of Iranian dissidents thanking Israel on X.
They post Persian graffiti blessing Israel, the horrific history of the 46-year-old Islamic Republic, as well as what little protests they are able to engage in. And they remain as stunned as the rest of us at the protests both here and in Europe — which are in favor of the sociopathic, homophobic, misogynistic regime in Iran that is stifling not just their people’s freedom, but the lives of their families.
Qatar, China, Russia, and Iran have been unquestionably successful at one thing: the colonization of the American mind. Through antisemitic professors, “ethnic studies,” infiltration of leftist media (hello, Washington Post), and an intense disinformation campaign on social media, leftists have been fed a steady stream of lies and propaganda to the point that the protesters are ardently embracing a regime that kills women for showing their hair in public, hangs gay people, and considers child rape sacred.
In 2018, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff published The Coddling of the American Mind. They discussed how a culture of “safetyism” interferes with social, emotional and intellectual development. In retrospect, that seems to have been Stage I of what’s now called the red-green alliance.
Stage II is a complete colonization — OK, obliteration — of brain cells. Disinformation so steeped in anti-facts it makes the Soviets look like amateurs. All of which led to a cognitive dissonance so septic some protesters simultaneously hold up posters celebrating both gay pride and the mullahs who would hang them.
It also led to a mass conformity during precisely the period when most healthy teens and 20-somethings rebel. There is only one word for this level of mass conformity: cult.
But for the moral inversion to be complete — for young women in the West to support the most evil patriarchy that has ever reigned — something else had to happen: a complete soullessness. Morality begins in our souls. If you choke off the soul — through a negation of spirituality, creativity, nature — you can easily be convinced to do anything and feel nothing. Thus, the increasing political violence here and in Europe.
Meanwhile, on the far right, Qatar has exerted a different sort of disinformation trap: buying off “influencers” to mouth jihadist talking points without even flinching. A recent exchange between Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald over an alleged Osama bin Laden letter is truly jaw-dropping. The mastermind of 9/11 didn’t hate the US or the West, according to these two pundits. Three thousand Americans lost their lives because of US support for … Israel.
I would say that they both should win Academy Awards for their performances — but I actually think they believe it. We always knew that the Arab world excelled at propaganda. But this surpasses the KGB in its ability to turn formerly mildly intelligent men into Islamist puppets.
All of this will no doubt get far worse, even after Iran is freed. But we’re already seeing hopeful signs in Gen Z. Yes, older Gen Zers can barely be distinguished from their millennial teachers. But at least in New York City, millennials took leftism to such an extreme — trying to use Gen Z as their own puppets — that younger Gen Zers have begun to rebel: pushing back against the lies even in the classroom.
But the onus for real change begins in the home, where morality is either learned or spat on. And, of course, houses of worship, which needed to be depoliticized yesterday. We need to return to a world that privileges values over politics, education rooted in facts not opinions, a media that returns to objectivity.
A millennial here recently said to me: “There’s no such thing as objectivity.” I responded: “Is this a table?” She nodded. “Is it made of wood?” She reluctantly nodded again. “So can we agree on the fact that this is a wooden table?” She got angry. “Yes, but so what? That’s basic.” Yes, I said. But that’s where we are: returning to the basics. Facts, values, morality — all represent the foundation of this great country. And if we’re ever going to return to it, we need to start there.
Just as the Iranians are about to do.
Karen Lehrman Bloch is editor in chief of White Rose Magazine. A version of this article was originally published by The Jewish Journal.
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