This study was presented at a symposium in Cuba, arranged by the International Secretariat for Solidarity with the Arab People and their Central Cause, Palestine.
The importance of the Israeli military role in Latin America can be traced back to imperialism’s defeat in Vietnam, which for a time diminished the US’s capacity to intervene directly against popular struggles in the three continents. US imperialism was forced to devise new plans for implementing its policies effectively but more quietly without having to face the public dissent which prevailed during its involvement in Southeast Asia. To this purpose, the US needed a reliable surrogate, a force with advanced military experience and whose interests paralleled its own. The natural candidate was a Zionist state.
In Latin America, ‘Israel’ immediately picked up the slack by increasing the supply of military equipment and advisors sent to reactionary states to a veritable flood by the early eighties. Starting in the mid-seventies, a squadron of Dagger aircraft and Gabriel rockets were sold to Argentina; 150 Shafrir missiles to Chile; Super-mysteres and Kfir C2 combat jets to Honduras – all regimes condemned by the world community for gross violation of human rights. The Zionist state engaged in training the internal security forces of El Salvador and Panama. From 1976, ‘Israel’ was responsible for supplying almost all the military needs of the Guatemala dictatorship until January this year, when the Reagan Administration resumed direct military aid to Rios Montt’s regime. In Mexico, ‘Israel’ has established a licensed assembly plant for Arava aircraft, planes suitable for counterinsurgency. High-tech military equipment poured into the hands of many reactionary governments.
It is no coincidence that the Israeli military role in Latin America escalated parallel to the ascendance of the military juntas, it became even more apparent with the resurgence of the liberation struggle in the area, heralded by the Nicaraguan revolution. The main function of Israeli military aid to Latin America has, of course, been a counterinsurgency. Moreover, today Israel’s arms serve to heighten tensions in the area in line with US imperialism’s increasingly aggressive policy and renewed willingness to intervene directly. Israeli involvement in the US’ “backyard” clearly shows Zionism organic link and common interest with imperialism. Israel is directly participating in the efforts to embolden Latin American dictators, as was echoed in the remark of general Gustava Alvarez of Honduras that his country needs a preemptive strike against Nicaragua the way Israel did against the PLO. The Israeli government has proven before the international community that it is totally faithful to the imperialist cause and has no qualms about supporting regimes in Latin America which have murdered hundreds of thousands of their own citizens in recent years.
‘Israel’ in Central America
In this paper, we will allow ourselves to concentrate on Central America, for it is there that the Israeli role became most visible starting in the mid 70s – dramatically exposed by the victory of the Sandinista revolution.
In fact, the Carter administration so-called human rights policy can hardly be understood in isolation from the role of Israel as an imperialist surrogate. Faced with public criticism of the US role in maintaining the brutal almost said dictatorship, Congress set out cut off military aid to Nicaragua. Thus, US imperialism tried to save face, but in Nicaragua, as in other Latin American countries, the US could not have pretended to implement a policy based on human rights criteria if not for the fact that Israel moved in to shoulder the task of arming the exposed dictatorships. After the victory of the Sandinista revolution, it was revealed that 98% of samosas military equipment had come from the Zionist state.
Today, the US and Israel continue to conspire against the Nicaraguan people by attempting to topple their revolutionary government. An article in the Washington Post earlier this year revealed a new instance of US-Israeli cooperation to this effect. The two are working on a multi million dollar settlement plan in Costa Rica, along the border with Nicaragua. This plan calls for settling and supporting up to 1000 families on land along the border. The US agency AID, notorious for links with CIA projects, has agreed to finance the project with at least $10 million in the first year alone. Israel provides technical expertise, based on its experience with settlements in occupied Palestine, especially in the West Bank, where private enterprise plays an increasingly prominent role in colonization. The Israeli firm TAHAL, is providing engineers who have been involved in the project from the start.
It is interesting to note that this settlement project was begun at the same time as the US started the large-scale military maneuvers – Big Pine – along the Honduran-Nicaraguan border. This is 1 indication that the settlement project in Costa Rica has a place in the US military plans for the area. The aim is to create strategic pinchers that would physically isolate Nicaragua, and serve as basis for the counter revolutionary sabotage. The settlement project is hard to justify otherwise, for Costa Rica has no serious overpopulation problem that necessitates resettling people in border areas. A US administration official acknowledged that AID would never have given an economically risky project to the go ahead, if it weren’t for the political implications. U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, McNeil, also acknowledged this fact, saying in a confidential cable: “it is essential that the land purchase be expeditiously and quietly carried out to avoid land invasion by leftist rebels who would nullify the project’s geopolitical objectives.”
This is not the first time the Zionists engage in settlement building in the Western Hemisphere. In Guatemala, in addition to having sent over 300 advisers, Israel has promoted their regimes counterinsurgency efforts by providing the expertise for so-called development projects. This entailed the physical elimination and transfer of the Indian inhabitants of certain areas, and the establishment of the kibbutz-like colonies in an effort to deprive the guerilla movement of their mass base.
In a recent chapter of the US-Zionist conspiracy against the people of Latin America and the Middle East, the Zionist state, at US request, sent massive shipments of PLO weapons captured in Lebanon, to Costa Rica, to arm the CIA sponsored contras for their attacks on Nicaragua.
Renewed focus on El Salvador
From 1972 to 1977, the Zionist states applied the regime in El Salvador with 81% of its weaponry. In this., Israel also began sending military advisers to the country. The recent announcement that Israel will provide military and security aid, estimated to run at $81 million in this year, to the regime marks a renewal and escalation of Israeli intervention in El Salvador’s civil war. Also, the Israeli embassy is scheduled to reopen in san Salvador, as the result of the August meeting in Jerusalem between begin and a high-ranking Salvadorian delegation. The regime will reciprocate by moving its embassy to Jerusalem, in a clear sign of political support to to the Zionist annexation. The Israeli embassy in san Salvador was closed in 1979, after an escalation of political violence in the country period since the war in the country has only widened since that time, the explanation for the reopening is the new priority Zionism has assigned to El Salvador, in order to hold the reactionary forces in power against the steady advance of the Farabundo Marti revolutionaries. It is perhaps redundant to note that the increased Israeli focus on El Salvador comes at a time when the Reagan administration is facing rising domestic opposition to its role there and to its once secret war against Nicaragua.
When the thread of the Israeli arms industry that is woven between US foreign policy and Latin America is unraveled, the logic and true motives of imperialist policy worldwide become obvious. Israeli and US actions in Latin America exemplify the mechanism of expansion and intervention that are landmarks of imperialism and Zionism. Israeli arms trade in Latin America is but a modification of its aggression and expansion in the Middle East.
US-Israeli cooperation in the Arms Market
Since 1971, Israel has emerged as a major manufacturer and exporter of arms, not only to Latin America, but to other countries as well. According to statistics gathered by the CIA, Israel placed first in arms exports to Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, and 5th in the world market in 1980. This amazing growth was accomplished during the years 1970 to 80 that, when Israel increasingly militarized and strengthened its economy by boosting its arms industry. Since the Likud take power in 1977, arms exports have seen a six fold increase from $425 million to nearly $2 billion.
During a visit to Honduras in December 1982, then defense minister minister Sharon made a deal for the Israeli military industries that included 12 Kfir combat jets and 50 advisors, yielding $25 million for the Israeli economy. In the same period, Reagan chose Honduras as the base for intervention against the revolutionaries in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Within the realm of close US-Israeli cooperation, Israeli advisers will assist both US and Honduran troops in anti insurgent warfare, and in part the tactics used in Lebanon against Palestinian and Lebanese fighters and civilians. Military strategy and secrets are an integral part of the Israeli arms trade; like that the weapons themselves, these are battle tested, due to Zionism’s long history of aggression.
Israeli expertise stands behind the may opening of the munitions factory in Guatemala under the auspices of the army there. As pointed out in the grandma newspaper, Havana, October 30th, “Israeli presence as a regional arms manufacturer based in Guatemala serves to greatly shorten supply and communications lines among the puppet armies of the United states now coordinated in Central America. We must stress that one of the most important decisions adopted by these military commanders at their recent meetings in Guatemala was to supply all Central American armies with the exception of Nicaragua, with a single type of weapon and ammunition. The idea clearly hinges on supplies of Israeli weapons made in Guatemala”.
Israel has made other deals that have helped the US implement its policy in Central America. When there was an apparent impasse in the US Congress about which regime should receive the quote UN quote scarce US allocations available, Israel suggested that the US allows certain Latin American countries to spend part of their military credits with Israel, thus reducing the outright grants of military aid to Israel at a time when public opinion was against the Israeli aggression in Lebanon. As reported by the Israeli daily Davar in March 1982, Israel had already allowed the US to divert $21 million earmarked for the Zionist state to Salvador’s army, thus bypassing congressional attempts to limit military funding to this notoriously brutal army. The concession on the part of the Zionists, however, was made on the condition that the funds would be repaid at a later date. Repayment could come in in the form of a larger share of the arms market in Latin America, less restrictions on arms trade generally, or outright military grants as in the past. Political repayment should not be ruled out either, using these arrangements to further annexation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Strategic Alliance
The key to Israeli reliability as a US surrogate lies in the fact that Zionist interests in these endeavors are equal to those of the US. Israel can be doubly efficient in the business of counter revolution, because it is not a mere puppet, but a state is very nature endows it with vital interests in ensuring imperialist domination around the globe.
The arms trade entails political as well as economic advantages for the Zionist state. In 1981, then Israeli defense minister Sharon outlined a policy aimed at using the demands for arms to secure not only dollars, but political and diplomatic advantage as well, for example, by getting countries to move their embassies to Jerusalem.
The economic advantages are, however, even more crucial. Moshe Mandelbaum, governor of the Bank of Israel, said: “only one factor saved Israel from economic collapse and that is its arms trade.”
In this decade of militarization, Israel gained new advantages for its marketing strategy, opened through the strategic cooperation with the US. The agreements with Liberia, reached in August of this year, are a recent example of this, as is the arms sale to Latin American dictatorships. In August 1981, the Israeli minister Meridor outlined the relationship in market terms: “we say this to the Americans don’t compete with us in the Caribbean or in other areas which we can sell directly. Let us do it sell the ammunition and the equipment using an accredited representative, Israel will be your accredited representative.”
The memorandum of understanding on strategic cooperation, signed by the US and Israel in 1981, formalized US-Israeli military coordination. Concerted US support to the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the continuing Israeli occupation of Lebanese Palestinian and Syrian land, has shown that the formal suspension of this memorandum has no meaning, for after all, it had only put down in writing the close working relationship that has long existed. The Zionist rolled in Latin America shows that Israel can be counted on to safeguard imperialism strategic interests and objectives when international and domestic outcry against human rights violations makes US initiatives vis-à-vis certain regimes more difficult. The strategic cooperation memorandum gives the possibilities of joint military ventures outside the Mediterranean zone. These were code words for more Israeli involvement in Latin America and also Africa. Article 32D of the memorandum paves the way for third countries receiving US foreign military sales credits to use these for purchasing defense items and services from Israel. This privilege accorded to the Zionist entity is unprecedented in the history of US foreign policy, and not even given to NATO allies.
In the context of the greater global role which it has assumed and as part of boosting its economy, the Zionist state has diversified and upgraded the type of weaponry which it manufacturers and markets. In the early 70s, Israel madly made mostly light weapons and munitions, but today it has expanded into heavy arms such as the Merkava tanks and the proposed lobby fighter jets. This is closely related to the ever increasing militarization of the Israeli economy, for such heavy production tends to employ a greater number of industrial workers then did the concentration on light arms industry. In 1982, about 40,000 Israelis were employed in the arms industry. This constituted about 14% of the industrial labor force. In 1981, the Israeli arms industry accounted for 40% of total Israeli exports.
The importance of the arms industry for the Israeli economy also has social effects, just as it does in the United states. A large portion of the labor force needs this employment and thus identifies with militarism, blinded to the dangers engendered by such a monstrous arms industry. The population is also susceptible to chauvinist and racist demagogy, whether spouted by Reagan or began or now Shamir, which aims to justify using this weaponry against civilians, whether in Palestine, Lebanon, El Salvador, Guatemala, etc.
One may ask how Israel, as a small state with great economic problems in one of the highest inflation rates in the world, can produce an export such a huge quantity of these destructive products. The answer lies in the nature of the Zionist state and its organic link with imperialism, especially the US. Just as the Zionist entity is an artificial state, that would have never been established or survived without enormous outside aid, so is the Israeli Israeli arms industry a baby of imperialism. Imperialism financed the Zionist state first to be used as the beachhead for expanding imperialist control in the Middle East. Today, it’s one of military tasks is truly global. Facts and figures indicate the importance which US imperialism attaches to Israel as a surrogate implementer of its strategy. In the last ten years, USA to Israel military and economic, has been over $22.5 billion according to the US general accounting offices preliminary study released August 27th, 1982. The study states that US aid to Israel has averaged more than $2.5 billion annually for a decade. This flood of assistance is often given as grants or in the form of long term, interest free loans, which are often never repaid, but covered by the next aid package. This assistance played a key role in allowing Israel to develop its own arms industry and become one of the world’s leading arms merchants.
Imperialisms ultimate repayment comes through Israel carrying out assignments which the US finds inconvenient to execute itself. Indeed, Israel can do what the US cannot at certain times, due to restraints imposed by public pressure or congressional hesitation. Moreover, due to its aggressive nature, the Zionist state has cultivated A reputation for battle tested weapons. A slogan which appeared in newspapers all over the world boasts that Israel makes bombs that do what they are supposed to do. And Zionist terminology, battle tested means that the vacuum and phosphorus bombs in question have been used on civilians in Beirut apartment buildings, or non conventional armies, IE popular movements, like the PLO forces in Lebanon. The invasion of Lebanon was a test of world opinion regarding the use of highly insidious anti personnel weapons, such as cluster bombs and napalm, and urban warfare. Furthermore, the Israelis have stated that more ingenious adjustments were made on the weapons in Lebanon but those adaptations remain a military secret. In any case they are not a secret to the Pentagon any longer, nor to a series of Latin American dictatorships, whose record for mass killing and torture against their own people qualifies them as future users of such weaponry. Though democratic forces the world over have protested the use of such weapons in the 1982 in Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and have spoken out against human rights violations in Latin America, this protest must grow much more forceful if we are to avoid new battle testing on the peoples of the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.
