Opinion
Submarine affair requires commission of inquiry
Giora Eiland
Published: 18.07.17, 14:59
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4 Talkbacks for this article
1. I want my underwater toys, now!!!!
(07.19.17)
2. the navy knows what they need and Germany subsidizes
zionist forever   (07.20.17)
The planned submarine purchase was not to take the fleet up to 9 it was to keep it at 6 because when the new ones would arrive in 10 years when the 3 Dolphin 1 had reached retirement so these were to replace the Dolphin 1. The third sub due to arrive around 2018 we cannot cancel as it is in the construction stage and its the navy who know best what they need not journalists. The ships to protect the gas fields, the navy has wanted new ships for years First plan was to buy the US Littoral Combat Ship but that was to expensive, then they considered building an old design German ship in Israel under license. Then the considered building a stretched SAAR 5 in Israel but that fell through. It finally came down to Germany and South Korea and the German government offered to subsidize a large part the cost so it made sense to buy German.
3. The Past Effectiveness of Commissions
Yosef Goldberg ,   Alon shevut   (07.21.17)
It seems that the Israeli solution to deal with 'suspicious ' events like Sabra and Shatila massacre, the disappearance of the Yemenite children, the collapse of the banks is to appoint a commission of inquiry. During our young history as a state, we have had 18 (!) such commissions some of which have exposed serious flaws in our society and its institutions. In the Sabra and Shatila massacres, the culprit designated by the commission later became our prime minister.
4. MosheShertzer
zionist forever   (07.21.17)
Giving the Germans the ok to sell subs to Egypt ( same class as the Dolphin 1 but without lots of the features the Dolphins have ) was probably the smart thing to do.
Egypt wanted new subs to replace its 4 old Romeo Class subs we could have let them buy the Type 209 with fewer features than the Dolphins or we could have said no and they would have bought subs from somebody else like Russia who would have given them top of the range.

We also wanted Germany to give us submarines at a heavily subsidized price so we had to let them have something in return.
Israel usually has a say in weapons that the US export to the arabs to make sure Israel stays top and the Israeli government did not object when the Saudis wanted to buy 100 new F15s.
We wanted the very expensive F35 which at the time the Pentagon was advising Obama not to let us buy. In the end not only did we get the F35 but permission to service them in Israel, install Israeli systems, carry Israeli missiles and a production line was opened in Israel to build about 2000 sets of wings for US export F35s which is totally unheard of, even countries who invested billions in the planes development didn't get a deal like that.

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