Israel arms sales peak despite Lebanon war fallout

[Jcrowley]

Israel arms sales peak despite Lebanon war fallout
17 Dec 2006 10:23:52 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Israel's defence exports hit record levels in 2006, an official said on Sunday, despite predictions they would be hurt by the Israeli military's tactical setbacks during its war in Lebanon.

Foreign analysts had said the 34-day offensive, which drove Hezbollah guerrillas from the Lebanese frontier but did not destroy their missile capability or kill top leaders, risked tarnishing the "battle-proven" reputation of Israeli weaponry.

Especially intense scrutiny fell on vaunted Israeli air force systems such as technology designed to reduce the time taken for warplanes, helicopter gunships or armed drones to detect and attack threats on the ground.

But Israel's Defence Ministry said that by the end of November arms firms had sealed $4.1 billion in new foreign orders for 2006, surpassing the previous peak -- $4.02 billion -- reached in the same period in 2002.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17852188.htm

[bemildred]

1. Seems a bit premature to be drawing conclusions:

Naidek-Ashkenazi noted that international defence deals often take years to put together and the impact of the Lebanon war on Israeli clients might not yet have been felt.