(Hoover Institution-Stanford University) Joshua Teitelbaum - In July, Der Spiegel reported that Germany was set to sell 200 advanced main battle tanks, the Leopard Type 2A7+, to Saudi Arabia. From Israel's perspective, the golden mean on arms sales in the region has always been maintaining Jerusalem's qualitative military edge (QME). During talks with U.S. defense officials in 2006, Israel expressed its concerns about the loss of QME with respect to Saudi Arabia in a secret non-paper that stressed fears for Saudi stability and objected to the stalking by two Saudi F-15s of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's flight to the Sharm el-Sheikh summit on February 8, 2005. Israel and Germany have a long and largely secret military relationship, including a reported project code-named Bluebird, involving a long-range, high-resolution target-discrimination sensor that would help Israel distinguish incoming nuclear missiles. In May it was reported that Israel would purchase a sixth Dolphin class submarine from Germany.
2011-08-03 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive