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Israel's Strategy toward China Serves and Reinforces American Interests
(Mosaic) Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman - In my judgment, critics who warn against Chinese ambitions involving Israel overstate the magnitude of the threat - perhaps because they neglect to take fully into account the broader scope of Israel's interests in the Middle East and Asia. Those interests, in fact, coincide with and reinforce the national interests of the United States. When it comes to Israel's narrow economic concerns, China offers both a vast domestic market for high-end Israeli goods and a source of investment in the Israeli economy. For a country fully dependent on its high-end trade, these are not trivial matters. But equally pertinent is the potential role of China as a stabilizing strategic presence in the region. For example, few things would be as harmful to Israel's prospects of survival as the collapse of Egypt. Fortunately, Egypt's importance as a node in the One Belt One Road project is recognized in Beijing, and Chinese firms already hold the principal contracts for the new "administrative" capital being built east of Cairo. It is very much in the interest of both Israel and the U.S. that China continue to be a long-term strategic investor in Egypt's growth and stability. Moreover, Israel's security-related efforts in Asia are in fact directed at the range of nations seeking to build a counter-balancing strategic capacity to China's bid for hegemony. Within the last few years, Japan has dropped its traditional reservation about security cooperation with Israel, Vietnam and the Philippines have emerged as markets for Israel's defense sector, coordination with Australia has intensified, and, above all, Israel's two-decades-old relationship with India in the realm of military hardware has become even more extensive and intimate than ever. Once again, this sensible strategy ultimately serves U.S. interests as well. The writer, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies, held senior posts in IDF Military Intelligence for over 20 years.