Israel’s defense exports reached the highest historic level of almost 50 billion shekels this year! About 80 percent of the exports come from two groups of countries:
1. The countries that have signed the “Abraham Accords” with Israel, in other words the Arab states interested in advanced Israeli weapons for defense against Iranian aggression and in case of Morocco against aggression from Algeria, which is also extremely hostile to the Jewish state, and with which the North African kingdom is in a long term conflict.
2. European countries who have been buying weapons from Israel in huge quantities over the past year out of fear of a potential but growing threat from Russia. The media published information about an unusual defense deal, according to which two so far unnamed European states will buy from Israel 200 Merkava tanks of previous modifications, which were decommissioned during the reduction of the Israeli tank force. The decision to make this reduction was made and implemented over the past few years against the backdrop of a dramatic reduction of previous threats associated with the ongoing civil war in Egypt and the actual disintegration of countries such as Iraq and Syria.
European countries purchasing Merkava Model 2 and 3 tanks from Israel are interested in tanks that could be available for immediate use. In other words, these countries would not have to wait for tank production, which could take years.
Obviously, this immediate need for tanks is determined by the desire to re-equip their own armed forces as soon as possible against the growing threats from Russia. It is also possible that after receiving the Merkava tanks from Israel, these countries will decide to transfer their outdated tanks to Ukraine.
For Israel, this deal was a good opportunity to seriously increase state revenues, earning money from decommissioned tanks, which otherwise would have been sent for dismantling and scrapping.
May we have more good news.