Ex-Israeli General: US Aid Harms and Corrupts
Netanyahu’s Emissary, in Upcoming Trip, Aims to Conclude New 10-Year Deal
Barbara Opall-Rome12:55 p.m. EDT July 25, 2016
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/policy-budget/budget/2016/07/25/israel-general-us-military-aid-idf/87526182/

TEL AVIV — As Israeli and US officials head into another, possibly final
round of talks over a new 10-year military aid package, a general in the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reserves told Defense News his country would be
far better off – and the US-Israel partnership stronger over time – if
Israel found a way to wean itself off of US largess.

Insisting that US aid “harms and corrupts us,” Maj. Gen. (Res) Gershon
Hacohen, a former head of IDF war colleges and commander of Israel’s
Northern Corps, said the Israeli government should welcome gradual
reductions, rather than increases, in US military grant aid.

“It requires leadership, but if this could be done in a calculated, well
planned manner, it would restore our sovereignty, our military
self-sufficiency and our industrial capacity,” Hacohen told Defense News.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Monday that Jacob
Nagel, the acting head of the Israel National Security Council, was being
dispatched to Washington “for the purpose of signing a new MoU between the
two countries as soon as possible.”

Nagel is scheduled to meet with US National Security Advisor Susan Rice on
Aug. 1, in attempts to conclude the package to follow the current $30
billion agreement that expires in fiscal 2018.

Bilateral negotiations have faltered over the past several months with
regard to terms, conditions and the top line of the package. According to
sources here and in Washington, the US offer now stands at $3.8 billion
annually, which includes some $400 million to be spent in Israel on
cooperative missile defense and other pre-agreed joint programs.

As a condition of expanding Israel’s top line from $30 billion to $38
billion over the coming ten years, Washington is insisting on removing a
30-year-old privilege whereby Israel is able to convert a significant
portion of grant dollars into shekels for local research, development and
procurement.

“Israel places great value on the predictability and certainty of the
military assistance it receives from the US and on honoring bilateral
agreements,” Netanyahu’s statement said. “Therefore, it is not in Israel’s
interest for there to be any changes to the fixed annual MoU levels without
the agreement of both the US administration and the Israeli government.”

But Hacohen, a former member of the IDF General Staff who retired after
Israel’s 2014 Gaza War, insisted that US interests – rather than Israel’s
interests – are better served by Israel’s ongoing need for predictable,
long-term US military aid.

In a July 24 interview, the former armored officer and outspoken maverick
among his peers insisted that Israel’s “total dependence” on US aid merely
institutionalizes IDF reliance on air power, at the expense of innovative
and daring ground maneuver warfare.

“Israel is so addicted to advanced US platforms, and the US weaponry they
deliver, that we’ve stopping thinking creatively in terms of operational
concepts. For generations, we’re locked into thinking about how to improve
technologically; and this is not necessarily the correct thinking when
dealing constantly innovative enemies in asymmetric conflicts,” he said.

Hacohen, a secular man with degrees in philosophy and comparative
literature, offered an analogy from the biblical tale of Noah’s ark, when
the returning dove bearing a bitter olive leaf signaled that the flood
waters had receded.

“According to Rashi, who was one of the most important pillars of Jewish
thought, this story teaches us that liberty has a price; that it’s better to
have a bitter leaf taken directly from the hand of god than to be given
something sweet as honey by mortal men,” Hacohen said.

“The lesson here is that the bitter taste of things we accomplish on our own
is preferable to the sweet privileges than can imprison us.”

Hacohen readily acknowledged that none of his former colleagues on the IDF
General Staff or those in positions of influence in today’s defense
establishment are likely to share his views.

Nevertheless, he insisted that eventual freedom of US aid could remove a
source of constant tension in the US-Israel strategic ties.

“As we’ve seen from this ongoing story of the aid deal, this is not the way
two true partners should behave. There shouldn’t be all this bargaining
going on. Once we are not economically dependent on them, the partnership
can flourish on its own merits,” Hacohen said.

Hacohen’s retirement after 42 years in uniform marked the last of the
serving IDF generals to have fought in the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

Twitter: @opallrome