China Is Spying On Russian foreign policy 2019 to Steal U. Benjamin Netanyahu ignored the intelligence operations of Beijing and Moscow for too long. Now, the Israeli government is finally paying attention, but it could be too late.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks with soldiers as he stands near a naval Iron Dome defense systeminstalled on a Sa’ar 5 Lahav Class corvette of the Israeli Navy fleet, in the northern port of Haifa on Feb. Because of the sensitivity of the issue, no one in the cabinet is prepared to talk about the elephant in the room. Nevertheless, it is clear that the policy review and the report are primarily focused on China. In the past decade, Beijing has increased its economic and military investments and interests in the Middle East, including Israel.
The Israeli government ignored China’s behavior for too long, but lately it has begun to pay attention. The National Security Council has to reconcile two contradictory policies, both of which are important to the Israeli economy and its national-security interests. The first is a policy embraced by all government across the political spectrum for decades: encouraging foreign investment, privatization of national assets and utilities, and the expansion of international markets for Israeli goods. In recent years, like many other exporters, Israeli firms have looked eastward to the growing and developing economies of Asia—and China’s in particular. A recent survey by the Israeli intelligence community that is not in the public domain shows that Chinese investment in the Middle East rose by 1,700 percent between 2012 and 2017. 1 billion, making it Israel’s largest trading partner in Asia and its third-largest trading partner in the world after the European Union and the United States.
77 billion, an increase of 47 percent compared with the same period in 2017. The second policy is to defend national and strategic assets and infrastructure from being controlled and taken over by foreign governments and corporations, even if they are not hostile to Israel. Because of its high-tech economy, Israel also faces the delicate problem of foreign spying and theft of its advanced technologies and know-how. China has targeted Israel’s two largest arms exporters, Israel Aerospace Industries and the arms manufacturer Rafael, along with the company Elbit Systems. The first two are state-owned corporations, and all three have subsidiaries in the United States that help manufacture Israel’s most advanced weapons, including missiles and avionics.
