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I find it very strange that Israel flew the first (known) F35 combat mission. Why do we give them such priority technology access compared to, say, the UK or ot
by captainredbeard 7y ago
I find it very strange that Israel flew the first (known) F35 combat mission. Why do we give them such priority technology access compared to, say, the UK or other close, Five Eyes allies?
- nradov 7y agoThe UK is the only tier 1 partner on the F-35 program. They have more access to source code than Israel or any other nation outside the USA.
- godzillabrennus 7y agoDemocratic governments in the Middle East aren’t exactly everywhere. Israel has a special relationship with the developed world.
- captainredbeard 7y agoWhy should US lives and dollars go to the Middle East? I couldn’t care less what happens there.
- jfengel 7y agoGiven the way US economic life blood flows from there, lots of people do care. We've been trying to reduce our dependence on that, but a lot of the world economy still lives and dies on oil prices.
- bjourne 7y agoAIPAC
- hadlock 7y agoIsrael has a particularly close relationship with the United States via a decades long lobbying effort. Israeli media often debates whether or not the nickname "the 51st state" is accurate or not, and whether they are too dependent on the US. Israel has a program to fly Americans to Israel for free for two weeks as part of a cultural exchange program to build ties. They're heavily invested in this. The UK and Australia are close allies too, but Israel is quite small (geographically the size of New Jersey) and only about 8 million - the total population of California's bay area, and surrounded by countries that often times are at best neutral. Israel has a strong incentive to win and maintain US friendship.