Friday 21 April 2017

Germany to Give Israel $500 Million ‘Discount’ on New Submarine Deal Pending Corruption Probe

One wonders if the German people will ever tire of paying “reparations” to Israel. They have been doing so for the past 65 years–ever since the signing of the Luxembourg Agreement in 1952–and at the rate things are going, it looks like they will go on making absolution for eternity, long after the last “holocaust survivor” has kicked the bucket.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has published a story about a “memorandum of understanding” being discussed between Germany and Israel that would lead to the latter’s acquisition of three new Dolphin-class submarines capable of firing nuclear missiles. According to the article:
Senior German officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the submarine deal was very sensitive and important to Merkel, in part as an expression of her explicit policy of strengthening Israeli security. Another factors included the size of the deal – nearly 1.5 billion euros – and the fact that one-third of that amount would be paid by German taxpayers as defense aid to Israel.
One third of 1.5 billion comes to €500 million. At the current conversion rate, that would be $535.53 million–a lot of money to cough up just to satisfy Merkel’s “sensitivity” to Israel’s purported “security” needs.
The only thing holding up the signing of the MOU at this point is a corruption investigation taking place in Israel. It seems that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal attorney–a man by the name of David Shimron–is also the attorney for an Israeli representative of ThyssenKrupp, the German company that makes the submarines.
The Israeli-German memorandum of understanding was supposed to be signed toward the end of 2016, but the flood of media reports and investigations in Israel and Germany led to the suspension of talks for over four months. High-ranking Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuffed successive requests from the Prime Minister’s Office that the memorandum be signed, saying that the timing was wrong.
Angela Merkel, it is further stated, is worried the deal may fall under a “cloud of criminal allegations,” and has insisted that the investigation proceed to its conclusions before putting her signature on the MOU.  In other words, Merkel wants the Israeli government to investigate itself for corruption, and if the investigation turns up no wrongdoing, then she’ll go ahead with the deal, including the €500 million German taxpayer subsidy.
Merkel reportedly is keen, however, to get the agreement finalized before September 24, 2017. That is when Germany will hold its next federal election, and the sensitive Chancellor Merkel wants to get the MOU signed and sealed so that “the deal would go through even in the event she is not reelected, without requiring any additional steps for the next German government.”
Israel has already purchased six Dolphin-class submarines from Germany. This will make for a total of nine should the current deal go through. Each submarine is capable of firing nuclear missiles.
Hopefully the German people have awakened to the realization that their country, much like America, is essentially under Israeli occupation and will make an intelligent decision in September.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
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