Israel's Military Relationship with Ecuador and Argentina

Resumen

The 1970s witnessed Israel's emergence as a major exporter of military equipment. A 1981 CIA report1 ranked Israel fifth among the world's military exporters in 1980; the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) ranked it fifteenth that same year.2 Other sources have placed it variously at twelfth and seventh.3 In absolute terms, estimates of the monetary value of Israel's arms exports range from $1 billion to over $2 billion per year.4 What is undisputed is that Israel has become an important arms supplier on the world market, exporting combat-tested, high performance military equipment ranging from light arms and ammunition, communications devices, and defense electronics to highly sophisticated main weapons systems such as jet fighters, heavy tanks, naval vessels, and a whole array of missiles. Israel's natural clientele for arms exports have been third world countries, since the Soviet bloc has been off-limits and most of the industrialized countries either produce their own weapons or purchase them from NATO allies. Yet, large segments of the third world market are also