It’s the news I’ve been waiting for; without anti Bibi syndrome it would have come sooner. It is time for Diaspora money to be channeled to this effort and not to bloated organizations that are always accused of “buying” American politicians. Buy Israeli companies stock, bonds that are involved in this gigantic effort or at least Israeli bonds.
Probably some of the companies mentioned in the post. I will be looking first for the companies that started making munitions for the existing fleet that IDF is flying.
Question: Which suchlike companies have branches in both Israel and the US, so that we might initially seek employment with them in the USA while preparing to make Aliyah? (Wouldn’t that help us start contributing NOW and smooth that transition?)
What was worse was that America's special envoy who was sent to Israel in 1987 to persuade us to give up on the Lavi project was a religious Jew who wore a black kippa called Dov Zackheim. According to Wikipedia, he was also an ordained rabbi. This was a cynical move by the US.
The same thing happened in Canada. During the 1950s Avro Canada developed the Avro Arrow, by far the most advanced fighter jet in the world. But for similar reasons the Americans persuaded the Canadian government led by Conservative PM Diefenbaker to cancel it. And in Canada the impact of this cancellation was arguably worse because instead of integrating into other parts of the Canadian defence industries most of the 14,000 laid off workers got into their pick-up trucks and drove to Seattle. During WWII Canada developed an incredible defence industries including in ship building. Today not much is left of that.
Just a reminder who decided to scrap the Lavi ptoject:
The 12 cabinet members who voted to scrap the Lavi project consisted of 11 ministers from the Labor Party (Alignment) and 1 minister from the Likud Party, breaking party ranks.
The exact breakdown of the 12 ministers who voted in favor of cancellation on August 30, 1987: [1]
(Note: Health Minister Shoshana Arbeli-Almozlino, a Labor member who passionately favored the Lavi, couldn't bring herself to vote with her party to kill it, but chose to abstain rather than vote explicitly against her coalition leaders, cementing the 12–11 cancellation outcome). [8, 9]
The picture of the Lavi sure reminds me of the A-4 Skyhawk. Back in the mid-80's I saw a Kfir on the ramp at NAS Millington in Tennessee when the US Navy was using them as adversary aircraft. Finally, "The Jewish state must never again be forced to beg others for the means to defend itself" a sentiment with which I agree. The Sturm und Drang which Israel finds itself with France AND the US screams for the Jewish State to develop its own armaments industries for the nation's survival.
Not being one to Monday Morning quarterback I see good reasons why an early state Israel would rely on weapon supplies from a much larger power with proven aircraft and munitions like France, and why after 1967 would pivot to rely on the United States. It has worked well for Israel for 55 years, but now Israel needs to once again pivot to become much more self reliant when it comes to weapon development and production.
As October 7th and the immense damage caused by hamas was not predicted or stopped, so too the Biden/Democrat response to the Iran/Gaza/Hezbollah war, the withholding of needed munitions and using supply chains and financial support to restrict Israel in their response, calls now for another pivot to far greater independence and self reliance.
This doesn't mean Israel was wrong to rely on France through 1967, or on the United States to the present. During these times it made sense and Israel has grown militarily strong, punching way above its weight class. Who would have imagined when Israel declared independence in 1948 that in 2026 Germany and other European nations would purchase advanced weapon systems from Israel.
Fascinating discussion of the truth about why real military independence is essential for Israel’s survival. Israel can never again allow other nations to dictate how she defends herself. No other country can be relied on for many reasons, antisemitism being just one. There are also political and financial issues that must be considered.
This development,, hopefully won't again fall a victim of bickering within the Israeli government or American veto or both is coming not a minute too soon.
Regardless, Israel needs to move aggressively to develop Israeli-made alternatives to every critical good and technology it currently buys from France, Spain, the UK, Ireland, and others. The goal should be total independence from these countries—and then to use Israeli innovation, technology, and competition to drive their companies out of markets around the world, gut industries that depend on those exports, and inflict real economic damage on countries whose economies are already struggling.
If these countries want to wage economic and diplomatic war against Israel, Israel should respond with economic warfare of its own—and make them pay a price they cannot ignore.
Its beyond time to put the Holocaust continent out of business
Israel gets about 2/3 of its defense imports from the US, 1/3 from Germany and the round-off error from France and the UK.
Israel's Spike antitank missile is used by every NATO country except France.
Israel's Trophy Active Defense System, the difference between tank losses in Ukraine and tank losses in Gaza, is standard in the latest version of the US M1 tank, the German Leopard 2 and the Korean K2. It is slated as standard equipment for the UK Challenger 3 tank upgrade.
The wonderful book by John Golan on the Lavi, referenced below, is half project history and half engineering appendices.
The Lavi was cancelled primarily under pressure from US Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger, an extreme anti-Israel voice in a strongly pro-Israel Reagan administration.
The Lavi was designed as a strike aircraft, to attack enemy ground targets, with a secondary function of air to air superiority. The F16, and F15, were the reverse, designed primarily for air to air and later adapted for the air to ground mission. The Lavi was the perfect complement to them, as the earlier A4 Skyhawk attack aircraft complemented the F4 Phantom.
The USAF has been consistently accused by the US Army of neglecting the air to ground mission and the last true ground attack aircraft, the A10 Thunderbolt, has been on the USAF chopping block for decades and saved only by Congressional requirement. The Lavi would have been the perfect USAF solution for air to ground, had the "Fighter Mafia" running the USAF been willing to continue that commitment, enshrined in the Key West Agreement that made the USAF an independent service from the Army
The engineering advances in the Lavi, in Golan's book, will take your breath away!
Aerodynamics: Lavi combined the vortex flows from its canards onto the wing root to move the wing lift away from the fuselage, improving efficiency, thus range, at transonic speeds.
Structure: composite wings were designed so that when they bend under stress, they improve the efficiency of the aircraft.
Avionics: Weizmann Institute Professor David Harel's recently developed tools for object-oriented design (now the core of the UML modeling) were used to design the Lavi software, running on over 100 computers.
Armament: Israel developed the first true helmet mounted display and targeting. The US had failed at this in the 1970s, only to retry after the fall of the USSR, when competition against East German MiG 29s with a primitive helmet mounted sight only showed US F16s were at a disadvantage. Today, Israel's Elbit makes the helmet mounted display used on the F35.
There are many more examples in Golan's excellent book.
That said, full independence for combat aircraft is no longer possible: jet engine design today requires such advanced materials science that only 4 Western companies can do it: GE Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce and Snecma. Russian jet engines achieve comparable performance but at the cost of very low durability.
I love that book too. At the risk of asking a stupid question, if engines were the only problem, would not Israel be able to, in a pinch take the engine out of an F15 (quite powerful) and put it in something new? I have no doubt that given time, Israel can make the facilities for building engines (my worry is actually raw materials) but I mean, as a stopgap. I think, at the time of the Lavi, a major problem was that Israel also lacked the facilities for fabricating the composite wings, but Israel has since manufactured the IAI Eitan, which includes plenty of composite materials
Military jet engines need overhauls every few thousand hours. The option of using the F100 engine in the Lavi, same as used in F15 and F16, was considered and is discussed in one of the appendices. It's a slightly larger engine and would have resulted in a larger aircraft, which makes it a bigger target in ground attack.
The engine picked, PW1120, is a derivative of the F100.
Israel did reverse engineer and manufacture the French Atar 9C engine of the Mirage III when it built the Nesher fighter. But jet engine technology advanced so much since it's no longer as easy. For example, temperatures inside a modern jet engine reach 2400 degrees F, more than the melting point of the materials, and are kept in place by carefully calculated micro air flows along the blades.
About 1/3 of all F35s have their wings built by IAI using its composites.
Wow, I didn't know realize just how complicated the engines have become. I knew about the overhau part: Israel has done a remarkable job of keeping older planes better than when they were new (as I noted above, a lot of US made planes have been extremely glitchy off the shelf).
Mayhe I'm being overly optimistic, but if Israel is also doing the overhauls on the F35 engines, she (מדינת ישראל) might be closer than we think to making her own. I also didn't know that Israel is building parts of the F35. It will be excellent experience for the future :) Thank you
I completely agree with what Israel is doing. And frankly, I have no confidence that a Democratic party administration in Washington DC will be responsive to Israel’s military needs. As far as the Eurotrash such as Britain and France if I was Israel I would make such good equipment that they can undercut the British and French arms industries.
"if I was Israel, I would make such good equipment that they can undercut the British and French arms industries"
Already happening: Israeli defense companies beat France in supplying artillery, air defenses, spy satellites and drones to Morocco. Thus France banning Israeli companies from its annual defense exhibition Eurosatory.
The French ever since 1967 have stabbed Israel repeatedly in the back so I just wait for the day when Israel could repay the French government with plenty of interest on the bill.
Israel can't beg. It was De Gaulle who said Nations don't have friends,they have interests. Israel also has a unique situation for their Air Force equipment. Can't send that out to foreign contractors.
It’s the news I’ve been waiting for; without anti Bibi syndrome it would have come sooner. It is time for Diaspora money to be channeled to this effort and not to bloated organizations that are always accused of “buying” American politicians. Buy Israeli companies stock, bonds that are involved in this gigantic effort or at least Israeli bonds.
Also, donate to the Technion which produces the aerospace engineers who design the planes and drones.
THANK YOU!
Probably some of the companies mentioned in the post. I will be looking first for the companies that started making munitions for the existing fleet that IDF is flying.
Great advice! Was wondering how we could help. Which companies do you recommend?
I need this info too - which companies ?
See essay’s 9th and 7th to the last paragraphs.
Question: Which suchlike companies have branches in both Israel and the US, so that we might initially seek employment with them in the USA while preparing to make Aliyah? (Wouldn’t that help us start contributing NOW and smooth that transition?)
there are some well performing Israeli ETFs-buy them!
What was worse was that America's special envoy who was sent to Israel in 1987 to persuade us to give up on the Lavi project was a religious Jew who wore a black kippa called Dov Zackheim. According to Wikipedia, he was also an ordained rabbi. This was a cynical move by the US.
It's always our own who sell us out.
DAILY!
The same thing happened in Canada. During the 1950s Avro Canada developed the Avro Arrow, by far the most advanced fighter jet in the world. But for similar reasons the Americans persuaded the Canadian government led by Conservative PM Diefenbaker to cancel it. And in Canada the impact of this cancellation was arguably worse because instead of integrating into other parts of the Canadian defence industries most of the 14,000 laid off workers got into their pick-up trucks and drove to Seattle. During WWII Canada developed an incredible defence industries including in ship building. Today not much is left of that.
Just a reminder who decided to scrap the Lavi ptoject:
The 12 cabinet members who voted to scrap the Lavi project consisted of 11 ministers from the Labor Party (Alignment) and 1 minister from the Likud Party, breaking party ranks.
The exact breakdown of the 12 ministers who voted in favor of cancellation on August 30, 1987: [1]
The Labor Party Ministers (11):
1. Shimon Peres https://www.google.com/search?q=shimon+peres&kgmid=/m/0c_8s (Foreign Minister / Vice Prime Minister)
2. Yitzhak Rabin (Defense Minister)
3. Gad Yaacobi
https://www.google.com/search?q=gad+yaacobi&kgmid=/m/02z5pw_ (Minister of Economy and Planning)
4. Yaakov Tzur
https://www.google.com/search?q=yaakov+tzur&kgmid=/m/04jdxbn (Minister of Absorption)
5. Amnon Rubinstein
https://www.google.com/search?q=amnon+rubinstein&kgmid=/m/03cwsd (Minister of Communications / Shinui faction alignment)
6. Chaim Bar-Lev (Minister of Police)
7. Mordechai Gur (Minister without Portfolio)
8. Moshe Shahal
https://www.google.com/search?q=moshe+shahal&kgmid=/m/04jh6dh (Minister of Energy and Infrastructure)
9. Ezer Weizman
https://www.google.com/search?q=ezer+weizman&kgmid=/m/031trx (Minister without Portfolio)
10. Yitzhak Navon (Minister of Education and Culture)
11. Aryeh Nehemkin (Minister of Agriculture) [2, 3, 4, 5]
The Defecting Likud Minister (1):
12. Moshe Nissim
https://www.google.com/search?q=moshe+nissim&kgmid=/m/09hgfw (Finance Minister) — His vote broke the 11–11 party deadlock, tipping the final decision to 12–11. [6, 7]
(Note: Health Minister Shoshana Arbeli-Almozlino, a Labor member who passionately favored the Lavi, couldn't bring herself to vote with her party to kill it, but chose to abstain rather than vote explicitly against her coalition leaders, cementing the 12–11 cancellation outcome). [8, 9]
[1] https://www.tabletmag.com](https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/killing-the-lavi
[2] https://bneiakiva.org.il
https://bneiakiva.org.il/zraim//3-24-adar-b-tashfag//files/basic-html/page10.html
[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/08/31/israel-votes-to-scrap-lavi-fighter/0ed45c77-f4a0-484e-820a-cabdcb6b9d66/
[4] https://www.calcalist.co.il
https://www.calcalist.co.il/local/articles/0,7340,L-3736340,00.html
[5] https://www.haaretz.co.il
https://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/2017-09-26/ty-article-opinion/.premium/0000017f-e112-df7c-a5ff-e37a82060000
[6] https://www.washingtonpost.com
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/09/01/death-of-lavi-jet-draws-disbelief-anger-in-israel/9f2146c3-8dca-4ebc-8fb1-695809da27d9/
[7] https://www.jpost.com
https://www.jpost.com/features/in-thespotlight/article-236421
[8] https://www.ynet.co.il
https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4695392,00.html
[9] https://www.ynetnews.com
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4695739,00.html
The same leaders that brought on us the Oslo Disaster.
Horrible. Thank you for the information.
Thank you.
Israel’s enemies are obvious, its friends are inconsistent, and its generosity is abused. It is better to be feared than loved.
The picture of the Lavi sure reminds me of the A-4 Skyhawk. Back in the mid-80's I saw a Kfir on the ramp at NAS Millington in Tennessee when the US Navy was using them as adversary aircraft. Finally, "The Jewish state must never again be forced to beg others for the means to defend itself" a sentiment with which I agree. The Sturm und Drang which Israel finds itself with France AND the US screams for the Jewish State to develop its own armaments industries for the nation's survival.
Amen. And arm every Israeli who served in the IDF. No more helpless citizens!
Great piece. Thank you. This is the news I’ve been waiting for. Enough with the treachery from the politicians in America and elsewhere. Dayenu!
Yes!!
Not being one to Monday Morning quarterback I see good reasons why an early state Israel would rely on weapon supplies from a much larger power with proven aircraft and munitions like France, and why after 1967 would pivot to rely on the United States. It has worked well for Israel for 55 years, but now Israel needs to once again pivot to become much more self reliant when it comes to weapon development and production.
As October 7th and the immense damage caused by hamas was not predicted or stopped, so too the Biden/Democrat response to the Iran/Gaza/Hezbollah war, the withholding of needed munitions and using supply chains and financial support to restrict Israel in their response, calls now for another pivot to far greater independence and self reliance.
This doesn't mean Israel was wrong to rely on France through 1967, or on the United States to the present. During these times it made sense and Israel has grown militarily strong, punching way above its weight class. Who would have imagined when Israel declared independence in 1948 that in 2026 Germany and other European nations would purchase advanced weapon systems from Israel.
Fascinating discussion of the truth about why real military independence is essential for Israel’s survival. Israel can never again allow other nations to dictate how she defends herself. No other country can be relied on for many reasons, antisemitism being just one. There are also political and financial issues that must be considered.
This development,, hopefully won't again fall a victim of bickering within the Israeli government or American veto or both is coming not a minute too soon.
Anduril makes the world 's best autonomous fighter jet. Their young founder, Palmer Luckey, wants to open in Israel. Perfect match. Go for it.
Regardless, Israel needs to move aggressively to develop Israeli-made alternatives to every critical good and technology it currently buys from France, Spain, the UK, Ireland, and others. The goal should be total independence from these countries—and then to use Israeli innovation, technology, and competition to drive their companies out of markets around the world, gut industries that depend on those exports, and inflict real economic damage on countries whose economies are already struggling.
If these countries want to wage economic and diplomatic war against Israel, Israel should respond with economic warfare of its own—and make them pay a price they cannot ignore.
Its beyond time to put the Holocaust continent out of business
Israel gets about 2/3 of its defense imports from the US, 1/3 from Germany and the round-off error from France and the UK.
Israel's Spike antitank missile is used by every NATO country except France.
Israel's Trophy Active Defense System, the difference between tank losses in Ukraine and tank losses in Gaza, is standard in the latest version of the US M1 tank, the German Leopard 2 and the Korean K2. It is slated as standard equipment for the UK Challenger 3 tank upgrade.
The following provided for comic relief
https://www.thejournal.ie/dassault-falcon-6x-irish-air-corps-government-jet-elbit-7117818-Aug2026/
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/spain-exempts-airbus-israeli-tech-ban-2025-12-30/
The wonderful book by John Golan on the Lavi, referenced below, is half project history and half engineering appendices.
The Lavi was cancelled primarily under pressure from US Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger, an extreme anti-Israel voice in a strongly pro-Israel Reagan administration.
The Lavi was designed as a strike aircraft, to attack enemy ground targets, with a secondary function of air to air superiority. The F16, and F15, were the reverse, designed primarily for air to air and later adapted for the air to ground mission. The Lavi was the perfect complement to them, as the earlier A4 Skyhawk attack aircraft complemented the F4 Phantom.
The USAF has been consistently accused by the US Army of neglecting the air to ground mission and the last true ground attack aircraft, the A10 Thunderbolt, has been on the USAF chopping block for decades and saved only by Congressional requirement. The Lavi would have been the perfect USAF solution for air to ground, had the "Fighter Mafia" running the USAF been willing to continue that commitment, enshrined in the Key West Agreement that made the USAF an independent service from the Army
The engineering advances in the Lavi, in Golan's book, will take your breath away!
Aerodynamics: Lavi combined the vortex flows from its canards onto the wing root to move the wing lift away from the fuselage, improving efficiency, thus range, at transonic speeds.
Structure: composite wings were designed so that when they bend under stress, they improve the efficiency of the aircraft.
Avionics: Weizmann Institute Professor David Harel's recently developed tools for object-oriented design (now the core of the UML modeling) were used to design the Lavi software, running on over 100 computers.
Armament: Israel developed the first true helmet mounted display and targeting. The US had failed at this in the 1970s, only to retry after the fall of the USSR, when competition against East German MiG 29s with a primitive helmet mounted sight only showed US F16s were at a disadvantage. Today, Israel's Elbit makes the helmet mounted display used on the F35.
There are many more examples in Golan's excellent book.
That said, full independence for combat aircraft is no longer possible: jet engine design today requires such advanced materials science that only 4 Western companies can do it: GE Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce and Snecma. Russian jet engines achieve comparable performance but at the cost of very low durability.
https://john-golan.blogspot.com/2016/05/lavi-engineers-perspective.html?m=1
I love that book too. At the risk of asking a stupid question, if engines were the only problem, would not Israel be able to, in a pinch take the engine out of an F15 (quite powerful) and put it in something new? I have no doubt that given time, Israel can make the facilities for building engines (my worry is actually raw materials) but I mean, as a stopgap. I think, at the time of the Lavi, a major problem was that Israel also lacked the facilities for fabricating the composite wings, but Israel has since manufactured the IAI Eitan, which includes plenty of composite materials
Military jet engines need overhauls every few thousand hours. The option of using the F100 engine in the Lavi, same as used in F15 and F16, was considered and is discussed in one of the appendices. It's a slightly larger engine and would have resulted in a larger aircraft, which makes it a bigger target in ground attack.
The engine picked, PW1120, is a derivative of the F100.
Israel did reverse engineer and manufacture the French Atar 9C engine of the Mirage III when it built the Nesher fighter. But jet engine technology advanced so much since it's no longer as easy. For example, temperatures inside a modern jet engine reach 2400 degrees F, more than the melting point of the materials, and are kept in place by carefully calculated micro air flows along the blades.
About 1/3 of all F35s have their wings built by IAI using its composites.
Wow, I didn't know realize just how complicated the engines have become. I knew about the overhau part: Israel has done a remarkable job of keeping older planes better than when they were new (as I noted above, a lot of US made planes have been extremely glitchy off the shelf).
Mayhe I'm being overly optimistic, but if Israel is also doing the overhauls on the F35 engines, she (מדינת ישראל) might be closer than we think to making her own. I also didn't know that Israel is building parts of the F35. It will be excellent experience for the future :) Thank you
I completely agree with what Israel is doing. And frankly, I have no confidence that a Democratic party administration in Washington DC will be responsive to Israel’s military needs. As far as the Eurotrash such as Britain and France if I was Israel I would make such good equipment that they can undercut the British and French arms industries.
"if I was Israel, I would make such good equipment that they can undercut the British and French arms industries"
Already happening: Israeli defense companies beat France in supplying artillery, air defenses, spy satellites and drones to Morocco. Thus France banning Israeli companies from its annual defense exhibition Eurosatory.
https://www.escudodigital.com/en/defense/africa/morocco-now-sources-24-arms-israel-inside-rapidly-expanding-military-alliance.html
https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/army-news/2026/morocco-quietly-deploys-barak-mx-air-defense-system-as-tensions-with-algeria-linger
https://www.armyrecognition.com/archives/archives-land-defense/defense-news-army-2025/breaking-news-morocco-chooses-israeli-atmos-2000-howitzers-over-french-caesar-amid-growing-defense-ties
Let’s find a list of Israeli defense companies.
Start from the ones here:
https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en
Thank you so much for helping us pursue this.
The French ever since 1967 have stabbed Israel repeatedly in the back so I just wait for the day when Israel could repay the French government with plenty of interest on the bill.
Israel can't beg. It was De Gaulle who said Nations don't have friends,they have interests. Israel also has a unique situation for their Air Force equipment. Can't send that out to foreign contractors.