According to a report from Axios, during his visit to Israel last week, CIA Director William Burns told Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that the US was concerned with Chinese investments in Israel’s infrastructure.
An unnamed Israeli official told Axios that the US and Israel had started a dialogue on China over the past few months, but Burns’ message to Bennett was the highest level at which the Biden administration raised the issue.
The Israeli official also said that Israel was open to working with US companies on infrastructure but never received any offers. “In recent months, we started a dialogue with the Biden administration on China. The US asked about specific projects like the Chinese involvement in the Tel Aviv metro. We told the Americans we welcome US infrastructure companies to work on big projects in Israel but they don’t apply to the tenders,” the officials said.
In recent years, Israel’s relationship with China has grown stronger, even as the US is increasingly more hostile to Beijing. While the Trump administration generally gave Israel whatever it wanted, one point of contention was over China’s investments in Israel. The Trump administration even warned Israel that the relationship could impact security ties between the US and Israel. Despite the warnings, Israel’s cooperation with China has continued.
The Biden administration has named China its top foreign policy priority. Burns has called China the top “adversary” facing the US, and the CIA is weighing creating a new spy center to exclusively focus on Beijing. It’s unlikely that the US would leverage any aid to Israel over China, but the Biden administration will at least continue to raise concerns over the investments.
The parasite will abandon us in a minute if it can latch on to something better. We can only hope.
Remember the Liberty!
The guy with the down vote does not know the story.
They have abandoned us. Their spy network in the U.S. is well known. Need I mention Jonathan Pollard? Hollywood?
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/26/arnon-milchan-israeli-spy-past
The American Conservative: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-hollywood-spy/
This is priceless. The vision of the CIA chief imploring Israel, “Please, stop betraying us.” Can there be any doubt in any serious conflict America’s best friend and ally would sell her out in a NY minute?
If the Chinese wanted a fully loaded F-35 with all the bells and whistles included to test new radars against, there is no doubt the right number of shekels dropped into the right accounts and Israel would sell as many as desired to China.
Very likely the Chinese have already paid for and gotten very close inspection and samples of parts and coatings. That is what happened with the E-2 AWACS we provided to Israel — it now appears in China in very near the same form.
Robert, what a great visual, lol!
Does this, by proxy, make China our New Buddy?
Guess we’ll have to focus all that “Cold War” stuff on Russia instead.