Into the Lion's Den

Since 1991 and Desert Storm, the U.S.-Israeli relationship has received heightened international attention. This paper attempts to give some insight into how the security cooperation between these two countries has evolved since 1967 and discuss the pros and cons of the relationship. Chapter 2 begins by describing each country's motivations for defense industry cooperation and the initial funding under the DoD's Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program. Chapter 3 follows the progression of five major weapons systems (F-15, F-16, the Lavi, the Phalcon, and the Arrow) to demonstrate how the U.S. and Israeli defense industries became intertwined and how the Israeli industry grew to become a leader in the field. Chapter 4 begins with the fall of the Soviet Union and outlines a number of the things that brought negative attention to this type of U.S.-Israeli cooperation.