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Deepcrush wrote:Anyone here think it would be funny to have the US say "We are no longer allies with Israel" and then watch the fireworks?

For about 10 minutes before reality set in it might be. Israel can't really lose in a traditional sense I don't think. Their military has smacked around those in the area long enough that I would need to see it before I believed that they could really overrun them with tanks and soldiers.

Beyond that if it did get to that point it would go nuclear anyway, so in effect no one would win. Israel has enough nukes and delivery systems to basically turn all the Arab capitals and major economic assets into dust, in which case everyone is a loser.

Unless the Arab states got backing from a country that could supply them with better arms than the Soviet surplus they're using now, it'd just be a repeat of the last war.

You could give every Arab nation M1 tanks and the best kit money can buy and they'll still go down like punks. Their armies are usually very poorly trained (trained troops are intelligent troops, bad mojo for authoritative governments).

The US is supply and I do believe in fair part funding the Israeli military machine. If we cut them off their airpower in particular would take a nosedive if they cannot find a new patron. And the funding would hurt all around.

That said, with Iraq toppled and relations with Egypt fairly normalized to my understanding, the biggest players in past conflicts have been taken out of the threat picture.

sunnyside wrote:The US is supply and I do believe in fair part funding the Israeli military machine. If we cut them off their airpower in particular would take a nosedive if they cannot find a new patron. And the funding would hurt all around.

That said, with Iraq toppled and relations with Egypt fairly normalized to my understanding, the biggest players in past conflicts have been taken out of the threat picture.

They give the Israeli's aid which IIRC has to be spent on kit from US companies, they also basically bribe Egypt to play nice with Israel (which includes kit). Still any cut off in aid would take decades to manifest itself, Israel still has a homegrown arms industry which should be up to the task of maintaining their equipment. And honestly, even if by magic the Israeli's suddenly had shit kit, they'd still beat the Arabs by virtue of training and experience alone. It just wouldn't be a complete curbstomp.

Don't the Israelis manufacture their own tanks? Merkvas, or something?

Yes as well as a number of APC's and assorted AFV's. Their notorious for using stuff far longer then intended, they converted a number of their old Centurions into "heavy APC's" for example.

The Merkava is their most well known home grown vehicle but it's really intended more for urban combat and such then Desert Storm style operations.

I believe the ground vehicles and a number of their small arms are actually regarded as being some of the best at the close in stuff they do. It's really their air forces where they rely on others, mostly the US.

Cpl Kendall wrote:Yes as well as a number of APC's and assorted AFV's. Their notorious for using stuff far longer then intended, they converted a number of their old Centurions into "heavy APC's" for example.

The Merkava is their most well known home grown vehicle but it's really intended more for urban combat and such then Desert Storm style operations.

No kiddin', they still use the M3/M5 halftracks from WWII, 60+ years later.