by Yaakov Katz
America's greatest adversary is not Iran, Islamic terrorism, or even Russia. It is China, and Israel is on the wrong side of those battle lines.
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Naftali Bennett during a visit to China in 2014 when he served as Israel’s minister of economy.
(photo credit: Courtesy)
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When Prime Minister Naftali Bennett flies to Washington
in the coming weeks – a final date has not yet been set – he will meet a
president who is riding high and ready to face off against America’s
greatest adversary.
That
adversary is not Iran, Islamic terrorism in the Middle East, or even
Vladimir Putin’s Russia. It is China, and Israel is on the wrong side of
those battle lines.
Bennett
should bear this in mind, because while he will be entering the Oval
Office hoping to secure security commitments on Iran and Syria,
President Joe Biden and his senior staff are looking for Israel to cut
back on its relationship with China. They will be happy to talk about
Iran, the Palestinians, and retaining the IDF’s qualitative military
edge, but they also want secure commitments about China.
“We need to wake up,” one top government official said this week.
That
is the prism through which one should view the $1 trillion
infrastructure bill that Biden pushed through the Senate this week. Yes,
it will upgrade America’s deteriorating roads and bridges and fund new
broadband initiatives; but it will also help the US remain in
competition with China, which has been beating the West’s investments in
infrastructure for years. As Biden warned a group of senators in
February about Beijing: “If we don’t get moving, they are going to eat
our lunch.”
While
some see Biden just continuing Donald Trump’s anti-China policy, the new
president seems to be led by a clear strategy and not just statements.
He is working to undermine Beijing on multiple fronts – sanctions,
advisories against doing business in Hong Kong, and openly accusing
China’s Ministry of State Security of launching cyberattacks against the
West.
Israel received a taste of that cyber threat this week when the international cybersecurity company FireEye announced that China had hacked dozens of public and private Israeli tech and infrastructure companies as part of a plan to steal technology and information.
This
is the same China that has been eating Israel’s infrastructure for the
last decade. Ports, power stations, bridges, tunnels and more have all
been built by China. All indications are that Biden will bring this up
with Bennett when the two meet. Some in Israel’s government have
recommended convening the security cabinet to discuss the issue. It is
that important.
While
Trump officials tried to move the previous government to crack down on
Chinese investments in Israel, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
did not do much except buy time, with the establishment of a weak
oversight mechanism in 2019 that officials admit is impotent. The
Americans have noticed too, and want to see tougher action.
Which
brings us to the delay in announcing which construction companies won
the tender to build the Tel Aviv light rail’s new Green and Purple
Lines. NTA, the government-funded company responsible for the design and
construction of the transit system – which is run by former Prisons
Service officer Haim Glick – has been dragging its feet in making a
final decision.
(Officially,
NTA Spokesman Avi First claimed on Thursday that the company was
waiting for the Finance Ministry to allow it to open the envelopes.
Asked about the claim, Finance Ministry Spokesperson Lilach Weissman,
who represents Dir.-Gen. Ram Belinkov who also serves as the chairman of
NTA, refused to respond).
The
delay in announcing the winner makes diplomatic sense for Israel, if
the tender has been won by the China Railway Construction Company
(CRCC), a member of one of the groups competing for the
multi-billion-dollar deal.
CRCC
is well-known in Israel, and has worked here for years. One of its
subsidiaries, the China Civil Engineering Construction Corp (CCECC), dug
the Gilon Tunnel in the North in 2014 at a cost of about $200m, worked
as a subcontractor on the Carmel Tunnel project for about $150m. in
2010, and for the last couple of years has been working on the Tel Aviv
light rail’s Red Line to the tune of $500m.
Biden
issued an executive order in June banning these companies from
receiving any US investment, due to suspected ties to the Chinese
defense industry. So Americans cannot do business with the CRCC, but
Israel seems to think that it can.
The
winner of the tender was originally scheduled to be announced in June.
Some industry experts have speculated that Bennett wants to delay the
announcement until after his meeting with Biden.
If
that is his strategy, the prime minister might want to rethink it. Yes,
once the tender winner is announced it is almost impossible to annul
the decision. But Bennett would be wise to avoid the NTA announcing that
CRCC has won the tender just a few weeks after he returns from giving
assurances in Washington that he will cut back Israel’s ties with China.
That will only cause Israel greater trouble.
Whatever
the case, Israel needs to tread carefully in the years to come. America
is going up against China with all of its economic prowess. Israel
won’t be able to say that it didn’t know.
Yaakov Katz
Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/israel-is-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-us-china-fight-676607
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