F-35s for Saudi Arabia

Hosting MBS in the Oval Office.

So, the US is selling Saudi Aarabia F-35 jets. Some wonder if Israel will be upset. Here's a bit of what Laser Berman, diplomatic correspondent for The Times of Israel, said in a recent daily briefing on this subject (from the auto-transcript, see the episode below) ...

Saudi Arabia's crown prince is visiting Washington DC this week and Trump is toying with the idea of a massive fighter jet sale. So how could this affect the Middle East and Israel specifically?

[...]

Laser Berman:

So, probably not that much in practice. Chances are, the Saudis aren't going to use it for any major adventures, you know, after their effort to back forces in Yemen. .... They've shown a decidedly cautious approach in terms of using their military. They're not striking the Houthis. They're dealing with the Iranian threat through dialogue and diplomacy.

[...]

Actually, the concern is access for China to this advanced US technology. There is certainly the potential for war between the US and China over Taiwan or over access to shipping lanes and other things in the Far East. And the F-35s would be a central part of that.

[...]

In a 2008 US law America is required to maintain Israel's qualitative military edge, which is generally interpreted as uh technological .... So the question is how will that how will selling it to the Saudis meet or or comply with that US law?

[...]

But the main concern is what happens if that [the jets] falls into other people's hands rather than a direct Saudi attack on Israel, which would just be foolhardy and they would lose that in every imaginable scenario,

Heree's the episode ...