Netanyahu says Israel must develop self reliant military industry amid growing arms embargos

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says during an economic press conference that Israel must develop its defense industry to be self-sufficient to ensure its security, warning that efforts to halt military imports to Israel are caused by political – not economic – considerations.

Several EU countries have announced in recent days that they would move towards arms embargoes on Israel and stop buying Israeli weapons amid the Gaza war.

Netanyahu called the conference to try and clarify his remarks yesterday when he said that Israel will need to become a “super Sparta,” economically self-reliant in light of diplomatic isolation amid the Gaza war. The remarks sparked outrage and spooked the markets.

But Netanyahu says he was only referring to the defense industry, not the overall economy.

“My remarks were on the attempt to restrict the import of parts, components, weapons, or raw materials – and that indeed is something that does not operate according to market economics, but according to political economics —-governments, leaders, politics,” he says, insisting the economy was sound.

Netanyahu, who frequently switched between English and Hebrew during the press conference, depending on who his message was targeted at, noted that while “Western European governments are generally friendly toward Israel,” they are “pressured by Islamic minorities that have formed within them—some of whom are very extreme.”

Decades of organized anti-Israel propaganda, he adds, have compounded the pressure, which “expresses itself as restrictions on parts of weapon systems or the systems themselves.”

The prime minister says Israel must “develop these ourselves, arm ourselves, and ensure we have the ability to defend ourselves,” even if that requires moving temporarily to “a centralized, closed economy, something I generally dislike—I prefer open markets.”

“But here, I want to take all the necessary steps to build a strong, independent defense industry. If there is one lesson from this war, this is it,” he says.