After the military coup against the civilian system

Israel is facing pressure to cut its relations with Myanmar

The commander of the Myanmar army during his visit to Israel in 2015. Archives

In his first foreign policy speech as President of the United States, delivered on February 4 at the State Department, President Joe Biden spoke of "close cooperation with our allies and partners" when he was talking about the recent coup in Myanmar.

He said that the United States "will work with our partners to support the return of democracy and the rule of law, and to punish those responsible for the coup," and this matter would be easy, right?

But when you look at Israel, which is not among the allies and partners Biden mentioned by name, it suggests otherwise.

Relations between Myanmar and Israel have always been cordial since the establishment of this relationship in 1953, and because the latter was eager to gain clients overseas, Israel did not find any problem about doing business with a group of militarists, ruling a country located in Southeast Asia most of the time since the establishment of Relations with Israel.

This relationship did not stop at trade alone. For several decades, Israel has been providing military training and exchanging intelligence information with the Myanmar army.

The army chief, Min Aung Hling, who is now considered the de facto leader of Myanmar, visited Israel in 2015.

However, the Israel-Myanmar relationship on defense matters was not without controversy, as following the global outcry over the Myanmar army's ethnic cleansing actions against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, the Supreme Court of Israel heard a petition demanding that it stop selling arms to Myanmar, but the court ordered not to proceed. Concerning the matter, and the confidentiality of it, which made the public question whether the court had issued an order to stop the sale of weapons to Myanmar, even temporarily, but the Myanmar military officers, who attended the defense equipment exhibition in Tel Aviv two years later, did not confirm that the arms sale had occurred. Stop.

And if Israel was in fact still exporting weapons to Myanmar, it would join the club of rogue states, even if it was doing its best to avoid being classified in it.

Daniel Summit is a researcher at the University of Texas

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