Israeli companies continue to trade with firms tied to Iran

For years successive Israeli governments have called on the international community to tighten its economic boycott on Iran. The hope is that the boycott, by adversely affecting that country's economy and especially its soft underbelly - the oil and gas industries that desperately need Western investment and technology - will force Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to reconsider their country's nuclear program.

In this aspect the change in American policy toward Iran, from the boycott and tough talk of the Bush administration to the dialogue and honeyed words of the Obama administration, do not portend well for those who believe in sanctions as an alternative or preface to a military option. That is why, on the face of it, an organization like Stop the Bomb deserves Israel's support.

The group is a broad coalition of Jewish and other organizations, including the (exiled) Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, environmental organizations, church groups and activists from various gay and lesbian groups. The group, which is active in a number of western European countries, especially Austria and Germany, and which organizes meetings and demonstrations, scored a modest success.

Last month the Austrian Foreign Ministry announced that it was temporarily suspending negotiations over a $23 billion deal signed in 2007 between the Austrian state-controlled energy group OMV and the Iranian government. The agreement calls for the company's investment in developing the marine gas field at Fares in southern Iran in return for supplying liquid gas, by ship and pipeline from Iran to Austria and other European states.

The talks were suspended until after Iran's presidential elections in June, after which they presumably will resume.

The main force behind and spokeswoman for Stop the Bomb, Simone Dinah Hartmann, recently visited Israel to raise awareness. "We are not so naive as to believe that we have won the struggle," she told Haaretz. "But it is clear that public pressure and demonstrations have an effect even on giant corporations and businesspeople."

Among the European states with commercial ties to Iran, Austria is in only ninth place. Topping the list is Germany, which has a two-faced policy: The government supports the sanctions against Iran but does nothing to reduce its trade with the country. Its exports to Iran total four billion euros per year.

The most notable exporters to Iran are Siemens and Linde. There are suspicions that Iran is using their equipment in its nuclear program. Stop the Bomb has targeted Siemens, using the same tactics it used against OMV but with less success. It has recently been reported that Siemens has partnered with the Finnish communications giant Nokia to sell wiretapping equipment to the Iranian telephone company. This equipment will enables Iran's mobile service providers to monitor, intercept and reroute all calls, e-mails and electronic data sent to and from their subscribers. The significance of such an agreement in a country like Iran, which violates its citizens' human rights, is clear. It will make it easier for the security and intelligence services to monitor opponents of the regime.

Siemens is considered a relatively vulnerable company. "We hope that organizations and groups in the U.S. will get Siemens, which does a great deal of business there, to understand that it will be harmed if it doesn't end its ties with Iran," says Michael Spaney, head of Stop the Bomb in Germany. The absurd thing is that in Israel, which one might have thought would spearhead the campaign, members of Stop the Bomb have been disappointed. They have found few receptive ears in the Foreign Ministry or the business community, and cannot understand why Israeli businesses don't think twice before buying from firms such as Siemens or Nokia.

The Phalanx, at last

Better late than never. As published this week in Haaretz, Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided to buy the U.S.-made Vulcan Phalanx gun and radar system, which intercepts rockets and mortar shells, to protect communities in southern Israel. The decision should have been made more than two years ago. This is a lifesaving system that is proving itself in the American military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But a coalition of military industries and senior Defense Ministry officials seeking to win priority for locally made systems succeeded in convincing the defense ministers that the Vulcan Phalanx system did not meet Israel's needs. The paucity of media interest kept the issue out of the public eye and off the public agenda, for the most part. Only a few articles in Haaretz, many of them by this reporter, kept the issue alive.

A notable contribution was made by Dr. Natan Farber of the Haifa Technion, who created a presentation proving that the system could indeed defend Sderot and the other communities bordering with Gaza, and attempted to encourage public debate on the subject. Harsh criticism from the State Comptroller of the conduct of the Defense Ministry, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Air Force on the issue may also have helped.

The Vulcan Phalanx system is not a panacea that will save all the communities in the south. It is effective at a range of up to seven kilometers. This is a range that cannot be covered by the longer range Iron Dome, if and when it becomes operational - in another year, at best. Vulcan Phalanx is a limited but effective system for defending small sites or strategic locations. For example, it could certainly protect the Ashkelon power station and intercept rockets fired at it. Three systems of this kind would be adequate to protect Sderot.