There are indications that the Obama administration is using weapons shipments to Israel as a way to force the Jewish state to see its way on the issue of establishing a Palestinian state.

The administration’s decision to delay weapons shipments comes amid a brewing dispute between the U.S. and Israel over establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank.

This may have had a role in reports as the Israeli Defense Ministry decided to resume developing and producing indigenous munitions in an effort to end its dependence on U.S. weapons.

According to Middle East Newsline, the need for indigenous munitions production was a key lesson from the 2006 war with Hezbollah, when Israel quickly exhausted its supply of U.S.-made air-dropped munitions.

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“We have to end our exclusive dependency on the United States in the area of air bombs,” an official said.

The Israeli military used a range of indigenous munitions during the 22-day war with Hamas in January. The state-owned Israel Military Industries (IMI) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems produced most of these munitions.

An IMI-designed bomb, reported to be a new advanced weapon, described as a laser-guided bunker-busting bomb based on an American-designed 1,000-pound general purpose bomb, was used against Hamas weapons tunnels in southern Gaza. It was able to penetrate over six feet of steel-reinforced concrete.

Israel’s Rafael Industry was said to have used advanced air-to-ground missiles installed on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). The missiles were said to have included miniaturized versions of Israel’s Spike anti-tank missile. Each brigade combat team, in the first such arrangement, received a UAV squadron that could be used against selected targets.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

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David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.