ABSTRACT
In striving for complete arms sufficiency Israelis risk expending their scarce resources and exhausting the country in futile pursuit of the impossible and the unattainable. Hence the countercharge leveled against arms independence thinking: that it reflects a false and misplaced optimism; that it exudes a sense of self-assurance wholly unwarranted on the part of a poor, small, vulnerable and so overburdened state as Israel. The case for dependency further argues that, far from being a tragic mistake, it is the epitome of political realism, and that it is the height of folly for Israeli strategists and politicians to delude the country into believing or behaving otherwise. The long-term effect has been to pin Israeli major weapons procurement to US military assistance levels. Administration officials may understandably wish to go "on record" with such basic assurances, just as American Jewish and Israeli leaders deeply desire to hear them.
