ABSTRACT
A military buildup of such an order could not have taken place without massive external military and economic aid. The arms race in the area has been pushed up to its present high level, far beyond the limited economic capacity of the confrontation states, due to the growing involvement of the superpowers in the Middle East. This discussion of the economic burden of the arms race does not embrace the entire region, but is confined rather to Israel and the confrontation states. It is quite impossible to express in precise quantitative terms the economic cost of the conflict and the military buildup, but some indicators and estimates maybe presented to give an idea of its dimensions. Specific military grants reduce the economic burden of the proportionally huge defense outlays of these small economies, which otherwise could not have been sustained for any length of time.
