US meddling in ‘marriage made in heaven’ - analysis
The coronavirus has helped heat up the fierce global competition between the US and China, with the two superpowers now on a collision course.
By HERB KEINONNetanyahu with Chinese President Xi Jinping 370(photo credit: Avi Ohayon/GPO)
The reason the Israeli firm IDE Technologies on Tuesday won the multi-billion shekel tender to build the world’s largest desalination plant at Kibbutz Palmachim, according to senior Israeli officials, is because the price it gave for desalinating a cubic meter of water was far cheaper than the price promised by the nearest competitor.To listen to Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz tell the tale, that one of the major competitors for the project was Hutchison Water – which happened to be an affiliate of the Chinese Hutchison Company based in Hong Kong – was not a major consideration.The IDE bid was simply much better, said Steinitz, who up until Sunday was also in charge of Israel’s water infrastructure.“This is a cheaper price – by dozens of percentage points – for water than anything we have been offered until today,” he told Kan Bet. The IDE bid is for the desalinated water to be sold for NIS 1.45 per cubic meter, which Steinitz said is “dozens of percentage points” lower than the cost of water today, and “significantly” cheaper than the price from the other bids.And while that may all be true, the reports that one of the reasons US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew here earlier this month to talk to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was concern about Chinese investments in Israel in general, and in this project in particular, leaves the distinct impression that there may have been other considerations involved in giving the project to IDE Technologies.And those considerations are simple. The coronavirus has helped heat up the fierce global competition between the US and China, with the two superpowers now on a collision course. Washington, in this confrontation, is looking for all its allies to make it clear with whom they stand.And Israel is not just another American ally, it is one whom Washington expects – because of all it has done for Israel over the years – to fall into line with its policy and be its most faithful friend and loyal supporter.In America’s eyes, China needs to be seen around the world not as just a big trading partner, but also as a national security threat. And what is telling is that this negative view of China is not just a Republican position, but a Democratic one as well.Which has placed Israel in an uncomfortable bind. Because since Netanyahu pushed an Asia-pivot trade policy soon after coming into office in 2009 – desirous of reducing Israel’s economic dependence on an EU that over the years has flirted every so often with the idea of sanctions of one kind or another against Jerusalem – Israel’s trade with China has taken off.In 2012, at a time when Netanyahu requested his government ministers to restrict travel abroad because of budgetary constraints, he made one exception: China. To China, he said, the minsters can travel as often as they like to strengthen the trade ties.
Israel provides China with technological innovations, and China gives Israel valuable capital, an endless market and relatively cheap bids to build large infrastructure projects.All the while, both sides conveniently overlook areas of disagreement, such as a US veto on Israel providing the Chinese with any security-related equipment or technology, and Israel turning a blind eye to China’s unstinting support for the Palestinians and its close ties with Iran.The booming Israel-Chinese trade ties, Netanyahu told Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2017 during one of his own trips to Beijing, constitutes nothing less than “a marriage made in heaven.”Tuesday’s failure of the Chinese firm to win the desalination plant tender, however, is an indication that there may be some glitches in this fairy-tale economic marriage, and that outside meddlers are succeeding in disrupting the harmony.Israel had always hoped that the US would not force it to pick sides, choose between it – the country’s most steadfast and indispensable strategic ally – and a potentially huge market. Because if Washington asks Israel to choose, it is a no-brainer whom Israel will select.China gives Israel investments and markets, the US provides it with inestimable assistance in every sphere: political, diplomatic, military and economic. And now Israel’s greatest friend is asking it to keep the world’s second superpower at a distance.By choosing IDE Technologies over Hutchison Water to build the desalination plant, Israel may indeed – as Steinitz said – have picked the cheaper bid. But it also sent an unmistakable message that it has heard America’s concerns about China loud and clear. And even more than that, it has internalized them.
