Isn’t that grand? We sell weapons to all these countries so they can blow each other up and our arms manufacturers can make billions of dollars. What a deal!

When the United States sells state-of-the-art weapons systems to Arab nations, it invariably provides even more lethal and sophisticated arms to its steadfast ally, Israel, in order to help counter the firepower of its neighbors.

So, when Egypt gets the M60A3 and M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, Israel gets the TOW-2A and Hellfire antitank missiles to blow up the Egyptian vehicles - in the event of a military confrontation between the two countries currently wedded to the 1979 Camp David peace treaty.

Likewise, when the United States grudgingly provides McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighter planes to Saudi Arabia, Israel is armed either with Sidewinder and Sparrow air-to-air missiles or Hawk and Stinger surface-to-air missiles to bring down the US’supplied Saudi aircraft.

Every US government has ensured that no weapons sales to Arab nations would undermine Israel’s traditional “qualitative (military) advantage” over its perceived rivals.

Last week, the administration of President George W. Bush ran true to form when it announced its decision to simultaneously sell arms both to Israel and seven Arab nations: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

The package, which is also expected to include one set of weapons to counter the other, includes equipment worth some 20 billion dollars to Saudi Arabia and five other Gulf states, plus 30 billion dollars in military assistance to Israel, and 13 billion dollars in similar grants to Egypt, mostly for purchases of US-made weapons systems.

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