Albania’s Bet on Israel’s War Machine Has Blown Up In Its Face

Albania relies on tourism to the tune of 25% of its economy. So will building an arms factory for Israel there make it your next holiday pick or BDS target? Right, so Albania has picked one hell of a moment to wander into Israel’s arms trade, hasn’t it? But they very much have. A country that lives off ten million tourists a year has decided the smartest move, right in the middle of an ICJ genocide case, is to host a weapons plant for the state actually standing in the dock. You couldn’t make it up. They’re taking ATMOS howitzers, SPEAR mortars, tactical drones, a flight school, and a 5,000-square-metre production line underwritten by Israel’s own export insurer, and they’re acting like this is just another infrastructure project. It isn’t. It’s a political choice delivered with a straight face, because they’ve convinced themselves that if Germany and the UK can do it, nobody’s going to look twice at Albania. But tourists look. And Albania’s entire economy depends on the people who notice exactly this kind of thing. And if they don’t think they’re a likely target for legal repercussions because bigger economies have got away with it, perhaps BDS is something that should concern them far more. Right, so Albania has signed a government-to-government defence deal with Israel’s biggest private weapons firm at the exact moment Israel is standing before the International Court of Justice for plausible genocide, that is abusing a ceasefire that exists only on paper anyway, that has carried on laying waste to Gaza and the people within it now for two long years. There’s no gentle way to put this, and I’m not looking to try either, because the facts are already doing the heavy lifting here. Elbit Systems is supplying Albania with artillery, mortars, and tactical drones under a formal agreement between the two states, and that agreement goes well beyond just procurement.