There’s growing outrage and political division in Israel after news emerged that the government and defense ministry fulfilled a weapons contract with Germany, sending vital Arrow air defense missiles to Berlin during the middle of the Iran war.
At the very moment the missiles were being delivered, Israeli citizens were dying under Iran’s fierce ballistic missile retaliation attacks during the height of Operation Epic Fury.
The Jerusalem Post has “confirmed that Israel continued to send Arrow missiles to Berlin mid-war as part of a contract between the countries, even though Israel had a shortage of its own interceptors,” the publication writes.
“Some commentators upon learning this information have accused the Israeli government of allowing at least five persons to die and hundreds to be injured when the IDF did not use the Arrow to defend from certain attacks,” the report adds.
The Arrow was developed jointly with the United States and is designed to intercept long-range missiles, serving as the highest tier of Israel’s multi-layered defense.
The first Arrow was delivered to Germany in 2025, despite that starting with the last June war, it has been an open secret that Israel is running low on interceptors, and that it takes a significant amount of time to replenish them.
In April, we featured analysis describing how Israel only in the last few years grew to become Germany’s largest arms partner in a ‘mega deal’:
Israel’s delivery of the Arrow 3 missile defense system to Germany last year, which was its largest export deal ever at $4.6 billion, led to its share of Germany’s arms imports jumping from 13% during the period 2020-2024 to 55% during the period 2021-2025. At the same time, Israel remained Germany’s third-largest arms client at 10% of its exports from 2021-2025 compared to 11% of them from 2020-2024, with the slight 1% decrease likely being due to three-month-long curb on arms exports to it last year.
Why this matters is because Israel’s new role as Germany’s largest arms supplier might worsen its ties with Russia, especially if exports evolve from defensive systems like the Arrow 3 to offensive ones like the $7 billion deal for 500 rocket launchers and thousands of missiles that they’re now negotiating. Moreover, West Asian geopolitics might radically change after the end of the Third Gulf War, so Russia might not be able to reciprocally sell similar systems to Iran. Israel would then gain an edge over Russia.
Israeli officials have sought to downplay the Arrow deliveries for Germany, in some cases arguing that the benefits for Israel actually saves civilian lives – based on other defense items Israel gets in return.
Also, as JPost writes further, “A Maariv report indicated Israeli sources were concerned that if they did not maintain the pace of Arrow deliveries to Germany, it could harm relations or the already signed and potential future defense deals.”
“The Post understands that in addition to general economic benefits, and economies of scale benefits heavily increasing Israel’s own volume of Arrows for self-defense, that the deal with Germany provided two other crucial items,” the publication adds.
The fact that much of Israel’s defense is underwritten by the US taxpayer also provides an ultimate backstop from Israeli leaders’ perspective. The longer the Iran war persists, and as more Israeli arms exports leave port, the more the controversy is likely to grow.