[IsraelTimes] When Israeli defense officials approached Massivit last year about using its unique 3D printers to make military drone parts, CEO Yossi Azarzar jumped at the chance.
Although the Israeli company had been producing large set pieces and other designs for the likes of Disney, DreamWorks and Netflix, the opportunity to instead quickly churn out large drone parts for the military was too good to ignore.
"I stopped thinking about Hollywood sets," Azarzar said. "The entertainment industry is a nice customer — defense is a necessity."
Business has been booming for the country’s arms sector, despite widespread condemnation of the country’s campaigns in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
, Leb
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
and Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
in the years since the Hamas
 ..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack on the Jewish state triggered a regional war.
Countries that have vowed to shun Israeli weapons makers are nonetheless quietly placing orders, according to industry officials. And manufacturers, including some like Massivit with no previous military know-how, can show that their innovations are being continually combat-tested and improved.
According to the Defense Ministry, Israeli weapons sales have more than doubled over the past five years, with a record high of nearly $15 billion in 2024. While the ministry hasn’t released overall 2025 figures, leading Israeli weapons makers, including Elbit and Israel Aerospace Industries, both reported double-digit sales growth last year.
More than half of the Israeli arms industry’s sales are for missiles, rockets and air-defense systems. For the first time, Israel has surpassed the United Kingdom in its share of global arms exports, making it the world’s seventh-biggest supplier, according to a March report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
"This tremendous achievement is a direct result of the successes of the [army] and defense industries... The world sees Israeli strength and seeks to be a partner in it," said Defense Minister Israel Katz.
SOLID SALES, DESPITE PUBLIC CRITICISM
This year’s Defense Tech Expo in Tel Aviv reflected the growing international interest in Israeli weapons, with manufacturers promoting arms and other equipment shaped by the country’s recent conflicts.
But it also highlighted the tension between showcasing the military technology and the political debate surrounding its use, with event protesters decrying the widespread destruction in Gaza as an alleged testing lab for Israeli weapons.
Last year, Spain canceled a deal for anti-tank missile systems sold by an Israeli company’s subsidiary. Slovenia, meanwhile, announced it would ban the import, export and transit of all weapons to and from Israel in response to the country’s actions in Gaza.
Israel says it uses its equipment to defend the country and its people, and denies that it uses battlefields as testing grounds.
Human rights activists claim Israel has deployed new weapons and technology during the war in Gaza, pointing to AI, big data and targeting.
"The regional war has drawn heavily on Israel’s deadly playbook and provided a boon to Israeli and other defense and technology companies able to parlay the use of their products in Gaza to attract more business," charged Omar Shakir, the executive director of DAWN, a US-based group founded by murdered journalist beloved martyr of journalism Jamal Khashoggi
...who was simultaneously a very well paid Washington Post columnist and a long time propagandist for the Moslem Brotherhood and Al Qaeda — he died while on the Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i payroll, but previously wrote at the behest of then-Saudi intel chief Prince Turki al-Faisal...
that pushes for human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
in the Middle East.
Despite criticism that Israel’s weapons sector is profiting off technologies being used and improved on the battlefield, it’s hardly alone, according to experts.
"Countries have had to dramatically increase defenses because of the proliferation of global conflicts and they need systems that will work. And most countries don’t have the time right now to build their own defense systems locally and quickly," said Seth J. Frantzman, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who has covered Israel’s arms industry for a decade and wrote the book "Drone Wars."
A lot of countries are looking to Israel because they’re seeing in real time that these are munitions and systems that work, he said.
A DOUBLING OF INQUIRIES ON DRONE PARTS AMID IRAN WAR
For Massivit, sales have soared since it pivoted to making drone parts for the military, including a 200% rise in inquiries from interested buyers since Israel and the US attacked Iran at the end of February, according to Azarzar.
The company’s unique 3D printing technology allows it to make large parts for military drones within days instead of weeks. In addition to selling to the Israeli military, the company’s technology has drawn interest from the defense and aeronautical sectors in Europe, the US, Southeast Asia and India, he said.
Business has also been good for other defense contractors.
Tomer Malchi, co-founder and CEO of ASIO, said Israeli army orders for the company’s rugged smartphone unit, the Orion, have surged by 400% since Hamas’s attack in 2023 started the war in Gaza.
The phones use maps, augmentation and artificial intelligence to help soldiers plan missions, navigate and respond to real-time battlefield threats. ASIO recently signed a deal with a major US defense company and is in talks with about 20 other countries, Malchi said.
One area the Defense Ministry says will be a future priority for innovation is taking down drones, which has proven challenging during the war with Iran. Drones are hard to pinpoint on radar systems calibrated for spotting high-speed missiles and can be mistaken for birds or planes.
Israel Weapon Industries (IWI), a local weapons maker, has developed a system to help soldiers more accurately shoot down tactical drones. At a shooting range in central Israel, an IWI instructor fired rounds at a makeshift drone to show how the system works. A computer chip is embedded into a soldier’s rifle, providing more accuracy and efficiency and significantly reducing the influence of fatigue and other factors by allowing the trigger to remain pressed.
The system, known as Arbel, came to market in 2024 and now has more than two dozen countries using it, said Semion Dukhan, head of Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
for IWI.
Among IWI’s buyers are countries that have said publicly that they won’t do deals with Israel, Dukhan said, though he wouldn’t name them.
"People and politicians say things they need to say... what they say is not necessarily what is going on underneath the surface," he said, noting that at the end of the day, countries want to equip their people with the best gear.
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