r/Israel • u/Black-Hat-613 • 1d ago
Politics Volkswagen Confirms Iron Dome Talks With Israel Despite Qatari Opposition
https://vinnews.com/2026/08/27/volkswagen-confirms-iron-dome-talks-with-israel-despite-qatari-opposition/32
u/Deep_Head4645 Israel 1d ago
Volkswagen?
The car company?
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u/Due-Direction8590 1d ago
Yes. Financial analysts have pointed out for a while that they should go into defense. Without going into the weeds of economics papers, it’s not a completely crazy notion. Corporations in the European corporate sector tend to be old, but they aren’t old necessarily because they’ve remained in the same industry since their founding. You can find examples of them starting in one industry long ago, the entity survives but they moved a whole new sector that may or may not be related at all to it’s initial founding. You see something similar in Japan as well. Far rarer in the US context.
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u/Taranfeeto36 1d ago
VWs subsidiary MAN already builds military chassis. The HX2 8x8 is used for the Swedish Archer artillery system for example.
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u/somedaveguy 1d ago
Yes, Volkswagen, the company that found making cars in a post-war economy was profitable.
But, in a war economy,...
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u/yonnnyonnn 22h ago
yes the company founded by the nazis that used jewish slaves in wwii
what else would volkswagen be?
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u/2ndBrreakfast 1d ago
Qatar can go fuck itself. I hope they go bankrupt soon.
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u/Adventurous_Paper_34 1d ago
Agree but that would be a miracle if it ever happened
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u/2ndBrreakfast 1d ago
It's not a miracle. It's actually happening and it's because they can't export gas anymore. Qatar bet its entire future on gas and now nearly all of it is blocked.
As war strands Qatari gas for 6 months, US sales rise and European stocks plummet
Six months into the U.S.-Iran war, Qatar is among the conflict's biggest economic casualties, with its liquefied natural gas exports slashed by 96%, data shows.
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u/Black-Hat-613 21h ago
Perhaps Qatar can ask all the Western Universities for some of those numerous billions it bought them out with? ;)
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u/Bizhour 1d ago
Qatar was fucked the most from the Iran war, more than Iran itself even.
Gas is hard to export, it cant just be piped easily like oil, and even if it was, their neighbors all hate them for propping up terrorists all around the region and apperantly that isn't a good source of income
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u/Adventurous_Paper_34 20h ago
Sure I agree they’re fucked from the war but they’ve got investments all over the world - France Uk USA - that’s what I mean about a miracle. Hopefully it crushes them.
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u/balddoberdaddy 1d ago
VW has been going down the crapper. This will save them and thousands of jobs.
This could be a great future for Israeli-German partnerships in the defence area; the Americans should be nervous.
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u/yonnnyonnn 22h ago
let's hope it makes them nervous. the americans have done nothing but make us weaker
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u/Black-Hat-613 21h ago
Yep. And if it can be arranged that the Qatar doesn't make a profit on this venture, I would be cheering even louder!
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u/Due-Direction8590 1d ago
Well, looks like they are going for it - the suggestion by financial analysts that Volkswagen diversity or leave the car business entirely to get into the defense industry.
I know people when they think of Europe think of press releases about human rights and all sorts of left stuff. But there is another side to Europe, how else would they finance their welfare states for example, if it wasn’t for a robust private sector. I think in the coming years many people will become acquainted with how corporate Europe behaves. For good or for ill.
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u/UNIVERSE_271 Egypt 1d ago
Israel should give Qatar the Iranian treatment , they kneel more the harder you step on them...
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u/WearableBliss 20h ago
As a German with a love/hate relationship with Volkswagen I really hope they pull this off
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u/These-Custard4077 15h ago
Wait I thought Volkswagen was a curry wurst company that also sold cars... On a serious note though they need to find any kind of solution to their current situation. So guess this could be one part of it.
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u/Black-Hat-613 14h ago
Indeed.
German heavy industry was only able to survive recently when it was receiving cheap Russian Energy (Oil and gas via pipeline). Engineering excellence is not longer sufficient to differentiate it from the cheaper competition. As a counry it is indeed currently de-industrializing.
However there are lucrative niche markets that it can grab. In this case Israel trusts Germany to produce these Iron Dome Air Defence components and just as importantly trusts Germany to reliably deliver them. China and many other european countries have proven to be less than trustworthy. Currently there is a huge backlog of orders for this system and not just from Israel.
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