The J-Bomb
If Western Powers want Iran to stand down on uranium enrichment, then Israel should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and free Vanunu.
While the world turns its eyes again to the Middle East and watches a buildup to a war created by the U.S. over a mythical atomic bomb, there is one country in the neighborhood that actually has hundreds of atomic weapons; "poor beleaguered Israel," as many writers (conservative and liberal alike) refer to the only atomic power in the Middle East.
Even mentioning Israel’s stock of weapons is a no-no in polite western societies. The U.S. has destroyed Iraq under the pretense of it attempting to make a nuclear weapon and it is on the verge of creating the same calamity in Iran. Ask a question about Israel’s nukes and the response is mute. In fact, most U.S. journalists won’t even entertain the thought of asking such a question.
In 1996, The Alternative, a magazine I published at the time, ran the following in-depth article about Israel’s nukes. It was written by investigative journalist Husayn Al-Kurdi is one of the most comprehensive works on the subject. It’s all here: the ties between apartheid South Africa and Israel in developing nuclear weapons; the imprisonment of Mordechai Vanunu, the whistleblower of Israel’s nuclear program; and the utter deceit by the U.S. to keep the subject under wraps. Even today, few U.S. citizens have any clue that Israel possesses hundreds of atomic weapons. With Iran currently in the U.S. crosshairs, this piece is even more relevant today than it was a decade ago.
posted by Pete Sampras at 1:02 PM
4 Comments:
Amen.
I'm going to beat my winger friends to the punch and state the obvious: the thought of Israel having the bomb doesn't bother me nearly as much as the thought of Iran having it. Whatever you think of its policies, Israel is not a security threat to the United States in the way Iran could be (its brutal, biggoted policies inflame Arab/Muslim hatred towards the US, but that's not the kind of threat that is made more severe by them having the bomb).
Now, that doesn't do much to console Israel's neighbors and allay their own security concerns. There's no doubt that Israel should disarm--why would we want nuclear weapons in that region at all? Hurtleg opined that classic deterrence theory doesn't apply in the Middle East. If that's the case--and if it's the case because of the irrationality of the Muslim/Arab actors--it's hard to see why Israeli nukes should serve as much of a deterrent. After all, the doomsday scenario is one in which an unhinged Ahmadinejad is commanded by Allah to swallow up Israel in a cloud of flame. Would he care if Israel struck back? If he cared at all, he'd have to know that he was fucked anyway, even if only in a conventional way.
The interesting part will come if Iran somehow makes it to a nuclear capability, then demands that Israel disarm as a condition of its own disarmament.
I agree that Israel is not that great of a threat to the U.S. as Iran is right now. However, Israel is a threat to U.S. interests in the Middle East nonetheless.
To gain political and military independence from all other countries is Israel's primary long term goal. The U.S. is meeting this objective by pumping over a billion dollars in aid annually, of which 70%+/- is allocated to the the military budget.
It is vital to the prolonged success of American democracy that U.S. foreign policy be even-handed in Middle East dealings.
Warren Farr's THE THIRD TEMPLE'S HOLY OF HOLIES: ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS (http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/farr.htm) provides a credible detailing of Israeli abuses on the U.S. government.
Maybe I should lend Pete Sampras my avatar.
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