Commentary By Ron Beasley
It's probably the worst kept secret in the world - Israel's nuclear arsenal. It's the original "don't ask don't tell" policy. If Iran does indeed want a nuclear weapon that may well be the reason. While there may plenty of crazy talk from Iran they don't have a monopoly on it. As Fareed Zakaria pointed out here there is plenty of crazy talk from Israel as well as gave us this example:
One of Netanyahu's advisers said of Iran, "Think Amalek." The Bible says that the Amalekites were dedicated enemies of the Jewish people. In 1 Samuel 15, God says, "Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." Now, were the president of Iran and his advisers to have cited a religious text that gave divine sanction for the annihilation of an entire race, they would be called, well, messianic.
Al Jazeera asks what no other paper is willing to ask - why aren't Israeli nukes on the table?
Barack
Obama, the US president, has agreed to abide by a 40-year policy of
allowing Israel to keep nuclear weapons without opening them to
international inspection, according to a US newspaper.In a report on Saturday, The Washington Times quoted three
unnamed sources as saying Obama had confirmed to Binyamin Netanyahu,
Israel's prime minister, that he would maintain the "don't ask, don't
tell" policy.The incident reportedly occurred when the two met at the White House in Washington DC in May.
Neither Israel's embassy in Washington, nor the White House National Security Council would comment on the claim.
Avner
Cohen, an Israeli expert and author, was quoted by the paper as saying
that under the deal "the United States passively [accepts] Israel's
nuclear weapons status as long as Israel does not unveil publicly its
capability or test a weapon".There is no official accounting of the deal, supposedly agreed in
1969 between Richard Nixon, then US president, and Golda Meir, the
Israeli prime minister at the time.
Apparently Obama's nuclear free world doe not include Israel. How much longer will the world let this charade continue?
Update
Be sure and read c.dale's excellent comment.
NO SERIOUS DISCUSSION can take place on nuclear arms reduction and non proliferation until full exposure takes place of the massive, secret ISRAELI nuclear arms arsenal in the Negev desert, that is currently completely outside of IAEA inspection.
ReplyDeleteTo do so and ignore this �giant elephant in the room�, would simply be nonsensical.
It would lead to a situation whereby not only US foreign policy lies with the Israeli lobby but also global military and political control.
Such a decision would be indefensible.
There is an absolute imperative to control NUCLEAR WEAPONS and their proliferation
The immediate danger that President Obama has to face is the reality of the fact that his immediate predecessor helped built Israel into possibly the 3rd most powerful nuclear state on the planet - the agenda for such totally irresponsible action, being incomprehensible.
To have made Dimona in the Negev the largest secret nuclear weapons store anywhere, cannot have been to ensure the safety of America, or Europe or the Middle East - but it has virtually ensured that, under the control of a political system that has little integrity, there will inevitably be a nuclear weapons strike in the region within the near future.
The region is now so unstable and the politics so unpredictable and the hatred so fierce, in the aftermath of the massacre in Gaza, that it is a merely a matter of time. That is the danger we face, in the UK, in Europe and eventually in the US and the Americas.
It will then not be a matter of oil or carbon footprints but of human survival on a planet blind to the dangers it faces and the absolute imperative to control nuclear weapons and the ambitions of those who will kill without compunction in order to achieve their aims. I have no doubt that Mr Obama is more aware of these dangers than I am - the point is, how far will he be opposed by the powerful, Israel lobby?
Iran is not the huge elephant in the room. Whilst Americas, Russia and Britain are considering reducing nuclear weapon stockpiles � Israel is increasing hers.
Whilst the UK is proposing to reduce its nuclear strike submarine fleet to three, Israel is reported to be increasing its nuclear strike submarine fleet to five! The UK has a population of 60 million. Israel has just 6 million and is about the size of Wales. The UK has a stable government with a working majority. Israel has an unstable coalition.
Where is the logic in this Kafkaesque scenario?