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January, 2010
Volume 35, Issue 1  MARIN COUNTY'S NEWS MONTHLY - FREE PRESS |
| One Sided Nuclear Reality In The Middle East By Karen Nakamura Neo-conservatives in Israel are hypocritically stoking the flames of public option to make sure the world stays focused on Iran's nuclear program. Simultaneously, the Israelis refuse to allow the world to examine their own atomic stockpiles. Marin's Anna Rogers of the prestigious Jewish Voice for Peace stated in a missive in December: "AIPAC [the highly influential American Israel Political Action Committee that's works hand-in-glove with the Israeli government] is …very active in supporting a confrontational approach with Iran, supporting sanctions and threats of military intervention. A sanctions bill supported by AIPAC …will undermine diplomatic efforts …by the Obama administration. At the same time, AIPAC opposes a rational approach to resolving issues regarding nuclear weapons in the Middle East, including …that Israel become part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, despite Israel's massive nuclear arsenal. AIPAC also opposes the concept of a nuclear-free Middle East." That "massive nuclear arsenal" is shrouded in secrecy. Wikipedia reports: "although no official statistics exist, it's been estimated that Israel has between 60 to 400 thermonuclear weapons, believed to be of Teller-Ulam design, including strategic warheads in the megaton-range." Atomic bombs and Jericho series IBM's aren't the only weapons of mass destruction Israel is said to be hiding. There are reputable reports of chemical and biological weapons programs. For instance, the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment stated in 1993 it thought Israel had undeclared chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Again, in 1998, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, then US deputy assistant Secretary of Defense and responsible for chemical and biological weapons, said he had no doubt "Israel has worked on both chemical and biological offensive things for a long time There's no doubt they've had the stuff for years." That makes Israel a factor in any negotiations with Iran. Not only does Israel have nuclear armaments, it's a common belief that if Iran doesn't stop nuclear construction then the West won't be able to keep Israel from bombing Iran's nuclear sites. Israel is reported to be giving the US until January to sanction Iran or it will step up plans to bomb Iran's known nuclear sites. Dan Senor, co-author of "Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle" even suggested on CNN that Israel would end negotiations with Palestine if sanctions weren't applied to Iran. Ha'aretz newspaper reported May 19, 2009 that an unnamed official in the Netanyahu administration, when asked about President Obama overtures to Iran, said: 'Israel will have to take on Iran alone once Obama's efforts fail." The same official stated Obama's engagement with Iran "would force Israel to make a 'difficult decision' on the matter by the end of 2009." The House passed a sanctions bill in mid-December. In the meantime, talking heads debate whether Iran has diversified its nuclear sites enough to withstand an Israeli aerial bombardment. Israel's blotted arsenal is the sledgehammer it holds over the Middle East. Is it any wonder Iran is building its defenses? Wouldn't it be failing its people if it didn't? Accusations of Israeli's militarily aggressive nature are more than born out with its expansionist wars in Palestine and Lebanon and the bombing of Syria. Even President Obama was forced to deny Israel safe passage through Iraq airspace so it could bomb Iran. To say Israel is trigger-happy is an understatement. Consider then that Israel has never allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEI) to inspect their facilities nor has it signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It also refuses any call for an accounting of its WMD. In fact, any Israeli expert who speaks publicly about its nuclear program is tried for treason. This policy was enforced when Israeli anti-war activist Mordechai Vanunu was kidnapped in London by Israeli secret police and returned to Israel to serve a long sentence. Joseph Cirincione, co-author of the Carnegie Institute's report, "Universal Compliance: A Strategy for Nuclear Security" reported in the Globalist Perspective in March of 2005 that while Washington was pressuring the IAEA to find Iran in breach of its pledges not to develop nuclear weapons, "no one in Washington wanted to talk about Israeli's nuclear weapons facilities." Nothing has changed since but those facilities are the 400-pound gorilla in the room. Cirincione went on: "Even if democratic transformations sweep the Middle East, a new Iraq and a new Iran would still want nuclear weapons as long as Israel has them. In fact, the world does well to remember that most of the Middle East weapons programs began as a response to Israel's development of nuclear weapons." Israel plays coy about having nuclear weapons, (even though American taxpayers are paying through the nose for them), neither confirming nor denying it has chemical or biological weapons, even to the point of signing the Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty but not ratifying it. Nor has it signed the Biological Weapons Convention agreements. It does, however, attend any number of meetings including a conference in Cairo in September 2009 sponsored by the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. Both Iran and Israel sent representatives. The bottom-line is that Israel wants the Arab world to lay down its arms and surrender to Israel's dictation. This is stressed in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence that any final settlement includes the complete demilitarization of Palestine while Israel can continue to build its bloated military. With Zionist Judge Goldstone's United Nation report on Israeli war crimes in Gaza, and other Zionists taking a more pragmatic position, Zionism is now left of the Netanyahu government. The seizure of Greater Israel (i.e. Judah and Samaria which encompass the West Bank) no longer appears to be enough. If it were, Israel would never have occupied Lebanon, grabbed Syrian lands and continue to occupy Palestine. If Israel truly desired a just peace, it would have adopted a Good Neighbor Policy long ago instead of waving nuclear weapons around and laying down wave after wave of white phosphorus on the civilian population of Gaza. Actions speak louder than words. |
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