don’t ask, don’t tell: aka the zionist entity’s nuclear arsenal

LinkPosted on May 9, 2009 by marcy/مارسي newman/نيومان

mr. fish

this week in ha’aretz there was an article in response to the obama administration’s nuclear non-proliferation treaty. read carefully in the quoted paragraphs below to see how they couch their language so as not to admit that the zionist entity has a nuclear arsenal, though the world knows they do (also click on the link for the rest of the article to see how they are shaking in their boots over the hypocrisy that the u.s. and europe pressure iran, but not the zionist entity):

It is unclear whether the U.S. assistant secretary of state’s call to Israel to sign on to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty indicates a change in Washington’s policy toward Israel’s nuclear program, or even if the move was anticipated by the White House.

It is clear, however, that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. The U.S. has been protecting Israel for years, creating a diplomatic umbrella and pushing away any attempt, in any international debate, to discuss the nuclear weapons the entire world believes Israel possesses.

in yet another article in ha’aretz you can see some of this concern over a fear of pressure that may be exerted on the zionist entity over its nuclear weapons:

On the practical level, Washington recognizes the unique positions that Israel, India and Pakistan are all in, all of them important American allies. U.S. politics also plays an influential role – Democratic lawmakers tend to emphasize international diplomacy and the importance of nuclear monitoring, while Republicans are broadly less likely to do so.

Israel’s nuclear policy – its infamous “ambiguity” – is based on an unwritten 1969 agreement between then-prime minister Golda Meir and American president Richard Nixon, according to which, experts believe, Israel maintains nuclear ambiguity and does not conduct nuclear tests, and the U.S. refrains from pressuring it to sign the NPT.

But in 2009, the problem is more complex. As far as the Americans will progress in talks with Iran, demands will almost certainly arise for a full denuclearization of the region. In other words: “Dimona for Natanz.”

apparently, one of the changes the zionist entity is afraid of is first and foremost the admission, by the obama administration, that they in fact have nuclear weapons as saed bannoura reported:

An Obama administration official has provoked the anger of the Israeli government by implying that Israel has nuclear weapons.

While the US has never admitted that its ally Israel has nuclear weapons, the last Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted last year to the existence of the arsenal.

Anti-nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu spent eighteen years in Israeli prison for exposing the Israeli nuclear program with photos and testimony.

As a condition for his release he was denied the right to speak to foreigners and reporters.

But the U.S. and Israel have both continued to maintain a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ stance toward Israel’s nuclear arsenal of approximately thirty warheads.

Now, assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller may be breaking that taboo. She gave a speech in New York listing the countries that must adhere to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea. By including Israel in that list, she broke a thirty year silence by U.S. officials on the existence of an Israeli nuclear arsenal.

mordechai vanunu's photograph a nuclear weapon of the zionist entity

of course, seymour hersh’s important book, the samson option: israel, america and the bomb, (1991) detailed the facts about the zionist entity’s nuclear weapons. and much of what we know about this comes from mordechai vanunu’s work to expose their arsenal after having worked there for many years (and, of course, he was imprisoned by the zionists for this). john steinbach’s historicizes the criminal origin of their nuclear weapons for the center for research on globalization:

The Israeli nuclear program began in the late 1940s under the direction of Ernst David Bergmann, “the father of the Israeli bomb,” who in 1952 established the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission. It was France, however, which provided the bulk of early nuclear assistance to Israel culminating in construction of Dimona, a heavy water moderated, natural uranium reactor and plutonium reprocessing factory situated near Bersheeba in the Negev Desert. Israel had been an active participant in the French Nuclear weapons program from its inception, providing critical technical expertise, and the Israeli nuclear program can be seen as an extension of this earlier collaboration. Dimona went on line in 1964 and plutonium reprocessing began shortly thereafter. Despite various Israeli claims that Dimona was “a manganese plant, or a textile factory,” the extreme security measures employed told a far different story. In 1967, Israel shot down one of their own Mirage fighters that approached too close to Dimona and in 1973 shot down a Lybian civilian airliner which strayed off course, killing 104. There is substantial credible speculation that Israel may have exploded at least one, and perhaps several, nuclear devices in the mid 1960s in the Negev near the Israeli-Egyptian border, and that it participated actively in French nuclear tests in Algeria. By the time of the “Yom Kippur War” in 1973, Israel possessed an arsenal of perhaps several dozen deliverable atomic bombs and went on full nuclear alert.

Possessing advanced nuclear technology and “world class” nuclear scientists, Israel was confronted early with a major problem- how to obtain the necessary uranium. Israel’s own uranium source was the phosphate deposits in the Negev, totally inadequate to meet the need of a rapidly expanding program. The short term answer was to mount commando raids in France and Britain to successfully hijack uranium shipments and, in1968, to collaborate with West Germany in diverting 200 tons of yellowcake (uranium oxide). These clandestine acquisitions of uranium for Dimona were subsequently covered up by the various countries involved. There was also an allegation that a U.S. corporation called Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) diverted hundreds of pounds of enriched uranium to Israel from the mid-50s to the mid-60s.

Despite an FBI and CIA investigation, and Congressional hearings, no one was ever prosecuted, although most other investigators believed the diversion had occurred. In the late 1960s, Israel solved the uranium problem by developing close ties with South Africa in a quid pro quo arrangement whereby Israel supplied the technology and expertise for the “Apartheid Bomb,” while South Africa provided the uranium.

helena cobban, writing for ips, addressed the implications of making the zionist entity’s nuclear weapons program transparent:

Now, it looks as if Washington may be preparing to join this movement toward stressing Israeli transparency and accountability. This would take the Obama administration back to the stance adopted by Pres. John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s. Just a few years later, however, in 1969, Pres. Richard Nixon signed off on a policy that Israeli nuclear policy expert Avner Cohen has described as one of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Back in the Cold War, there were many – including key Nixon adviser Henry Kissinger – who argued that colluding with Israel’s nuclear opacity was in the U.S. interest since, if Israel came out openly as a nuclear power, that could spark Soviet arms sales to pro-Moscow allies in the region and raise tensions in the region.

After the Cold War ended, many in the U.S. strategic-affairs community favoured continuing the policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” They argued that Israel acted as an extension of U.S. power in the Middle East, so its capabilities should be supported, or that the U.S. was so powerful globally that it had no need to put pressure on or embarrass its Israeli ally.

Both those arguments were based on the judgment that U.S. interests always coincide with those of Israel. Now, as Obama and his top aides have started to hint, that judgment may be starting to change.

but just because these words sound different, don’t expect a new policy for real. because the u.s. is just as hypocritical as the zionist entity when it comes to its nuclear arsenal. and neither both will continue to build their nuclear weapons programs. both will continue to use them as a threat whether they are secret or public. and both will allow their allies to have nuclear weapons and they will both continue to threaten or bomb countries trying to develop their own as a way to defend themselves from these colonial or imperial powers.

update: jasmin ramsey at pulse media just published a post on this subject, which i strongly recommend!