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11 May 2006

History repeats itself: a Middle Eastern country launches its own nuclear program. The international community suspects it is a cover for building atomic weapons. The United States calls for the country’s nuclear sites to be inspected. Another government urges the country to scrap its nuclear plans. It is answered by defiant boasts that the nation's sovereignty will not be compromised.

The country in question is not Iran in 2006, but Israel in 1969. The current dispute over Iran's nuclear program has shocking parallels with the tensions sparked off by Israel’s attempts to acquire the nuclear bomb in the 60s. The only major difference is that the U.S. decided at the time not to curb the Israeli nuclear program. Recently declassified documents reveal that the Nixon administration reached a secret understanding with the Israelis in 1969 that allowed them to pursue their nuclear program as long as they maintain a policy of deliberate ambiguity.

In fact, this understanding paved the way for Israel, the 4th largest military power in the world, to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East and the world’s sixth country to acquire atomic weapons, a title its government has never admitted nor denied, according to an article on AFP. Despite its policy of ambiguity, Israel’s nuclear arsenal is estimated between 200 and 300 warheads. According to Eldridge, editor in chief of Jane's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense, this estimate "is based on the production capacity of the country's reactors.”

Meanwhile, the International Institute of Strategic Studies estimates the number of warheads that Israel possesses as being "up to 200". And the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S. advocacy group co-founded by Ted Turner, the founder of CNN and a former senator, believes that Israel’s arsenal "is comparable in quality and quantity to that of France and the United Kingdom."

With French assistance, Israel built a nuclear weapons facility at Dimona in the Negev desert in 1958. The Dimona site has a plutonium/tritium production reactor, an underground chemical separation plant, and nuclear component fabrication facilities. In the early years of its nuclear program, Israel may have used French testing data to confirm its own weapon designs. Moreover, recently declassified British documents show that Britain helped Israel in making its nuclear bomb forty years ago, when it sold the Jewish state 20 tonnes of heavy water, a key substance for the production of atomic bombs. Experts suggest that the Israeli Defense Forces had their first nuclear weapons ready before the Six-Day War.

In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at Dimona, revealed to the media evidence that Israel possessed and produced nuclear weapons. At the time of Vanunu's arrest, The Times reported that Israel had material for approximately 20 hydrogen bombs and 200 fission bombs.

According to AFP, an unspecified number of ground-to-ground missiles, comprising short range Jericho 1 and medium range Jericho 2 missiles, forms Israel's strategic force. At the end of the 1990s, the Jewish state also acquired three diesel-powered, Dolphin-class submarines, capable of launching nuclear-armed cruise missiles. Moreover, the Washington Post recently reported that Israel has succeeded in modifying U.S.-made cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to be launched from submarines.

Unlike Iran and North Korea, Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, designed to prevent the global spread of nuclear weapons. As a result, it is not subject to inspections and the threat of sanctions by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has repeatedly asked Israel to give up its secret nuclear arsenal to avoid an arms race in the Middle East.

U.S. intelligence agencies often omit Israel from semiannual reports to Congress identifying countries developing weapons of mass destruction to protect the Jewish state from any economic or military sanctions. On the other hand, the U.S. is leading an international campaign against Iran over its nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for generating power.

Israel also stepped up rhetoric against Iran. Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres warned on Monday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, should bear in mind that his own country could also be destroyed.

Although Peres didn’t say who should attack Iran, he implied that military action should be led by the U.S., pointing to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The U.S. is striving to get a UN Security Council resolution demanding the Islamic Republic to halt uranium enrichment activities. But the truth is that Tehran hasn’t violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or any other international obligations.

“Let me remind everybody that nothing Iran is accused of doing is illegal,” said Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector who challenged the Bush administration's drive to Iraq War. “We’re condemning Iran for doing that which is permitted under a treaty which it has signed and entered into in force, and has UN inspectors on the ground verifying Iranian compliance.”

It is obvious that Israel, which already possesses nuclear weapons, poses danger to Middle East stability. The U.S.--the only nation to have ever used nuclear weapons against human beings-- should bear in mind this fact before it presses Tehran over its nuclear ambitions. Washington’s refusal to consider Iran’s proposal to make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone shows what all the U.S. hype about Iran’s nuclear program is really about. It simply doesn’t want to eliminate nuclear weapons in the Middle East as long as they remain in the hands of an ally.



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Posted: 2006-05-11 13:55:28
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The implication of your post, with the date at the top and various quotes, is that you are quoting an article written by someone else. Perhaps, as is general practice, you would care to share the source?

Undoubtedly, this would enable people to judge it's legitimacy and bias for themselves...
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Posted: 2006-05-11 14:13:39
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@dealer

Apart from being an exercise in stating the obvious what exactly is the point in this article? Are we to be shocked by the 'revalation' that the U.S. aids one of its closest allies, Israel? Perhaps we are to be surprised that the U.S. opposes an unfriendly country, Iran, from obtaining nuclear technology?

I would support dave_uk's call for the source of the article to be listed. A cursory glance through the article revealed at least once mistake, "... Israel, the 4th largest military power in the world ...". Israel isn't the world's fourth largest military power. There are several countries, which have larger military forces than Israel, in fact if one looks at this Wikipedia list one can see that Israel is actually ranked 26th in terms of the size of its armed forces.

The comment at the end about Israel being a danger to Middle Eastern stability and the link to nuclear weapons is clearly meant to insinuate a possible Israeli nuclear strike. It's worth noting that in the time Israel has had nuclear weapons it has not used them.

Another interesting comment is when the article says Shimon Peres said Iran could also be destroyed. This seems to be a perfectly logical statement given that the Iranian President has called for Israel to be destroyed. Israel are clearly saying that such action against Israel will be met in kind, which is the M.A.D. scenario and the whole point of nuclear deterance. If the Iranian President makes such a statement then he should expect Israel to respond, if he doesn't want his own country threatened then perhaps he shouldn't threaten other countries.

_________________
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC

[ This Message was edited by: scotsboyuk on 2006-05-11 15:19 ]
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Posted: 2006-05-11 16:18:37
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Let's get ready to ruuuuuuumble !
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Posted: 2006-05-12 01:45:01
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I think the point is.
Islamic and Arabic countries will always be looked as a threat, when the next country, which is KNOWN as a fact to have sold weapons get away with much more.

Sadly we live in a hypocritical world with no equality. The word 'freedom' is used as liberaly as a person using the word 'religion' to gain followers for the wrong reason.
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Posted: 2006-05-12 02:48:30
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That's one way of looking at it - however, I think the point is that some people think that it's their job to perpetuate hatred and convince everybody else that we should all be as hell-bent on the destruction of the state of Israel as certain Islamic leaders and an apparently ever-increasing number of followers throughout the Arab world. Fortunately, I do not believe that the rest of the world is blinded - they can tell the difference between the potential for Iranian nuclear power (they haven't even got it yet, but are already threatening to wipe out other countries) and Israel's requirement for it's own self-defence from the entire Middle East surrounding it, a country that has apparently had nuclear weapons for decades... but has NEVER used them.

But why look at the truth - sensationalist, anti-semitic fabrication is so much more fun!
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Posted: 2006-05-12 03:15:13
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@ dave_uk
It's not anti semitism, it's anti-zionism.
Israel is one of the most powerful milatary nations in the world, IF you take into account that they could call on the US army at the drop of a hat.
Israel has the USA at it's beck an call. Unfortunatley, the Palestinians have no one. The so-called "muslim nations" of the middleast have no intention of helping thier muslim brothers because that would result in consequences and repurcussions from that would affect thier economys.

I appreciate delaer_3's attempt at spreading information that is normaly hidden away from mainstream news. Well done mate!

It's all about balancing things out. When you live in a world where, the media is run by Zionist corporations it's only fair that there is some 'ALTERNATIVE' views to the one we have been fed for the last 50 years.
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Posted: 2006-05-12 11:21:13
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Quote:
On 2006-05-12 11:21:13, soulframe wrote:

I appreciate delaer_3's attempt at spreading information that is normaly hidden away from mainstream news. Well done mate!



Me too.
Well Done Bruv.

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Posted: 2006-05-12 12:06:45
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Quote:
On 2006-05-12 02:48:30, amnesia wrote:
The word 'freedom' is used as liberaly as a person using the word 'religion' to gain followers for the wrong reason.



Sorry, I don't understand how you say the word 'freedom' is being misused.
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Posted: 2006-05-12 13:22:47
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So you all support Dealer3 in spreading this "information", despite his refusal, thus far, to let us into the little secret as to where it came from?

Are you so blindly accepting of everything you read??

Since you would be unlikely to find such an article on the subject, with such vehement criticism with so little evidence, in any media considered to be remotely unbiased, it is pretty obvious to me that he has gone looking for the media source(s) that has the most anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic (however you choose to dress it up is up to you) stance, to make his point.

And lo and behold, a short Google search reveals the source to be none other than Al-Jazeera - what a surprise!

But I guess he had to do that, because I'm sure that it's only a bunch of terrorist sponsors who can be trusted to give the world an accurate picture, not like those pro-US, pro-Israel, sons of apes and pigs in the Western media, hey?!

People who continue to post anti-whatever-you-want-to-call-it propaganda anywhere, without revealing their sources or their allegiance will, I hope, continue to disgust those of us who see it for exactly what it is. In stirring up hatred against Israel, America, Jews, The West, you are no better than the BNP in this country. In fact, with their ever-increasing popularity, perhaps some of you will one day get the government your thinly-veiled mission deserves.
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Posted: 2006-05-12 14:13:29
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