Correspondent, BBC2 Monday Night

[Phanerothyme 12]

Did anyone else see this?

 

Israel has an undeclared nuclear weapons program that has made it the 5th or 6th largest nuclear power in the world.

 

Workers at the plutonium production plant, Dimona, have been hit en masse by cancer due to a slack safety culture, partly as a result of no international inspections.

 

Israel has used 'unspecified' chemical gas on over 300 palestinians in a single incident.

 

Israel has developed tactical nuclear landmines and is in possession of the internationally banned 'neutron' bomb (Enhanced Radiation Weapon).

 

Israel refuses to acknowledge anything about its nuclear capapbility, remaining in a state of 'Nuclear Ambiguity'.

 

Why should this be so? All nuclear powers are part of an internationally recognised inspection program, why is Israel exempt?

[djadam 10]

Originally posted by "Phanerothyme"

 

why is Israel exempt?

Because their leaders and people act in a civilised manner?

Just my guess, of course.

See, I don't have a problem with most countries having nukes.

It's when countries with a fanatical populous and scary West-hating dictators who want to kill us all have them that things get scary.

Just hope Israel doesn't use any of it's weapons should Iraq decide to draw them into the conflict.

I can see the Middle East being turned into a giant car park.

[Phanerothyme 12]

I do have a problem with nukes, but i'm not naive enough to believe that we can uninvent them. However I do believe that an international system of checks and inspections can verify the nuclear status of world states, and make sure that their systems are not prone to accidental launches, radiation leakage or other safety issues, and that their weapons of mass destruction comply with internationally agreed standards on the barbarity of weapons (i.e neutron bomb)

 

The fact that israel has nuclear weapons is not the issue at stake, it is the fact that they refuse to admit they have nuclear weapons and they are determined to stay outsidethe international regime of inspections and the treaties on non-proliferationa and prohibited weapons.

 

Years and years of UN SC resolutions have had no effect.

 

In Israel, all nuclear facilities peaceable or otherwise, fall under the direct responsibility of the Prime Minister, with no accountability to the Knesset or the people. The culture of secrecy has itself become taboo.

 

Israelis are dying because the regime at Dimona has become lax over 40 years without any external inspection, and the attitude to safety is laissez faire at best.

 

And it is OK for a democracy to use unspecified convulsant gas on unarmed civilians? Because it is a democracy? Because Ariel Sharon acted in a civilised manner?

 

Israel may be a democracy, but it is also (quite understandably) a very militaristic nation where national security rules over and above all other considerations. This is going to make life very dangerous for the Israelis let alone their neighbours who are frantically trying to catch up with the arms race in the middle east. This is a country the size of wales with a population smaller than London, and it is the 5th or 6th largest nuclear power in the world. I dunno about you, but that strikes me as very odd.

[waxy chuff 10]

Why is Israel exempt? For the same reason that the US is exempt from every non-proliferation treaty signed since the seventies? Beacuse the United States says so.

 

$100 million to Israel each year in weapons and ammo. Blood on everyone's hands.

[Phanerothyme 12]

US aid to Israel per year = $3,000,000,000 (3 billion dollars)