Democratic Palestine : 25 (ص 30)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 25 (ص 30)
- المحتوى
-
The Israeli Role in the Middle East
Nuclear Blackmail
The emergence of ‘Israel’ as the first,and to date the only,Middle East state to possess nuclear weaponry is
the logical extension of Zionism’s drive for unchallenged regional supremacy. As we pointed out in the
first installment of this study (Democratic Palestine no. 24), this drive for power has led to five major
Arab-Zionist wars. Today it threatens the people of the area with a potential nuclear holocaust.
On October 5, 1986, the London Sunday Times broke the
story that ‘Israel’ is the world’s sixth-ranking nuclear power,
confirming what has long been assumed by experts. Mordechai
Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear technician who was fired and then
defected after working nine years at a secret nuclear plant at
Dimona, gave information indicating that ‘Israel’ had built
100-200 nuclear weapons over the past twenty years. These
range from high-efficiency, light warheads to the components
of thermonuclear (hydrogen) bombs able to destroy whole
cities. His revelations also indicated that the Israeli arsenal
contains weapons more destructive than those used in World
War II.
INTRODUCING THE BOMB INTO THE
MIDDLE EAST
Though the Zionist state injected itself into a nuclear-free
area, it began efforts to acquire the bomb within a year of its
foundation. Mineral surveys were conducted, revealing the
presence of phosphates with uranium in the Negev (Naqab-
South Palestine). Along with their robbery of Palestinian land,
the Zionists plundered this resource as well, as a military asset
in the quest for regional supremacy. Young Israeli scientists
were sent abroad for training in the nuclear field, notably to
the US and France. By 1949, the Weizmann Institute near Tel
Aviv had set up a department for isotope research, where the
US subsequently funded nuclear research. These early efforts
were conducted exclusively under the auspices of the Defense
Ministry and kept top secret, indicating that nuclear power for
military purposes was the aim from the start. Due to the par-
ticular structure of the Zionist state, with almost total overlap
of political and military functions and power, David Ben-
Gurion was both defense and prime minister in the early years.
This fact assisted in keeping the essence of the Israeli nuclear
program secret. Even after Ben-Gurion’s time, a very small
group of officials have traditionally been responsible for deci-
sions in such strategic fields.
The Israeli Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) was found-
ed in 1952, and the Zionist state embarked on a double-track
course: ostensibly developing atomic power for peaceful pur-
poses, and in the process acquiring the materials and know-
how to make nuclear weapons. The latter occurred via secret
cooperation with imperialist powers, and later fellow pariah
states like South Africa and Taiwan, augmented by scientific
espionage, including outright theft and fraud - acts deemed
permissible when the culprit is ‘Israel’. France and the US have
been the main benefactors of the Israeli nuclear program, in
accordance with their interests in having ‘Israel’ as an instru-
ment for imposing imperialist policy in a strategic region.
30
Israeli secrecy around the nuclear program has always been a
convenience for the imperialist states. They can support the
Israeli military build-up, including its nuclear aspect, and reap
the benefits of Israeli aggression on the Arab liberation
movement, yet still publicly distance themselves from illegal
Israeli acts. Professor Francis Perrin, France’s high commis-
sioner for atomic energy (1951-1970), substantiated this point
in an interview with the Sunday Times (October 12, 1986): «We
considered we could give the secrets... connected with work on
nuclear weapons... to Israel, provided they kept it a secret
themselves.»
The Zionist leadership has understood full well how to
operate within the leeway provided by imperialist hypocrisy. In
this context, one can note an entry in the diary of Yitzhak
Rabin, today Israeli Defense Minister, from the time when he
was ambassador to Washington (1968-73): «Some sources in-
form me that our military operations are the most encouraging
breath of fresh air the American administration has enjoyed
recently... There is a growing likelihood that the US would be
interested in an escalation of our military activity with the aim
of undermining Nasser’s standing... Thus the willingness to
supply us with additional arms depends more on stepping up
our military activities against Egypt than on reducing it.»
The fact that imperialist support for conventional aggression
could be transposed into a green light for the development of
nuclear weaponry was not lost on the Zionist leadership. After
all, the Dimona plant, the single most important advance in the
Israeli nuclear program, was supplied by France in 1957, in ef-
fect a reward for Israeli services in the 1956 tripartite attack on
Egypt. Moreover, in its attempts to be imperialism’s major
partner in the Middle East, ‘Israel’ was patterning itself after
the US’s global strategy and performance. In the years when
the Zionist state was in the making, the US had used
Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the testing ground for its own
bombs. Although World War II was essentially won by the
Allies, the US was sending a signal to the world that its leader-
ship and conditions must be accepted. Meanwhile, destruction
was wreaked on Japan so that it could be rebuilt in the US im-
age, as a reliable ally in Asia. Israeli possession of nuclear
weapons sends a similar ultimatum to the Arab people and
states - submit or else.
SHIMON PERES—
MR. NUCLEAR BOMB
In the early fifties, Ben-Gurion asked France for technical
assistance in the nuclear field. In 1957, France agreed to supply
a nuclear reactor and plant eventually capable of producing 40
kilograms of weaponry-grade uranium a year - enough for up - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 25
- تاريخ
- يوليو ١٩٨٧
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
Contribute
Not viewed