Democratic Palestine : 25 (ص 33)
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- Democratic Palestine : 25 (ص 33)
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Indoctrinated in the fortress state mentality, the Israeli
public generally accepts nuclear weaponry. In the mid-
seventies, a poll showed that 62% thought that the country had
the nuclear bomb; 77% thought that if it didn’t, it should.
GLOBAL REACH
While defense minister, Ariel Sharon outlined his conception
of the strategic problems facing ‘Israel’, emphasizing the
following main tenets: «... Israel’s security interests are af-
fected by developments and events far beyond the area of
direct confrontation upon which Israel has concentrated her
attention in the past... The Soviet factor... is arousing increas-
ing alarm both here in Israel and in the Western world, and it is
«Sunday Times» diagram of Dimona, based on Vanunu’s revelations
by no means impossible that it develop to become the principal
challenge in the eighties.» Besides advocating strategic
cooperation with the US, Sharon proposed to «expand the
field of Israel’s strategic and security concerns in the eighties to
include countries like Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and areas like
the Persian Gulf and Africa, and in particular the countries of
North and Central Africa.» Sharon also links ‘security’ policy
with the economic structure of the garrison state: «We are
determined to see the development of security industries and
production as one of the vital constituents of our national
security» (Maariv, December 18, 1981, as translated in the
Journal of Palestine Studies, Spring 1982, p. 169).
Some ascribe such ideas to Sharon alone, citing the gran-
diose nature and recent failures of his projects, such as in
Lebanon. However, he is only stating bluntly the thinking that
has historically guided the Zionist leadership. Such global
ambitions are the only real rationale for developing the bomb.
Obviously it would be counterproductive for ‘Israel’ to use
strategic nuclear weapons in direct ‘self-defense’, i.e., on or
adjacent to the territory of occupied Palestine claimed by the
Zionist state. The real reason for the Israeli bomb then is
Zionism’s quest for broadly defined regional dominance,
where a first strike could be aimed at a more distant target - an
Arab capital, the PLO or other revolutionary presence in a
more removed country. Equally important are the Israeli am-
bitions to be part of the NATO bloc opposing the socialist
countries, and especially the US drive for unchallenged nuclear
superiority over the Soviet Union. In advocating Israeli par-
ticipation in Star Wars, Dore Gold of the Jaffe Center of
Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, predicted, «We can
expect an enlarged battlefield in a future Middle East war»
(New York Times, March 9, 1986).
In the global context, ‘Israel’ has a special role to play in
conjunction with other illegal states like South Africa and
Taiwan. Together they augment the pro-imperialist, global
nuclear capacity, while serving reactionary aims in their
respective regions. In 1976, ‘Israel’ and South Africa signed an
agreement on nuclear cooperation. Tel Aviv contributed
technology and expertise, while South Africa offered access to.
itesting space and uranium mined in occupied Namibia. The
Zionist state has helped South Africa circumvent international
sanctions regarding needed nuclear technology. Vanunu
testified that South African scientists often worked at Dimona,
while Israelis travel to South Africa for joint work at a huge
industrial complex in the Kahari desert, built by West German
and other European firms. Some experts think that the final
assembly of Israeli nuclear devices occurs there. The world
acquired evidence of the two racist states’ collaboration with
the 1979 nuclear explosion over the Indian Ocean; some think
this might have been a neutron bomb.
There are reports of ‘Israel’, South Africa and Taiwan
working to develop a cruise missile with a 1,500 mile range,
enough to hit targets in the Soviet Union from ‘Israel’. The
indications of Israeli-South African work on a neutron bomb
are perhaps the most horrifying in terms of the danger of im-
mediate use. This is an ideal weapon for racist regimes as it
kills people while inflicting minimal damage on structures.
This would fit neatly into the Zionist recipe for wanting the
land but not the people of Palestine and other occupied Arab
territories. The ANC has maps made by the South African
military, showing black population concentrations, which
might indicate where a neutron bomb could be used. All in all,
nuclear weapons in the hands of racist states, whether ‘Israel’
or South Africa, are not only an element for blackmail, but a
concrete danger to the peoples and to world peace.
The quotes and facts used in this study, and not otherwise documented, are to be
found in the following sources:
1. MERIP: Middle East Report, November-December 1986, no. 143.
2. Stephen Green, Taking Sides: America’s Secret Relations with a Militant
Israel, 1984.
3. AfricAsia, November 1986, no. 35.
4. Israeli Foreign Affairs, September 1985.
5. Granma, January 18, 1987.
6. Perlmutter, Amos; Michael Handel and Uri Bar-Joseph; Two Minutes Over
Baghdad, 1982. (Perlmutter is a former member of the IAEC and military con-
sultant to several Israeli governments, now teaches at the American University in
Washington; Handel is at the Harvard Center for International Affairs, former-
ly of the Hebrew University in Tel Aviv; Bar-Joseph was formerly in the Israeli
Air Force.) e@
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