US officials reacted angrily today at the inclusion of Israel's nuclear arsenal as a topic of discussion for the IAEA meeting, insisting that it was "
untimely and uncalled for."
The meeting is the first IAEA meeting to oficially mention Israel since 1991, and included several Arab nations
urging Israel to join the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). Israel has repeatedly and angrily refused to be a part of the treaty or to submit its arsenal to any international oversight.
The discussion led to a pointed exchange between US and Iranian delegates, ending with US envoy
Glyn Davies claiming that the inclusion of Israel's nuclear weapons as a topic of discussion was a plot by Iran to "take the heat off" US pressure against their civilian nuclear program.
Davies added that the mere mentioning of Israel will harm the push for the nuclear-free Middle East, which the
US at least nominally supports. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that is a non-signatory of the NPT, and is also the only nation in the region with a nuclear arsenal.
A
2012 NPT Conference has been set up to discuss how to achieve a nuclear free Middle East. The
IAEA has also asked for international help in convincing Israel to join the NPT.
Tell me, when has Israel ever thrown around terms like "turning [insert target nation] into a sea of flames"? North Korea has, and the wide world did a whole lot of nothing to prevent them from acquiring the Bomb. When have they stated such intentions as to make an entire people "fade away into history"? Iran's Ahmadinejad has. When have they proclaimed intention to CONQUER THE ENTIRE WORLD? Islamic protestors (IN GREAT BRITAIN) have.
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And yet, it is "hypocritical" to say that Israel having nuclear weapons isn't the same as a dictatorially-led Islamic state that has gone on record on numerous occasions in not only denying the reality of a past genocide, but all but calling for a new one? Israel doesn't bring their nuclear weapons up in public; there has never once been a "OUR WORDS ARE BACKED WITH -NUCLEAR WEAPONS-!!" statement in their whole political public history, to anyone; the moment any leader does, he'll be sacked, if not tried for treason. Israel doesn't bandy their weapons around as a sign of strength, and actually go out of their way to DOWNPLAY what they have. If ever there was a country that spoke ZILCH of the BIG stick they carry, it is Israel.
And yet...and yet. And yet it is Israel who is attacked for their anti-terrorist measures...measures that are piecemeal stuff compared to how much Americans would be SCREAMING bloody ---MURDER--- if some nation like, say, Mexico were to be doing the kind of things Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iran (and sometimes Egypt) constantly support. HOW many rockets have been launched into Israel over even just the last three years (nevermind five; nevermind ten; nevermind twenty; nevermind...), and yet the ISRAELIS are the aggressors? Go and check your history: Israel ACCEPTED their 1/5 portion of the British "mandated land" of Palestine, with the Palestinians getting 4/5; it was the Palestinians who refused to accept having four times as much as the Israelis. Israel then went to battle against truly overwhelming numbers...and they won, impossibly so. In the steady wars since, they have never been outgunned by LESS than 3:1. You want stories of the strange and surreal, similar to the reality of the unidentified phenomena in our planet's skies? Go and read the stories of the outright MIRACLES performed for Israelies, both soldiers and civilians, in these conflicts and more. To quote a very prominent Englishwoman, the very EXISTENCE of Israel is a viable claim for evidence of a Divine Presence interacting on a personal level with Humanity (or at least a specific section of it).
I could go on, but each thing in its due time. Israel, among all nations of the world, is the one I would MOST want to have nuclear weapons, so that they have a big enough stick to hold back the tide that rears its ancient, disgusting face yet again: antisemitism. If the world had control over its arsenal, then quite simply the ONLY resource left to keep it and its people from being slaughtered by REAL psychopaths would be He Who Watches Over It, Who Neither Slumbers Nor Sleeps.