US Foreign Policy Experts To Obama: Take Away Israel's Nuclear Deterrent
Everything old really does appear to be new again:
The Middle East is in danger of accumulating large stocks of nuclear material over the next decade that could be used to produce over 1,700 nuclear bombs, a U.S. research center has projected in a newly released report. The Institute for Science and International Security, headed by David Albright, one the world's top experts on nuclear weapons and the prevention of nuclear proliferation, recently released its report urging president-elect Barack Obama to take a number of measures to avoid such an outcome, including convincing Israel to halt production of its nuclear weapons... "As an interim step, the United States should press Israel to suspend any production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Toward this goal, the United States should change its relatively new policy of seeking a cutoff treaty that does not include verification. The Bush administration's rejection of the long-standing U.S. policy of requiring verification was a mistake that the incoming administration needs to rectify."
Because the one thing that will cause threshold countries like Libya and Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Syria to give up their nukes is knowing that Israel has disarmed. What's that? They're actually going nuclear because they want to attack Israel or because they're terrified of an Iranian Bomb that's probably inevitable and may well already be past the point of no return? Well then it seems like pressuring Israel wouldn't really accomplish anything except weakening Israel. Weird.
No but seriously, Israeli concessions always work. Israel's Arab and Muslim enemies never sign nudge-wink agreements that everybody knows only Israel will be pressured to uphold. Look how well USNC 1701 is working out in Lebanon. And the Camp David Accords with Egypt - nothing but success. And of course literally every agreement with the Palestinian Authority is being upheld.
But at least when Israel's current and future enemies back out of international agreements after pocketing irreversible Israeli concessions - at least in those cases Israel can count on the US and Europe to uphold their security guarantees to the now-weakened Jewish State. At least there's that.
References and previously after the jump...
References:
* Israel's Arsenal Threatened [MR]
* Libya Getting Hooked Up With Russian Nuclear Tech [MR]
* Great News: Egypt Modernizing Its Army With Cutting-Edge Military Tech [MR]
* Mid-East Energy Update: Fuel To Gaza, Nuclear Power To The Rest Of The Arab World [MR]
* Syria Following Iranian Model, Building Multiple Redundant Nuclear Facilities [MR]
* Fear Of Iran Triggers Biggest Middle East Arms Race Ever [MR]
* Iran: We're Really, Really, Really Never Going To Give Up Our Nukes Program. Really. [MR]
* Iran Has Secret Fuel Reprocessing Program, Missiles That Will Reach Europe (Plus: Khamenei: Of Course We're Not Going To Respond To Diplomacy) [MR]
* Hezbollah: Actually, Israel Is Our Land Too [MR]
* Camp David, Other Agreements With Egypt Working Out Great - Cairo "Working Against Israel For Years" [MR]
* Hamas: Oh By The Way, We're Totally Going To Ignore Annapolis When We Roll Over The West Bank [MR]
* Another State Dept Bait And Switch - Rice Says PA Should Control Gaza-Egypt Border (Plus: EU Maybe Kind Of Thinking About Fulfilling Rafah Agreement) [MR]
* EU Again Backs Out of Monitoring Agreement, Endangers Israeli Security [MR]
Previously:
* Egypt To Build Multiple Nuclear Reactors
* Israel Took Out Mugniyah Because US Intel Was Too Incompetent To Do It (Plus: The NIE Turns Out To Be Extra-Super Stupid)
* Obligatory Post About Iran's "Hezbollah Radiation Will Destroy Israel" Threat (Plus: Mugniyah Assassination Dramatically Demonstrates Absurdity Of Liberal Foreign Policy Sophistication)
