The Advocate

Nuclear Double Standard
in the Middle East

Jae Kim

American Double Standard
“If those American guys go to Israel, they can easily find the weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Why are they staying here and wasting valuable time and money collected by American taxpayers?”

So spoke Hassan Ali Sabti, Professor of History at Baghdad University, whom I interviewed this summer. Professor Ali Sabti expressed scorn for the Iraqi Survey group, which was at that time still desperately searching for any scrap of evidence that the Hussein regime was stockpiling WMD.

But is Professor Sabti’s comment justified? In Israel and the Bomb, published in 1998, Avner Cohen revealed that Israel went nuclear on the eve of the 1967 Six Day War. Cohen, a conscientious Israeli scholar who broke the code of silence his homeland, estimated that Israel currently retains a maximum of three hundred nuclear bombs. However, the Israeli government’s policy of Neither Confirm Nor Deny keeps discussion of this topic in the zone of "strategic ambiguity."

Not everyone considers Israeli nuclear weapons to be a problem. I interviewed Gerald Steinberg, an Israeli student majoring in conflict resolution at Bar Ilan University in Jerusalem. He argued that, “Nuclear weapons are a last resort to protect Israel, which is surrounded by the neighboring Arabs like a small island in a sea.” His point was that nuclear bombs could be used in the event of an all-out Arabic military attack.

This view leads to political exceptionalism. For instance, Israel has not joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), in order to avoid being pressured by the international nuclear watchdog group known as the IAEA (http://www.iaea.or.at). The IAEA’s attitude is ambiguous. Israel is a longstanding member, but at the same time, has not allowed international inspectors to visit its nuclear sites. And although IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei has called for talks on creating a nuclear-free Middle East, political realities have drawn his current focus toward North Korea.

One final decisive fact: Israel has never been criticized by the US for its policy of developing and continuing to stockpile WMD, and international critics point out that Israel maintains its clandestine program with American blessings. Many Iraqi intellectuals, in fact, are eager to show their anger against the Bush administration, citing its double standard towards Israeli and Iraqi WMD development programs.

Secret Site, Dimona
The core facility of Israeli nuclear development program, the Negev Nuclear Research Center, is near Dimona, a small city in the Negev desert in the southernmost region of Israel. In 1958, working with French assistance, Israel constructed a natural uranium, heavy-water research reactor near Dimona, and succeeded in developing nuclear weapons by the close of the 1960s. It is believed that there are currently 2,700 employees working in the six-floor underground building.

Visiting Dimona is not easy. My plan was simple; I would photograph the Negev Nuclear Research Center from outside. I did not expect, however, to be invited inside the Center, or especially to photograph the inside of the plant.

One day before my departure, I changed my Israeli driver, who I feared would be uncomfortable with my plans. Instead, I found an Israeli Arab driver who was very cautious and cooperative while I took photos of the nuclear site, which is surrounded by double barbed-wire entanglements topped with security cameras. Road signs announced that taking photos was prohibited; even parking one’s car on the roadside is strictly forbidden. Still, I managed to photograph from inside my car, focusing on the large silver-domed reactor containment vessel, nearly 20 meters in diameter.

Interview with Vanunu
After returning to Jerusalem from the Negev Desert, I looked up Mordecai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear whistle-blower who was released in April from jail after suffering 18 years in prison—most of which was spent in solitary confinement. Once a nuclear technician at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, he was fired from the Center in 1985 after arguing that Palestinians have the right to establish an independent state. After revealing Israeli nuclear secrets in London’s Sunday Times in 1986, Vanunu was abducted in Italy by the Mossad (http://www.fas.org/irp/world/israel/mossad/), and imprisoned until this year. Owing to Vanunu’s revelations, Israel’s stockpile of 100 to 200 nuclear devices - a much larger nuclear capability than was previously estimated - was made public

Although Vanunu was released from prison, the Israeli government has forbidden him from contacting reporters or traveling abroad. When I approached the Saint George Cathedral where Vanunu has resided since his release, I spoke with him for about five minutes. At that time, our talk was interrupted by a security guard. Below are selections from our conversation:

Jae Kim: I heard that you are under surveillance. How is your feeling?
Mordecai Vanunu: I am not still free. I cannot talk with foreigners because the Israeli government banned it. Moreover, I cannot leave Israel. For 18 years, I have been brutally harassed in jail. Of the 18 years I was in prison, I was isolated alone for 12. Now I strongly hope to be free, and travel abroad.

JK: Why do you think the Israeli government keeps you from talking with foreigners?
MV: The only reason I understand is that the Israeli authority fears any truth about the Israeli nuclear program would spread out to the international society. I think this situation is absurd and contrary to the principles of democracy and human rights. Israel is no more a democratic state.

JK: Do you think the main reason of the US invasion to Iraq was WMD Saddam Hussein was alleged to have or try to develop?

MV: I don’t think so. In my viewpoint, the US should first of all resolve the Israeli WMD problem. Although all the countries in the Middle East, including Iraq, Libya, and Syria, are transparent to WMD development program, Israel alone has kept secret WMD. Not just the US but Europe, China, Russia, and all other countries should focus on this Israeli problem.

JK: I understand that your point about international pressure on this agenda. How do you feel about strengthening the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) activity in Israel?

MV: Of course. I strongly hope the head of IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, will make an effort to solve this problem after visiting Israel. If you meet him in the nearer future, please let him know my feelings on this.

JK: I heard some Israelis have scolded you as a traitor. Do you fear that they might threaten your life?

MV: I cannot predict my future situation. One clear thing is that I do not want another holocaust in the Middle East caused by Israeli WMD. That’s the reason I revealed what was happening inside Dimona.

Air Strike in Osirak
Vanunu’s plan is to campaign for a nuclear-free Middle East. Perhaps, he sayds, the Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona should be destroyed, like the Iraqi facility in Osirak, which the Israeli air force attacked and destroyed in 1981.

While in Iraq, I visited Osirak to see if remnants of the Israeli bombing still existed. Osirak is located in Baghdad’s southern suburban area, 30 km from the city center. When I arrived at the remains of the Osirak nuclear site, I was blocked by the Iraqi police at the gate. After identifying myself to a US military serviceman inside the site, the Iraqi police refused me entrance to the plant. I was curious about the US troops there. Were they desperately looking for evidence of WMD among the ruins of a site destroyed 23 years ago?

My Iraqi interpreter, Kazim, tried to persuade the Iraqi police to let us in, but to no avail. Instead we visited poor farming families living near the site. Salem Musin, a 67-year-old former truck driver, explained the Israeli bombing on June 7th, 1981 in the following terms: “On that day, I came home earlier than usual. It happened in the early evening. Israeli jet bombers appeared suddenly from the eastern sky, and then I heard huge sounds of explosion. It was a sudden attack, and the Iraqi military did not have time to return anti-aircraft missiles.”

Is Iran the Next Target?
The four Israeli jet bombers Musin saw in the sky were sent following the decision of then-Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin. As we know now, these Israeli F-15s and F-16s were donated by the US military on the condition that they be used only for defensive purposes.

The collapse of Hussein regime resulted in a major shift in geopolitical circumstances, and the decisive collapse of military balance in the Middle East. The strong Iraq of the 1980s, which retained almost half a million soldiers has disappeared since the first Gulf War, leaving Israel the dominant military power in the region. The presence of Israeli nuclear bombs is clear evidence of military unbalance in this area, which is why Iran, which has nuclear ambitions of its own, has complained about the double standard of IAEA and the US. Could the Iranian reactor site be the next target of Israeli air strike?

Jae Kim is a student in the PhD program in Political Science.