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Will Obama press Israel to allow nuclear inspection of Dimona reactor? – Haaretz – Israel News

Will Obama press Israel to allow nuclear inspection of Dimona reactor?
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent “…………………..The new president and his choice for secretary of state, New York Senator Hillary Clinton, intend to revive international arms-control efforts, which have been on hold during the eight years of President George W. Bush’s administration. Such initiatives inevitably arouse suspicion and testiness among Israeli officials,……………..Obama should learn from president John F. Kennedy and call for worldwide nuclear disarmament. Hoagland’s columns generally express the consensus of the U.S. foreign affairs establishment. Kennedy was the last American president to have tried to stop the Israeli nuclear project. He threatened that there would be serious ramifications vis-a-vis U.S. support for Israel if the reactor in Dimona was not opened to frequent visits by inspectors………………Since then Israel has stuck to the policy of “nuclear ambiguity,”……………….about 100 leading world figures, who have initiated a new movement for nuclear disarmament, called Global Zero. On the list are familiar “peaceniks” like Nobel Prize laureates Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu and Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as Queen Noor of Jordan and Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa, but also American establishment figures from the political center. The movement’s primary target is Obama, and it also seeks to influence public opinion……………….In Israel there is a public consensus that nuclear capability is important for the country’s survival and shouldn’t be tampered with. There is not a single Israeli among the signatories of Global Zero. The initiatives are not directed against Israel, but as the Obama administration takes shape and establishes its objectives, Israel will have to decide how to act…………………The prevailing view in the Israeli establishment is that everything depends on what Obama achieves vis-a-vis the Iranians. If he stops them before they have built a bomb, and maintains the world order with regard to nuclear armament, there will be more legitimacy for making demands of Israel.

Will Obama press Israel to allow nuclear inspection of Dimona reactor? – Haaretz – Israel News

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, urasium, radioactive

December 20, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics