nuclear-news

Israel’s ‘KGB nuclear state’

Dimona: Israel’s ‘Little Hiroshima’, Middle East Eye  Richard Silverstein Tuesday 19 May 2015

.…..The secrecy of the nuclear programme, one interviewee calls it a “KGB state,” goes hand in hand with the Israel’s overall opacity around all manner of security issues. It’s not surprising that Israel has put its fate in the hands of a few nuclear bureaucrats like those who run Dimona, because it runs its overall military apparatus in the same way. No civilian oversight to speak of. The generals get what they want. All in the name of protecting the state. It’s a devil’s bargain.

Ben Gurion could have chosen a different path. He could’ve followed the path Shimon Peres advocated to deter the 1973 war: he urged a public nuclear test to warn the Arab states what they confronted if they attacked. In the longer term, such transparency might’ve gone a long way to ameliorate some of the worst offenses of the nuclear security state. But Ben Gurion believed the quieter Israel was about it, the less opposition he might face from the world, especially the US.

He made a choice to create a nuclear arsenal in order to offer the state a mechanism to guarantee survival in the face of imminent defeat. But now Israel has ensured its existence. There is no existential threat (no matter what Bibi says regarding Iran). Nuclear weapons don’t guarantee security. In fact, many serious analysts argue just the opposite.

Israel may eventually realise nuclear weapons are an albatross around its neck. They were never needed in the course of all Israel’s previous wars and likely will never be needed (especially if it would agree to a regional nuclear-free zone – a prospect that is an anathema to it, so far). Yet despite the utter lack of utility of Israel’s WMDs, its nuclear personnel have paid a huge and terrible price.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/dimona-israel-s-little-hiroshima-1962915520

May 23, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties