Nuclear-armed Israel is at war. What might this mean?

Both Russia in its war in Ukraine, and Israel in its war in Gaza, possess and have threatened to use nuclear weapons. Regardless of the much debated root causes of either war, this reality alone heightens the possibility of a nuclear war.

“Is the US, blackmailed by the threat of a Middle Eastern Armageddon, now forced to allow Israel to pursue ‘victory’ at any price

By Kate Hudson, 28 Jan 24, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/01/28/the-unthinkable-looms/

The attack on Yemen by US, Britain and other forces is a dangerous escalation of the war in the Middle East. The attack is intended to halt the Houthi support for the people of Gaza that has taken the form of attacks on Israel-bound shipping. But as the Houthis have made clear, the attacks will not end their support for the Palestinians.

The only way to stop this unfolding and escalating conflict in the Middle East, is to stop the war on Gaza: to implement an immediate and permanent ceasefire and to ensure freedom and sovereignty for Palestine, as enshrined in UN resolutions and international law.

The alternative to this course of action is the further spread of war, to Yemen, Lebanon, and even to Iran. This is the most dangerous time for more than two decades in the Middle East and it clearly raises the spectre of nuclear weapons use.

Because not only is Israel heavily armed with the most up-to-date conventional weaponry, it is also heavily armed with nuclear weapons. Its nuclear arsenal, which it refuses to formally acknowledge — its policy of “nuclear ambiguity” — comes under no international controls or inspections. Yet it has an enormous killing capacity — and Israel is the only nuclear weapons state in the Middle East.

Recent rhetoric from a number of Israeli politicians suggests a willingness to use their nuclear weapons; if the conflict were to extend to Iran, who can say that Israel would not use its nuclear weapons on non-nuclear Iran?

So what does the Israeli nuclear arsenal look like? Israel’s lack of transparency means that figures are uncertain, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) outlines estimates between 90 and 300 nuclear weapons. Sipri also reports that since 2021, according to commercial satellite imagery, there has been significant construction taking place at the Negev Nuclear Research Centre near Dimona, in southern Israel.

Some may remember that the great Israeli nuclear whistle-blower, Mordechai Vanunu, worked as a technician at Dimona, before revealing details of the secret Israeli nuclear programme to the British press in 1986. The purpose of the recent works isn’t known.

Sipri information indicates that Israel has air, land and sea-based delivery systems for its nuclear arsenal. Bombs can be dropped from planes, either the F-161 or the F-15 aircraft, and are likely to be stored near air force bases such as Tel Nof airbase in central Israel, or Hatzerim air base in the Negev desert. 

Reportedly, when Israel sent six F-16s from Tel Nof to Britain for an exercise in 2019, a US official referred to this as Israel’s “nuclear squadron.”

Israel’s nuclear weapons can also be launched on land-based Jericho ballistic missiles. The site of these missiles is thought to be the Sdot Micha air base near Zekharia, about 25 kilometres west of Jerusalem. And Israel also operates five German-built Dolphin-class diesel-electric submarines which operate from the port of Haifa on the Mediterranean coast. Some or all of these subs may have been equipped to launch a nuclear-armed cruise missile.

By any estimate, this is a formidable array of weapons of mass destruction and it gives Israel the capacity to inflict catastrophic damage on its neighbours. Of course the impact on Israel of any regional use would be considerable too, but there is absolutely no guarantee that would deter an Israeli government from nuclear use if it considered its existence was under threat.

How such a threat would be defined is also unknown. The fact remains that nuclear-weapons possession allows Israel to act with impunity, in Gaza, and in the wider region. And that possession is also impacting on how others are willing to relate to Israel.

The questions posed in a recent issue of New Left Review, are highly relevant: “Is the US, blackmailed by the threat of a Middle Eastern Armageddon, now forced to allow Israel to pursue ‘victory’ at any price? Does Israel’s capacity for nuclear war bestow on the Israeli radical right a sense of invincibility, as well as a confidence that they can dictate the terms of peace with or without the Americans, and certainly without the Palestinians?”

And what can be done about this? Both the US and Britain helped Israel to develop its nuclear weapons, against all international law. In 2005, it was revealed from Whitehall documents discovered at the National Archives, by BBC Newsnight investigators, that Britain had secretly supplied the 20 tons of heavy water to Israel nearly half a century before, which enabled it to make nuclear weapons.

Britain has known for decades about the Israeli nuclear arsenal, clearly supporting and condoning it, while taking an outraged and aggressive approach to the possibility of nuclear proliferation by other countries. The double standards and hypocrisy displayed by successive British governments is deplorable and is absolutely to be condemned.

Britain has supported numerous resolutions from the UN general assembly and security council, calling for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, without owning up to its role in Israeli nuclear proliferation.

Israeli nuclear weapons pose a particular risk to peace and security in the Middle East region and internationally; not surprisingly they are seen as a significant threat by neighbouring non-nuclear states, and the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza and the extending war is exactly the situation in which they are likely to be used.

There can be few clearer examples of how nuclear weapons are actually weapons of terror and weapons of impunity, as well as being weapons of mass slaughter and destruction. The war on Gaza must end; it must end with a ceasefire, and with peace and justice for the Palestinians. And it must end, to stop the unthinkable risk of a nuclear war in the Middle East.

Kate Hudson is the General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. This article first appeared in The Morning Star and in the CND magazine, Campaign.

January 29, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

As Civilians Starve in Gaza, Israelis Block Humanitarian Aid Convoy for Third Day

“The hostages must be released,” said one Palestinian rights advocate, but Israel “must also ensure continuous entry of lifesaving aid to Gaza.”

JULIA CONLEY, Jan 26, 2024,  https://www.commondreams.org/news/kerem-shalom-crossing-protests—

With nearly the entire population of Gaza now regularly forced to go without food for an entire day due to Israel’s total blockade of the enclave, protests by hundreds of Israelis at a crossing between Gaza and Israel over the past three days have put residents at even greater risk of starvation by blocking the passage of humanitarian convoys.

Demonstrators displaying Israeli flags have stopped trucks from entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing since Wednesday, forcing some to go through the Rafah crossing in Egypt or preventing them from delivering the aid altogether.

Some of the protesters have been identified as relatives of the reported 132 hostages who remain in Gaza after being abducted by Hamas from southern Israel on October 7, while others are related to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and some are right-wing activists who want the return of Israeli settlements in Gaza.

On Wednesday, members of the Tzal 9, or Order 9, movement—named for the emergency notice received by Israeli reservists to mobilize—said, “No aid goes through until the last of the abductees returns, no equipment [will] be transferred to the enemy.”

As the protests began that day, the demonstrators stopped more than 100 aid trucks from entering Gaza and allowed just 153 in, according to the United Nations—far below the amount of aid that’s been permitted in on a daily basis in recent weeks. Before the current war, many Palestinians in Gaza relied on the delivery of aid via an average of 500 trucks per day.

“The hostages must be released and Israel must respect the right to protest, but it must also ensure continuous entry of lifesaving aid to Gaza,” said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said Wednesday that by holding up humanitarian aid deliveries, Israel is “using this as a pressure tool on the people of the strip,” despite claims by officials and the protesters who have mobilized at Kerem Shalom that they are only trying to keep deliveries from “aiding the enemy.”

Right-wing Israeli groups are reportedly planning a march in Jerusalem next week to protest aid entering Gaza.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini condemned Israel’s “baseless” claim that Gazans are currently facing starvation because Hamas is diverting aid deliveries.

The protesters at Kerem Shalom have said Gazans should receive no more aid until the hostages are released.

But negotiations between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Qatar, were stalled this week as Israel refused to agree to a permanent cease-fire in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages.

According to the BBC, Israeli and American officials including Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns are expected to hold “critical” talks in Europe with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

A senior Palestinian official told the outlet that they may discuss a proposal to initiate a “phased release” of the remaining hostages in exchange for a “renewable” cease-fire, more aid, and the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza on October 7 with officials saying the IDF should “release all restraints” that would otherwise protect civilians, at least 26,083 Palestinians have been killed in the densely-populated enclave, including at least 11,500 children.

The “complete siege” Israel declared on Gaza, with deliveries of food, potable water, fuel, and other aid severely curtailed, has left “half a million people literally starving” nearly four months into the assault, the World Food Program’s (WFP) chief economist said earlier this week.

“We are one step away from a disease outbreak,” WFP’s Arif Husain told U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a livestreamed conversation, noting that a lack of sustenance has left thousands of displaced people living in overcrowded shelters and camps more susceptible to disease outbreaks that have been partially caused by a lack of safe drinking water.

The blocking of aid at Kerem Shalom also comes days after the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported that the IDF launched an attack with artillery shells, live ammunition, and drones on “hundreds of starving civilians” who were waiting near Gaza City for “U.N. trucks carrying limited aid supplies.”

Health officials in Gaza said at least 20 people were killed and 150 were injured in the attack.

Humanitarian officials in the enclave have reported seeing Gaza residents mobbing aid trucks when they arrive due to the “systematic limitation” Israel has placed on convoys even before the protests at Kerem Shalom began.

“It’s difficult to get into the places where we need to get to in Gaza, especially in northern Gaza,” WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told Reuters. “I think the risk of having pockets of famine in Gaza is very much still there.”

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January 29, 2024 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment