Israel& & #35 8217;s Nuclear Capabilities

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Israel’s Nuclear Capabilities
Hassan Tahsin

Any discussion of Israel’s nuclear capabilities has to begin with a question
that will clarify the aims and purposes behind Israel’s possession of such
weapons of mass destruction and its insistence on taking this step without
regard for the threat to peace and security in the region: Does Israel’s
nuclear power correspond to its security needs in the region?

The question leads us into a three-pronged discussion.

First: Israel alleges that it has sought to produce nuclear weapons in order
to confront powers hostile to it in the region — Arab countries and Iran —
and that the presence of such strategic deterrence ensures its continued
existence and averts attempts for a collective attack that might lead to its
annihilation. These allegations are unfounded. There are major discrepancies
in the balance of power in the Middle East because there is only one nuclear
country in the region and that is Israel. Israel alone therefore can decide
to use the nuclear weapon — thus making it an optional deterrent resting on
the sole decision of the nuclear state. It is not based on a “system of
deterrence” in which more than one party is involved.

Second: Israel began its nuclear weapons program in order to become a
regional nuclear power. Its military nuclear capability today though far
exceeds what is required for it to defend itself. It is possible now to
describe it as a regional nuclear power of a special kind.

In 1986 a number of neutral and reliable reports indicated that Israel — at
that time — possessed more than 200 nuclear warheads. Since then, the size
of its nuclear arsenal has become the subject of debate. This debate aroused
the issue of “necessary limits”, which is what concerns us here. A report by
an Israeli academic mentions that Israel possesses between 20 and 40
strategic nuclear bombs with a destructive power somewhere between 20 and 60
kilotons, enough to destroy all Israel’s envisioned targets in Egypt, Syria,
Jordan, Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia and send them back to the Middle Ages.
Consequently Israel’s exceeding the limits of necessity raises a number of
concerns, the most important of which is Israel’s nuclear intentions.
Nuclear deterrence in reality only needs a few strategic heads and no more!

Third: Once Tel Aviv lost French-Israeli nuclear cooperation as well as
cooperation with South Africa which got rid of its nuclear capabilities
prior to power being transferred to the black majority, it turned to
cooperation with the US. This cooperation soon matured into unlimited and
full-fledged American support for Israel. Later Israel benefited from
Russia’s advanced space technology in rounding out its nuclear structure.

Israel’s continued existence as a nuclear power with international weight
rather than limited regional influence owes much to US thinking. Following
its reduction in the number of foreign bases, the US has turned Israel into
a substitute for military bases. Israel’s nuclear superiority makes it
easier for it to steer the Middle East militarily, politically and
economically. While beneficial to the Zionists, it is also beneficial to the
US, which gains a strategic base if Europe chooses to shun American hegemony
and dissolve NATO. In fact, Israel’s continued nuclear power on such a level
enables Washington to finalize its strategic security belt which is North
America’s first line of defense and which will enable the US to contain the
entire world including Russia ollowing its military presence in Afghanistan
and Iraq. There is no doubt that the US had no choice but to let Israel
assume this role. It would have been inconceivable to turn to any Arab
country for such a strategically important mission. All Arab countries are
Muslim which endlessly annoys the West, especially since Islam has replaced
communism as enemy No. 1.