Israel, Iran and the bomb

Reading this week's Time magazine I was quite surprised by the interview with Shimon Peres in the 10 questions segment. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2109787,00.html]

Question: Remind me, does Israel have nuclear weapons?

Answer: Look, Israel doesn't intend to introduce nuclear weapons, but if people are afraid that we have them, why not?

To me this reads as a claim that Israel does not hold nukes, which is a stronger refutement than usual as usually Israel spokerspersons take a stance of ambiguity.

More surprising is that this contradicts a press conference in Jordan 1998, reported in the Jerusalem Post [http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=44774]  where Peres stated that Israel had:

"built a nuclear option, not in order to have a Hiroshima but an Oslo."

Not many people really believe that Israel does not have a nuclear weapon programme, and it seems rather futile trying to deny it any more.

So why does Israel continue to deny the existence of WMDs.  Could it be that it makes it very difficult to question Iran's nuclear intentions?

I don't like the prospect of Iran holding WMDs but it makes it difficult for any country to take an even handed approach on this if they don't at the same time question Israel's nuclear programme.  And it certainly isn't acceptable for any western country to support an Israeli attack on Iran when both countries are allegedly carrying out nuclear programmes.

Further reading - Israel's weapons of mass destruction - May 2005

Israel's disdain for international law

Two items in the news recently have highlighted Israel's disdain for international law and seriously question Israeli leaders commitment to the peace process.

First we saw the white-wash which was the Israeli inquiry into the deadly attack on the aid flotilla last May.  The inquiry ruled that the attack and the naval blockade are legal under international law.  It is beyond belief that these actions can be found to be legal.  The attack was in international waters on a ship sailing under the Turkish flag, this can be interpreted as an act of war or at the least an act of piracy.  We can only hope the UN inquiry due to be released later this year produces a different set of findings.  Although like previous UN inquiries it is likely Israel will reject the outcome.

Then yesterday we saw the leak of Palestinian documents showing how much the Palestinian negotiators have been willing to sacrifice in order to come up with a peaceful settlement.  The documents show that the Palestinian administration were willing to surrender all but one of the illegal settlement areas in East Jerusalem to Israel.  This is despite the fact that Israel have illegally occupied these areas since the 6 day war in 1967.  This huge gesture was still not satisfactory for Israel, one can only presume that Israel is not interested in giving away the land it seized and will continues to build illegal settlements on.  It appears that the only acceptable resolution for Israel is the complete surrender of all settlements by the Palestinians.

The map below shows how much land the Palestinians have lost since 1948.  The longer the occupation and settlement building continues the more likely it is that there will never be a peaceful resolution.  This may prove to be a crucial mistake by Israel as eventually the only workable solution will be a one state solution.

Demonstration against Israeli attack in York

With just a few hours notice around 150 demonstrators attended a protest in York over the Israeli attack on the peace flotilla, which resulted in the deaths of at least 10 peace activists, quite likely many more.

Israel attacks unarmed humanitarian flotilla in international waters

I could not believe the news when I woke up this morning.  Earlier this morning Israeli troops boarded the international aid flotilla to Gaza.  So far it is reported 16 peace activists are dead.  Even for Israeli this is a new low.

This action is in direct violation of international law.  An unarmed ship attacked in international waters.

Many of the activists were Turkish, and the Turkish government have strongly condemned the attack, saying they:

"strongly condemn[ed] these inhumane practices of Israel"

I would hope other governments will now not sit on the fence and strongly condemn the actions of Israel.  If this was any other country there would be international outrage at a unarmed ship being attacked with its passengers being killed in international waters.

Ahmadinejad stokes the flames of anti-Semitism in the Middle East

Yet again Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has used blatantly anti-Semitic rhetoric to attack Israel by stating the Holocaust was "a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim". [BBC News]

How is such behaviour helping the Palestinian cause? To resort to lies and racism to fight for a cause discredits any valid statements you may make.

Israel should be criticised for it's illegal occupation and war crimes in the occupied territories, based on evidence and argument. Such abhorent behaviour is unacceptable and the sooner Ahmadinejad is gone the better.

Netanyahu supports a Palestinian state as long as it has none of the characteristics of a state

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will accept a Palestinian state as long as it is demilitarised. (See BBC News)

He wants it to have no army and no control of its airspace.

Can this be seen as a fair solution? To have one of the most militarised states in the world demand that its neighbour has no means of defending itself.

If the Palestinians ever achieve statehood they should recognize Israel's right to exist and ensure attacks are not made against Israel, but they should also be allowed to defend themselves from attack.

The US needs to stop foreign aid and arms exports to Israel

It was announced today by Hilary Clinton that Barak Obama had told Benjamin Netanyahu at their recent meeting that there should be a stop to all settlements. Hilary Clinton said "Not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions,".

According to Israeli spokesperson Mark Regev Israel will continue to allow some settlement expansion.

The answer is simple. If the US is serious about getting Israel to halt settlement expanision it should stop foreign aid and arms exports.

Since the 1970s Israel has been the largest recipient of foreign aid from the US. A halt in this aid would seriouslly curtail Israel's expansion plans and military operations.

End the UK arms trade

This morning in the news there are reports of military actions in Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Both these countries are recipients of UK arms, for details visit the Campaign Against Arms Trade at http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/countries.php

These are just two of the countries with poor human rights records who are recipients of UK arms. Other countries include China, Colombia, Israel and Turkey.

Our government may occasionally may make mild criticism of some of the governments, but such actions are hipocritical when we continue to ship arms to these countries.

Israel Science Day

The following is from the BRICUP (British Committee for Universities for Palestine) website.

With amazing and insensitive bad taste the Science Museum in London (and the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry) are allowing their premises to be used for an ‘Israel Day of Science’ sponsored by the Zionist Federation. The research of seven Israeli universities is to be showcased. The planned dates are March 3 (Manchester) and March 5 (London).

Join the protests

Manchester Tuesday March 3

From 10am at Manchester Museum of Science and Industry
Liverpool Road, Castlefield, Manchester

Rally with speakers -1-2pm

London Thursday March 5

Meet at 9.30am, Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington

Today's Independent - Boycott Israeli Goods

Today's Independent has two interesting articles. The first is an excellent piece from Donald Macintyre on Israel's death squads. It includes testimony from a former member of an Israeli assassination squad responsible for the murder of four Palestinians in Gaza at the start of the second intifada. The testimony was given to a group called Breaking The Silence which is an organization of veteran Israeli soldiers that collects testimonies of soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories during the Second Intifada.

The second story of interest is about Britain's complicity in rendition and torture. After Binyam Mohamed's claims of British complicity in torture and rendition the final British resident to be held at Guantanamo, Shaker Aamer has come out with similar claims.

On a non political issue I was interested in reading about Alan Moore and his refusal to be associated with the Watchmen film.



On a visit to Asda today I was very disappointed to see lots of Israeli tomatoes and peppers. Asda are of course not alone in stocking Israeli products with many of the main supermarkets doing so. It is important the we continue to complain to supermarkets stocking Israeli goods. Unlike other states responsible for human rights abuses such as Burma and Zimbabwe, most supermarkets turn a blind eye to Israel's crimes.

Find out more about the boycott campaign at http://www.bigcampaign.org/