Nuclear Israel, Apartheid South Africa and the “Agreement with the Devil”
Amid the controversies around Israel’s conduct in Gaza, one has gained little comment: how Israel acquired its nuclear weapons and how it contributed to nuclear weapons proliferation. This silence was especially notable in the diplomatic furore sparked last week, when the mayor of Nagasaki, Shiro Suzuki, failed to invite Israel’s ambassador to Japan to the city’s peace day, which commemorates the destruction of the city on August 9, 1945, by America’s second atomic bomb. Neither was it highlighted when a government minister, Amihai Eliyahu, suggested that Israel should drop an atomic bomb on Gaza. (Eliyahu was suspended but not dismissed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and later repeated his call.)
Israel got nuclear weapons illicitly, including by spying on its supposed allies, but with the consent of key western governments. Its nuclear program remains secret and unmonitored. That is a simmering scandal that has, among other things, deepened Iranian and Arab distrust.
Israel spread its nuclear technology illicitly, making a secret deal with Apartheid South Africa. If that were not shameful enough, in doing so it embraced a regime led by men who had openly supported Nazi Germany and were running their country by enshrining racism in law.
To this day, far too little is public about the Israel-South Africa arms deal.
worldpeacefoundation.org
Israel is not a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), while Iran signed in 1970. |
