PrintMay 5, 2009
Israel suffers another blow from the Obama administration
The Obama administration has announced reversal of an important policy toward Israel, one that weakens that nation's ability to survive in its hostile neighborhood.
The key to Israel's strategy to avoid another Holocaust has been a policy of ambiguity over the question of whether it has nuclear weapons. Like many high-tech and potent weapons, a nuclear arsenal is best left sheathed. The reluctance of Israel to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NNPT) has allowed it to avoid a raft of intrusive inspections that might blow this policy of ambiguity to smithereens.
As long as Israel was thought to possess nuclear weapons, enemies might be reluctant to try to destroy Israel. During the 1973 War, it was rumored that the mere threat of Israel resorting to nuclear weapons led to a massive resupply effort by America and to the willingness of Israel's enemies to agree to a truce. Surrounded by numerically superior nations -- and an Arab world that can afford to buy the best weapons from around the world -- the rumored possession by Israel of an atomic bomb(s) has probably warded off further warfare and bloodshed.
Every US administration has acquiesced in this policy, seeing it as a sensible of a nation that rose from the ashes of the Holocaust and one that was surrounded by neighbors promising to commit another. There have been winks and nods, even going back to the Kennedy years, about Israel's stance.
Now that policy has finally been threatened -- not by the raft of traditional enemies and international organizations that have always advocated that Israel sign the agreement, but by the Obama administration. Louis Charbonneau reports for Reuters:
India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel should join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the global pact meant to limit the spread of atomic weapons, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.Speaking on the second day of a two-week meeting of the 189 signatories of the pact, Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller also defended a U.S.-India civilian nuclear deal, which developing nations have complained rewards New Delhi for staying outside the NPT."Universal adherence to the NPT itself, including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea ... remains a fundamental objective of the United States," Gottemoeller told the meeting, which hopes to agree on an agenda and plan to overhaul the treaty at a review conference next year.Speaking to reporters later, she declined to say whether Washington would take any new steps to press Israel to join the treaty and give up any nuclear weapons it has. Israel neither confirms nor denies whether it has what arms control experts assume to be a sizable atomic arsenal.The administration of President Barack Obama was encouraging all holdouts to join the treaty, she said.
There is a range of tools that Barack Obama can use to try to compel Israel into signing the NNPT: threats to partnerships on weapons development, threats to withhold support in international organizations, public rebukes, threats regarding foreign aid and loan guarantees, and other ploys that can be used to coerce Israel into signing the Treaty.
This has been a signature cause of people like Mohammed El-Baredei, who has routinely criticized Israel for refusing to sign the Treaty and blamed that nation's refusal for Iran's refusal to be more conciliatory towards the IAEA and the world community. At times, El Baredei has characterized Israel's refusal as a causus belli that has justified Iran's nuclear weapons program. He has defended Iran's program in the past and has served as its enabler.
Until now generations of American presidents have recognized and appreciated Israel's unique history and were empathetic about its need to keep such a program under wraps and away from the prying eyes of an international group dominated by its enemies. This has prevented boycotts, sanctions, and a host of other problems for Israel -- including wars.
Team Obama announced this new policy change after the AIPAC Policy Conference, which was addressed by Rahm Emanuel.
If this comes to pass and Israel is forced to open itself to inspections and is compelled to admit it has nuclear weapons, this will be used as a cudgel to criticize Israel and will become a rationale for Arab nations (and Iran) to pursue weapons of mass destruction. Obama has opened up a Pandora's Box that should have, in the proper hands, remained closed.
More Change under the leadership of Barack Obama.
Ed Lasky is news editor of American Thinker.
Ed Lasky is news editor of American Thinker.
