Israelis peeved at Gates nuclear arsenal remark

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1165531811153&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724

New U.S. defence chief refers to weapons capability that Israel prefers kept secret
Dec. 8, 2006. 01:00 AM


JERUSALEM—Some Israelis were miffed to hear Robert Gates voice at his U.S. Senate confirmation hearing the open secret that Israel has the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.

Gates won plaudits in Washington this week for his candour on the Iraq war.

But the incoming secretary of defence also speculated at the Tuesday hearing on why Iran might be seeking the means to build an atomic bomb. "They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf," he said.

That statement led Israeli news bulletins, with some pundits suggesting former CIA chief Gates may have breached a U.S. "don't ask, don't tell" policy dating to the late 1960s.

[malaise]

1. Tough shit!

The secret has long been out

[originalpckelly]

2. I think it's hilarious...

makes the complaints about Iran possibly getting a nuke look so preposterous.

I mean Israel has something like 200 nukes, but they want us and the world to take out a nation which might get a nuke in a couple of years.

If Iran were to attack Israel, Israel could blow them back to the Stone Age.

[Hippo_Tron]

6. Israel isn't run by people who want to take the world back to the 13th century

So I think there's a big difference between Iran getting a nuclear weapon and Israel having them. That being said I'm not a blind Israel supporter and often have my issues with them.

[Poll_Blind]

7. This is a point I have written on quite a bit. The meme that...

...Iran cannot wait to develop a nuclear weapon so they can destroy Israel and, in turn, be obliterated by nuclear weapons themselves is preposterous.

  Iran is making oil and gas deals with China and Russia, shifting their petro-currency to the Euro from the Dollar and generally behaving like a country which not only expects to be around a long time but is ensuring that they will be financially strong for decades to come.

  If, as I've said before, Iran really had a death wish when it came to starting a war with Israel they could have carried it out and been obliterated anytime in the last 3 decades.

PB

[Wonk]

3. Yesterday's LBN thread on this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2643954&mesg_id=2643954

[Poll_Blind]

4. It's simply a charade we play along with. Since 1986-87, it's been...

...more than clear that Israel had nuclear weapons. Not just the technology to make nuclear weapons, but actual working nuclear weapons. In 1986 there was Vanunu, in 1987 the "Vela Incident". The only countries in the world who pretend not to know that Israel has a large (large as in 100-200 nuclear weapons, minuscule in comparison to the U.S. 20,000 or so weapons but still enough to destroy life on earth) stockpile are the United States and the U.K.

They are "our horse in the race" in that region and we play by a different set of rules when it comes to their actions because of it.

PB

[NJmaverick]

5. This part of the article is even more disturbing

By not declaring itself, Israel also skirts a U.S. ban on funding states that proliferate weapons of mass destruction. It can thus enjoy more than $2 billion in annual military and other aid from Washington.

This sanctioned reticence is a major irritant for Arabs and Iran, which see a double standard in U.S. policy.

[Howardx]

8. thats the part that angers me

n/t

[Beelzebud]

12. Of course we go along with it. Some of that $2 billion estimate comes from things like nukes.

You know they got their nukes from us.

We (The U.S.) are so hypocritical when it comes it Israel it makes me sick.

[Poll_Blind]

14. FYI, I think Israel got most of their nuke technology from the French.

Before 1967, the French were the main arms suppliers of Israel and the U.S. was very much "secondary". However, at the onset of the 1967 war, DeGaulle was so furious that Israel would attack her neighbors that he placed an immediate arms embargo on the country in retaliation. Israel then turned to the U.S. who have been their 3 Billion-a-year "sugar daddy" every since. They continued work on a nuclear bomb, jointly, with the White South African government, leading up to the "Vela Incident" in 1987.

I quickly pulled up a link from the Federation of American Scientists which goes into a bit more detail on this.

PB

[Poll_Blind]

9. Do not miss the following sentence in the article:

Hat tip to Flabbergasted. This really says it all:

A retired Israeli diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the testimony "quite unprecedented. ... I can only assume he (Gates) has yet to get to grips with the understandings that exist between us and the Americans."

PB

[BuyingThyme]

11. I've not come to grips either.

[Mythsaje]

10. Don't I remember Israel threatning to nuke Saddam

if he hit them with any chemical weapons during the original gulf war?

I could SWEAR I heard that on the news at some point.

[majorjohn]

13. It's been known for years n/t

[burythehatchet]

15. this is an outrage!!!!

:rofl: