Sunday, October 04, 2009

Good for the goose...?

We have Obama making those soothing calls for less nuclear weapons and castigating Iran for its supposed alleged weaponisation of nuclear power, yet where does he stand on Israel's nuclear weapon possession ? We read in The Wshington Times

Under a four - decade understanding, the U.S. has not pressured Israel to disclose its nuclear weapons or to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) .

Netanyahu let the news of the continued U.S.-Israeli accord slip last week when he was asked whether he was worried that Mr. Obama's speech at the U.N. General Assembly, calling for a world without nuclear weapons, would apply to Israel.

"It was utterly clear from the context of the speech that he was speaking about North Korea and Iran," the Israeli leader said. "But I want to remind you that in my first meeting with President Obama in Washington I received from him, and I asked to receive from him, an itemized list of the strategic understandings that have existed for many years between Israel and the United States on that issue. It was not for naught that I requested, and it was not for naught that I received [that document]."

The accord amounts to the United States passively accepting Israel's nuclear weapons status as long as Israel does not unveil publicly its capability or test a weapon. There is no formal record of the agreement nor have Israeli nor American governments ever publicly acknowledged it. A memo from national security adviser Henry Kissinger that comes closest to articulating U.S. policy on the issue says, "...what we really want at a minimum may be just to keep Israeli possession from becoming an established international fact."

Iran has frequently accused the U.S. of having a double standard by not objecting to Israel's arsenal.The rulers of Israel have their own agenda and can, and do, act independently of their protector , the US .

Capitalism is a war-prone society with a built-in clash of interests between states over markets, sources of raw materials, trade routes and strategic points to protect these. In the Middle East the conflict is over oil, and strategic points to protect its supply and transport, which has already led to many wars there. A conflict over which states and ruling classes should dominate the region where no working class interest is involved except in so far as it is they who are its innocent victims .

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