(Arms Control Wonk) Joshua Pollack - A Guardian headline Monday screamed: "Revealed: How Israel Offered to Sell South Africa Nuclear Weapons." Avner Cohen, author of Israel and the Bomb, provides this assessment: The headline of Chris McGreal's story is erroneous and misleading. Nothing in the South African documents on which the story was based suggests there was an actual offer by Israel to sell nuclear weapons to the regime in Pretoria. To the contrary, the conversation amounted to a probe by the South Africans, which ultimately went nowhere. As defense minister, Shimon Peres would not have had the authority to sell nuclear devices to another country, even if he had wanted to. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin would have had to decide. I believe that Rabin would have opposed the sale of nuclear weapons, technology, or even components - not just to South Africa, but to anyone. Peres' reply to the South African feeler was opaque, and Israel, in the end, did the right thing.
2010-05-25 09:27:11Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive