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Israel Deflects Pressure on Nuclear Weapons

(BBC News) Tim Franks - Prof. Uzi Even of Tel Aviv University says that talk of a nuclear-free Middle East is premature. "There is no country in the world like Israel, which feels as threatened as Israel. And there is no country in the world which has any justification to keep nuclear weapons, except for Israel. It would be very foolish to ask us to disarm, because we won't. I am at the age where the Holocaust is very, very fresh in my memory." Dore Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN and president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, says that not just Iran, but Iraq, Libya and Syria have all pursued a military nuclear capability, despite being signatories to the NPT. Making Israel sign would just "make the region safe for conventional war." Having Israel change its posture of nuclear ambiguity, he says, "would satisfy a small community of arms control experts in Washington and London, but it might leave the Middle East a much more dangerous place." And that is why the Israeli government insists that the time to push for a nuclear-free Middle East is only after the region is covered by a comprehensive peace agreement.
2010-05-31 10:04:41
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