Plus ca change, plus c’est la nuclear nonproliferation treaty

Got to hand it to Politico's Josh Gerstein. He has a short piece here on Nixon-era policy struggle, unearthed in National Archives data dump, on how much pressure to put on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non Proliferation pact back in '69, '70. Given Obama's noises on the same subject, 40 years later, this is a fascinating story. It opens the door on: the lobby's role, the importance of Israeli nuclearization to the '67 war (Nasser didn't want his neighbor to have nukes–gosh!), and the regional-superpower-character of the Iranian existential talk.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Iran, Israel Lobby, Israel/Palestine

{ 7 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Rabbi Kook says:

    Pretty amazing that American political leaders never even bring up the fact of Israel's nukes, not to mention that Kennedy tried to stop that and was killed during his negotiations with Israel… They all shout loudest about the fact that Iran may one day have nukes, while ignoring that Israel has them, along with Pakistan, India, N Korea. Are Americans so self-centered they don't see how other's view them? Yes. And their own government makes that possible, encourages it. The US government needs an intervention. I don't think Obama can handle the job–he's capable, but our Congress won't let him. The only real key to salvation is campaign finance reform. Otherwise, Congress will always be a whore for Israel and other special interest lobbies. The latter is bad enough, but a whore for a foreign state? That's treason.

  2. ThorsProvoni says:

    AIPAC seems to have been founded to make sure that Americans concerned about Communist Jewish nuclear espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union not become concerned about Zionist Jewish nuclear espionage on behalf of Israel: Security.

  3. Moses Geldt says:

    Anything to maintain jewish "continuity." We jews don't care for pie in the sky. We more reasonably choose immortality by way of blood line. Leave the fairy tale to the Christians and other ilk.

  4. Witty'smentor says:

    That's right.

  5. Strahl says:

    Exactly, tribal Jewish behavior can be explained as a survival tactic. However, I would say that right now the Jewish community on a whole (and specifically the Ashkenazi Jews) are not concerned about survival. They are concerned about expansion and domination. There are no doubt plenty of Jews in this cult who are honestly fearful and fanatically in love with themselves and the Holocaust. However, they are simple and common. Every group has that kind of person. This tribal behavior and the religion it supposedly adheres to, is concerned with the here and now. Read Kevin MacDonald's books on Judaism and Jewishness. It's right on.

  6. moonkoon says:

    Israel's reliance on nuclear weapons is ultimately self-defeating. Nuclear weapons induce a attitude of complacency, arrogance and impunity which undermine the integrity and dignity of the culture. They are bad news, they are destabilizing, they are instruments of terror. It beats me how anybody can revel in them when they are nothing but the harbingers of cultural disintegration.

  7. lysias says:

    According to the book The Nuclear Express, the reactor at Dimona went critical in Dec. 1963. Interesting date.

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