[News] The ‘Begin Doctrine’: World Must Force Israel to Dismantle Its Nuclear Arsenal

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestinechronicle.com
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/the-begin-doctrine-world-must-force-israel-to-dismantle-its-nuclear-arsenal/>
The ‘Begin Doctrine’: World Must Force Israel to Dismantle Its Nuclear
Arsenal
December 1, 2022
Benjamin Netanyahu attends the renaming ceremony for the Shimon Peres Negev
Nuclear Research Center. (photo: Via Prime Minister of Israel TW Page)

*By Ramzy Baroud <https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud>*

As western countries are floating
<https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/11/russia-ukraine-nuclear-war-fear-us-policy/672020/>
the theory that Russia could escalate its conflict with Ukraine to a
nuclear war, many western governments continue to turn a blind eye to
Israel’s own nuclear weapons capabilities. Luckily, many countries around
the world do not subscribe to this endemic western hypocrisy.

‘The Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear
Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction’ was held
<https://meetings.unoda.org/me-nwmdfz/conference-establishment-middle-east-zone-free-nuclear-weapons-third-session-2022#:~:text=The%20Third%20Session%20of%20the,of%20the%20Conference%20is%20Lebanon.>
between November 14-18, with the sole purpose of creating new standards of
accountability that, as should have always been the case, be applied
equally to all Middle Eastern countries.

The debate regarding nuclear weapons in the Middle East could not possibly
be any more pertinent or urgent. International observers rightly note
<https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/15/nuclear-arms-control-race-russia-ukraine-america/>
that the period following the Russia-Ukraine war is likely to accelerate
the quest for nuclear weapons throughout the world. Considering the
seemingly perpetual state of conflict in the Middle East, the region is
likely to witness nuclear rivalry as well.

For years, Arab and other countries attempted to raise the issue that
accountability regarding the development and acquisition of nuclear weapons
cannot be confined to states that are perceived to be enemies of Israel and
the West.

The latest of these efforts was a United Nations resolution that called on
Israel to dispose of its nuclear weapons, and to place its nuclear
facilities under the monitoring of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA). Resolution number A/C.1/77/L.2, which was drafted by Egypt with the
support of other Arab countries, passed
<https://www.jpost.com/international/article-720993> with an initial vote
of 152-5. Unsurprisingly, among the five countries that voted against the
draft were the United States, Canada and, of course, Israel itself.

US and Canadian blind support of Tel Aviv notwithstanding, what compels
Washington and Ottawa to vote against a draft entitled: “The risk of
nuclear proliferation in the Middle East”? Keeping in mind the successive
right-wing extremist governments that have ruled over Israel for many
years, Washington must understand that the risk of using nuclear weapons
under the guise of fending off an ‘existential threat’ is a real
possibility.

Since its inception, Israel has resorted to, and utilized the phrase
‘existential threat’ countless times. Various Arab governments, later Iran
and even individual Palestinian resistance movements were accused of
endangering Israel’s very existence. Even the non-violent Palestinian civil
society-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement was accused by
then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2015 of being
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-bds-replacing-iran-israels-biggest-existential-threat>
an existential threat to Israel. Netanyahu claimed that the boycott
movement was “not connected to our actions; it is connected to our very
existence.

This should worry everyone, not just in the Middle East, but the whole
world. A country with such hyped sensitivity about imagined ‘existential
threats’ should not be allowed to acquire the kind of weapons that could
destroy the entire Middle East, several times over.

Some may argue that Israel’s nuclear arsenal was intrinsically linked to
real fears resulting from its historical conflict with the Arabs. However,
this is not the case. As soon as Israel finalized its ethnic cleansing of
Palestinians from their historic homeland, and long before any serious Arab
or Palestinian resistance was carried out in response, Israel was already
on the lookout for nuclear weapons.

As early as 1949, the Israeli army had found
<https://www.thecairoreview.com/timelines/nuclear-non-proliferation-and-disarmament-in-the-middle-east/>
uranium deposits in the Negev Desert, leading to the establishment
<https://www.wagingpeace.org/israel-history-brief/>, in 1952, of the very
secretive Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC).

In 1955, the US government sold
<https://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/israel-nuclear/> Israel a nuclear
research reactor.  But that was not enough. Eager to become a full nuclear
power, Tel Aviv resorted <https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb510/> to
Paris in 1957. The latter became a major partner in Israel’s sinister
nuclear activities when it helped the Israeli government construct a
clandestine nuclear reactor near Dimona in the Negev Desert.

The father of the Israeli nuclear program at the time was none other than
Shimon Peres who, ironically, was awarded
<https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1994/press-release/> the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1994. The Dimona Nuclear Reactor is now named
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2016-10-09/ty-article/dimona-nuclear-reactor-to-be-renamed-after-shimon-peres/0000017f-db88-db5a-a57f-dbea94e80000>
‘Shimon Peres Nuclear Research Center-Negev’.

With no international monitoring whatsoever, thus with zero legal
accountability, Israel’s nuclear quest continues until this day. In 1963,
Israel purchased
<https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/02/israels-secret-uranium-buy/> 100 tons
of uranium ore from Argentina, and it is strongly believed that during the
October 1973 Israel-Arab war, Israel “came close to making a nuclear
preemptive strike”, according to Richard Sale, writing
<https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2002/09/16/Yom-Kippur-Israels-1973-nuclear-alert/64941032228992/>
in United Press International (UPI).

Currently, Israel is believed
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537120008719576?journalCode=fisa20>
to have “enough fissionable material to fabricate 60-300 nuclear weapons,”
according to former US Army Officer Edwin S. Cochran.

Estimates vary, but the facts about Israel’s weapons of mass destruction
(WMDs) are hardly contested. Israel itself practices what is known
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537120008719576?journalCode=fisa20>
as ‘deliberate ambiguity’, as to send a message to its enemies of its
lethal power, without revealing anything that may hold it accountable to
international inspection.

What we know about Israel’s nuclear weapons has been made possible partly
because of the bravery of a former Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai
Vanunu, a whistleblower who was held
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/09/israel-fresh-charges-nuclear-whistleblower-mordechai-vanunu>
in solitary confinement for a decade due to his courage in exposing
Israel’s darkest secrets.

Still, Israel refuses
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-nuclear-treaty-idUSTRE64S1ZN20100529>
to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT),
endorsed by 191 countries.

Israeli leaders adhere to what is known
<https://www.inss.org.il/publication/the-begin-doctrine-the-lessons-of-osirak-and-deir-ez-zor/>
as the ‘Begin Doctrine’, in reference to Menachem Begin, the rightwing
Israeli prime minister who invaded Lebanon in 1982, resulting in the
killing of thousands. The doctrine is formulated around the idea that,
while Israel gives itself the right to own nuclear weapons, its enemies in
the Middle East must not. This belief continues to direct Israeli actions
to this day.

The US support for Israel is not confined to ensuring the latter has
‘military edge’ over its neighbors in terms of traditional weapons, but to
also ensuring Israel remains the region’s only superpower, even if that
entails escaping international accountability for the development of WMDs.

The collective efforts by Arab and other countries at the UNGA to create a
Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons are welcomed initiatives. It
behooves everyone, Washington included, to join the rest of the world in
finally forcing Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty, a first but
critical step towards long-delayed accountability.


*- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.
He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé,
is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and
Intellectuals Speak out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research
Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is*
*www.ramzybaroud.net* <http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>
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