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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">US, Israel are the only countries
to oppose UN ban on weapons in outer space</h1>
<div class="submitted">
<span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2014-12-04T12:34:44+00:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span class="username"
xml:lang="" about="/users/ali-abunimah"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Ali
Abunimah</span> on Thu, 12/04/2014 - 12:34<br>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/us-israel-are-only-countries-oppose-un-ban-weapons-outer-space">http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/us-israel-are-only-countries-oppose-un-ban-weapons-outer-space</a></small></small></small></b><br>
</span> </div>
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<div id="file-29566" class="file file-image file-image-jpeg
media-element file-full" height="446" width="618" style=""><br>
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<p>Israel and the United States were the only two countries to
vote against a UN <a
href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/438">resolution</a>
calling for the prevention of an arms race in outer space.</p>
<p>The resolution was among several dealing with international
disarmament passed by the General Assembly on 2 December,
including one calling on Israel to join the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and bring its rogue nuclear program
under international supervision.</p>
<p>China and India, which both have space programs, along with the
<a
href="http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/New_Member_States">member
states of the European Space Agency</a>, voted for the
initiative aimed at keeping space free of weapons.</p>
<p>The US and Israel were also the only two countries to vote
against a separate UN resolution calling for a prohibition on
the development and manufacture of new types of weapons of mass
destruction.</p>
<p>That <a
href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/433">resolution</a>
passed with 174 countries voting in favor and a single
abstention, Ukraine.</p>
<p>Among those voting for the ban on new weapons of mass
destruction were <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/iran">Iran</a> and <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/iraq">Iraq</a>, two
states subjected to devastating war or sanctions on the basis of
dubious or fabricated Israeli and American claims that they
intended to produce such weapons.</p>
<p>Iran is currently under harsh economic sanctions – in large
part due to pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu – over its nuclear energy program.</p>
<h2>Israel: a nuclear danger</h2>
<p>The US and Israel were only slightly less isolated when it came
to a resolution on the “<a
href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/443">risk
of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East</a>.”</p>
<p>The only votes against the resolution were Canada, Israel, the
US and its colonial holdover Micronesia.</p>
<p>The <a
href="http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/443">resolution</a>
calls on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT) “without delay,” noting that it remains “the only State in
the Middle East that has not yet” done so.</p>
<p>Since the 1950s, Israel has been making atomic bombs with the <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/15/truth-israels-secret-nuclear-arsenal">complicity
and support of its Western sponsors</a> including France, the
US and the UK.</p>
<p>Israel, as I explain in my book <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/my-new-book-battle-justice-palestine"><em>The
Battle for Justice in Palestine</em></a>, has a poor record
of nuclear safety.</p>
<p>It <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-flunks-nuclear-safety-test-but-ranks-above-iran-and-north-korea-1.407350">came
near the bottom</a> of a 2012 survey by the Nuclear Safety
Initiative examining the security conditions of nuclear
materials held in 32 countries.</p>
<p>But the full extent of the nuclear danger Israel poses cannot
be known while its facilities remain hidden from international
inspection.</p>
<p>The resolution urges Israel to place “all its nuclear
facilities under comprehensive International Atomic Energy
Agency safeguards.”</p>
<h2>Shielding Israel</h2>
<p>US envoy Robert Wood voted against the resolution at the
committee-level last month <a
href="http://www.timesunion.com/news/us/article/UN-assembly-calls-on-Israel-to-join-nuclear-treaty-5929740.php">on
the grounds</a> that the measure “fails to meet the
fundamental tests of fairness and balance. It confines itself to
expressions of concern about the activities of a
single country.”</p>
<p>The fact that Israel is indeed the single country with nuclear
weapons in the region, and the single country that has not
signed the NPT, apparently escaped his notice.</p>
<p>What is interesting is that twenty states abstained from the
resolution calling on Israel to join the NPT.</p>
<p>These include nuclear-weapons power and new Israeli ally India,
Germany (which gives Israel <a
href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/israel-deploys-nuclear-weapons-on-german-submarines-a-836671.html">submarines
on which it deploys nuclear weapons</a>) and other EU states
including the UK, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and France.</p>
<p>These are sadly the usual suspects who lecture the rest of the
world about “peace” but are always on hand to assist Israel to
commit its crimes while shielding it from any accountability.</p>
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