Israel views nuclear bombs as moral: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Ralph Schoenman, Berkley-based author of The Hidden History of Zionism, to get his thoughts on United States veto of a ban on nuclear weapons in the Middle East, proposed by United Nations.

What follows is a rough transcription.

Press TV: The current administration in Washington had vowed during its initial campaign to get into office, to work towards a nuclear-free world. Why did they not support a nuclear Middle East?

Schoenman: Well, I want to make a very clear point here. The United States has never acted in any respects for a nuclear-free area in Middle East. They have facilitated, they have supported, they have expanded the Israeli nuclear arsenal, from its beginning into this very moment. Now as you indicate Netanyahu thanked the United States for blocking a resolution which would ban nuclear weapons in the region that would be presented at the United Nations. But I want to emphasize that this is a very particular and sinister context. Because the minister of defense of Israel, defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, in his address at a.... Houston hotel on May 5th, 2015, made a specific reference to the use of nuclear weapons by Israel. He said “I remember the story of President Truman, who was asked how do you feel after deciding to launch the nuclear on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, causing at the end 200 thousand fatalities. And he said: when I heard from my officers that the alternative is a long war with Japan with potential fatalities of a couple of million, I saw that this was a moral decision. That is what I am talking about,” the minister of defense of Israel said. “Certain steps in cases which we feel like we don’t have the answer with surgical operations or something like that.” He is making an explicit statement that the Israelis consider the use of nuclear weapons... Hiroshima bombs, Nagasaki bombs... a moral decision and he made a specific reference to the threats from Hezbollah and from Iran. There is no mistaking the intent of the Zionist state; there is no mistaking the rationale for their vast nuclear arsenal and there is no mistaking the underlying politics that target Iran for its peaceful use of nuclear energy when it is Israel who maintains the monopoly of nuclear missiles and nuclear weapons targeting countries in the region and their minister of defense talks explicitly about their use as a moral decision.

Press TV: Right, there is this thing with NPT. Now that over 150 countries are present, for Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and just a handful decide to back just one country to possess nuclear arms which is not even a member of NPT; what does this say about the NPT itself?

Schoenman: Well, it says that it is basically a propaganda exercise because as you indicate there is no attempt to apply it to the one country that maintains an aggressive nuclear arsenal with a clear intent of using it. Those are the real dynamics in politics of this charade. Because if there were any serious attempt to prevent a nuclear proliferation in the region, the first target would be the country that maintains a nuclear arsenal and openly threatens to use it. That is the real dynamic of this. As long as that hypocrisy prevails and the United States militarily and politically supports the Israeli nuclear arsenal, provides it with military support, provides it with financial support, provides it with international cover this comedy of hypocrisy will continue.

MTM/KA

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