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No to Strategic Suicide

(bitterlemons-international.org) Emily B. Landau - The 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in May included a call for a conference on a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East to be convened in 2012. Israel has chosen not to be a member of the NPT because the NPT is incapable of addressing the security concerns that underscore the rationale for its nuclear deterrent. The logic of targeting nuclear weapons without regard to the context of interstate relations cannot be accepted. For Israel, the nuclear question cannot be approached before regional conditions are very much improved. The Obama administration has expressed strong support for this position. No discussion can take place on a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone without movement toward comprehensive peace in the region. Calls for Israel to join the NPT are a euphemism for calls for Israel to immediately disarm the nuclear capability it is assumed to have. There is no basis for expecting Israel to participate in such strategic suicide. The writer is senior research associate and director of the Arms Control and Regional Security Project at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.
2010-06-30 08:34:09
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