{"id":2673,"date":"2026-05-02T13:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T13:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/?p=2673"},"modified":"2026-05-02T13:32:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T13:32:02","slug":"wait-why-is-israel-allowed-to-have-nukes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/2026\/05\/02\/wait-why-is-israel-allowed-to-have-nukes\/","title":{"rendered":"Wait, Why Is Israel Allowed To Have Nukes?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/platform-cdn.sharethis.com\/img\/linkedin.svg\" alt=\"linkedin sharing button\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/platform-cdn.sharethis.com\/img\/arrow_left.svg\" alt=\"arrow_left sharing button\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.currentaffairs.org\/hubfs\/Nukes-Online-Image2.jpg?ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Wait, Why Is Israel Allowed To Have Nukes?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to our elected leaders, we should be very scared of the possibility that Iran could get a nuclear bomb. But Israel already has them, and its government is increasingly unstable and belligerent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/news\/author\/alex-skopic\">Alex Skopic<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><mark>filed <time datetime=\"2025-06-20 22:58:49\">20 June 2025<\/time> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/news\/tag\/israel-palestine\">Israel\/Palestine<\/a><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among U.S. politicians, there\u2019s one consistent narrative you\u2019ll hear repeated over and over. Iran, the story goes, must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran is unstable and untrustworthy; Iran is theocratic; Iran is evil. Supposedly serious adults, like <a href=\"https:\/\/singjupost.com\/transcript-tucker-confronts-ted-cruz-on-his-support-for-regime-change-in-iran\/#:~:text=job%20to%20kill-,the%20bad%20guys,-%2C%20to%20defend%20America\">Senator Ted Cruz<\/a>, will use the words \u201cthe bad guys\u201d to describe the country, like three-year-olds playing with action figures. And because Iranians are \u201cthe bad guys,\u201d it\u2019s supposedly legitimate to attack and kill them&nbsp;in order to prevent them from ever getting that terrifying nuke. Donald Trump is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/06\/17\/nx-s1-5436819\/trump-iran-israel\">considering that very move now<\/a>, posting in all-caps that \u201cIRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!\u201d and <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/114699610769479275\">threatening to assassinate<\/a> Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. On Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JDVance\/status\/1934996183702704404\">JD Vance<\/a> echoes Trump, threatening \u201caction to end Iranian enrichment.\u201d But it\u2019s not just Republicans. Trump and Vance have been <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/06\/04\/schumer-attacks-trump-for-repeating-obamas-iran-diplomacy\/\">egged on<\/a> by their ostensible enemy, Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer, who recently condemned the president for attempting nuclear negotiations, calling him a \u201cchicken\u201d who would \u201clet Iran get away with everything.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/news\/i-voted-for-john-fetterman.-he-betrayed-supporters-like-me\">John Fetterman<\/a>, the most bellicose member of the Democratic caucus, just comes out and <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/post\/196936\/john-fetterman-sides-trump-iran-israel\">says it<\/a>: \u201cI really hope the president finally does bomb and destroy the Iranians.\u201d Both of them have <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SenFettermanPA\/status\/1894890211827687880\">repeated<\/a> the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.democrats.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/leader-schumer-statement-on-israels-strikes-on-iran#:~:text=Iran%20cannot%20have%20a%20nuclear%20weapon\">Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon<\/a>\u201d mantra to justify beating the drum for war.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there\u2019s a sword of Damocles hanging over this whole situation, one nobody wants to acknowledge. If the possibility that Iran <em>might<\/em> get a nuclear weapon is so scary, why do none of our leaders seem to be worried about Israel, which already has a secretive nuclear arsenal of its own, and is acting more violently unstable by the day?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to estimates by the <a href=\"https:\/\/armscontrolcenter.org\/fact-sheet-israels-nuclear-arsenal\/\">Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation<\/a>, published recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/06\/17\/world\/middleeast\/israel-nuclear-weapons.html\">in the <em>New York Times<\/em><\/a>, Israel has \u201cat least 90 [nuclear] warheads and enough fissile material to produce up to hundreds more.\u201d President Jimmy Carter, who was in a position to know, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/jimmy-carter-u-s-shouldnt-bomb-iran-even-if-they-get-a-nuclear-weapon\/\">said in 2014<\/a> that he believed the number is closer to \u201c300 or more, nobody knows exactly how many.\u201d In either case, this is more nukes than another country we\u2019re routinely told to be terrified of: North Korea, which the Center estimates possesses \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thebulletin.org\/premium\/2022-09\/nuclear-notebook-how-many-nuclear-weapons-does-north-korea-have-in-2022\/\">20 to 30<\/a>\u202f possibly assembled warheads.\u201d These Israeli warheads can be delivered in a variety of ways, including by <a href=\"https:\/\/armscontrolcenter.org\/fact-sheet-israels-nuclear-arsenal\/#:~:text=Non%2DProliferation%20Treaty.-,Air,-Israel%20maintains%20the\">U.S.-made fighter jets<\/a>, by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ynetnews.com\/articles\/0,7340,L-4141933,00.html\">German-made \u201cDolphin\u201d submarines<\/a>, and by a variety of missiles\u2014including <a href=\"https:\/\/missilethreat.csis.org\/missile\/jericho-3\/\">the Jericho 3<\/a>, an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/what-jericho-missile-israels-doomsday-nuclear-option-1833848\">came online in 2011<\/a>. Describing the early tests of this missile, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Isaac_Ben-Israel\">Isaac Ben-Israel<\/a>\u2014who was both a scientist, a retired IDF general, and a member of the Knesset at the time\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/2008-01-18\/ty-article\/missile-test-will-improve-deterrence\/0000017f-e10c-d804-ad7f-f1fe2f510000\">said in 2008<\/a> that \u201ceverybody can do the math and understand\u2026 that we can reach with a rocket engine to every point in the world.\u201d If that\u2019s not a thinly veiled threat, nothing is.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, we don\u2019t know <em>exactly<\/em> how many nuclear warheads Israel has, because Israeli leaders refuse to publicly admit they have any. The whole military program is kept in near-total secrecy, under a policy called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/10736700.2023.2215583#abstract\">strategic ambiguity<\/a>,\u201d meaning the existence of the bombs is neither confirmed nor denied. Historians believe Israel first got a nuclear weapon in 1967, after secretly refining plutonium at the <a href=\"https:\/\/nsarchive2.gwu.edu\/israel\/documents\/reveal\/index.html\">Dimona facility<\/a> and running a <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2025\/02\/07\/israel-nuclear-weapons-dimona-deception-cia-jfk-eisenhower-lbj-ben-gurion\/\">\u201cfull deception campaign\u201d<\/a> to convince U.S. inspectors the purpose of the reactors there was civilian rather than military. (Ironically, this is exactly the kind of deception Israel now accuses Iran of practicing.) It\u2019s also strongly suspected that Israel <a href=\"https:\/\/thebulletin.org\/2015\/09\/flash-from-the-past-why-an-apparent-israeli-nuclear-test-in-1979-matters-today\/\">tested a nuclear weapon<\/a> off the coast of South Africa in 1979, in partnership with that country\u2019s apartheid government. It\u2019s called the <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2019\/09\/22\/blast-from-the-past-vela-satellite-israel-nuclear-double-flash-1979-ptbt-south-atlantic-south-africa\/\">Vela&nbsp;incident<\/a>, after the spy satellite that spotted the nuclear flash. But \u201cstrategic ambiguity\u201d means there\u2019s little international oversight or accountability involved with any of this, and much of it takes place in violation of international law. Like North Korea and a small handful of other nations, Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2012\/dec\/04\/un-tells-israel-nuclear-inspectors\">United Nations resolutions<\/a> that it should do so. It <em>has<\/em> signed the <a href=\"https:\/\/2009-2017.state.gov\/t\/avc\/trty\/199116.htm#signatory\">Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963<\/a>, but likely broke it with the South African incident. And most importantly, its leaders <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/iran-israel-nuclear-programs-iaea-94c0f87c357fd72169dee198cb6800a7#:~:text=the%20IAEA%20monitors%20Soreq%20but%20has%20no%20access%20to%20Israel%E2%80%99s%20nuclear%20facility%20at%20Dimona%2C%20believed%20to%20provide%20the%20fuel%20for%20Israel%E2%80%99s%20undeclared%20nuclear%20weapons%20program.\">refuse to allow inspectors<\/a> from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to access Dimona, so we have no way of knowing <em>what\u2019s <\/em>going on in there.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under U.S. law, Israel\u2019s rogue nuclear program means that the United States <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/world\/israel-nuclear-weapons\/\">should not be supplying it with military aid<\/a> of any kind. The law in question is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/opinion\/israel-nukes-halt-military-aid\">International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act<\/a> of 1976, and its language is unambiguous. But for more than 50 years now, U.S. leaders have been willing to ignore their own laws and accept this uneasy state of affairs. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.princeton.edu\/~ota\/disk1\/1993\/9341\/9341.PDF\">1993 report<\/a> by the congressional Office of Technology Assessment, titled \u201cProliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Assessing the Risks,\u201d sums up the rationale well: \u201cwould the United States be willing to sacrifice its relationship with Israel\u2014and possibly risk Israeli national survival\u2014to pressure that state to give up a nuclear arsenal it believes essential to its security?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For successive administrations, the answer has been <em>no.<\/em> It would be easier, and cause fewer problems, to just let the issue be. For their part, heads of state from <a href=\"https:\/\/history.state.gov\/historicaldocuments\/frus1964-68v20\/d349\">Yitzhak Rabin<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/explainers\/what-do-we-know-about-israels-nuclear-weapons#:~:text=be%20the%20first%20to%20introduce%20nuclear%20weapons\">Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> have pledged that Israel would not \u201cbe the first to introduce nuclear weapons\u201d in the Middle East. Even that is another example of the \u201cstrategic ambiguity\u201d at work, because \u201cintroduce\u201d can be taken to mean Israel would not <em>create<\/em> weapons it already has (a lie,) or to mean it won\u2019t use or publicly acknowledge them. But the underlying assumption for U.S. policymakers\u2014tinged, it has to be said, with Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism\u2014has been that Israelis are responsible stewards of the bomb, in a way that Egyptians or Jordanians, or most of all Iranians, would not be. The problem is, when we look at Israel\u2019s actions and not its words, there\u2019s a strong case to doubt that assessment\u2014and the situation has gotten dramatically worse in the last few years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/forward.com\/news\/1072\/hezbollah-card-played-in-nukes-fight\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">most common reasons given<\/a> for why Iran \u201cCAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!\u201d is that, having got them, Iran might share its nuclear weapons with the various militant groups it has alliances with across the Middle East, like Hezbollah. This isn\u2019t a completely baseless concern. Nuclear proliferation is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/will-we-see-nuclear-proliferation-now-that-us-alliances-are-unraveling-by-joseph-s-nye-2025-05\">very real threat,<\/a> and nobody wants uranium or plutonium getting into the hands of terrorists. But once again, Israel is guilty of the very offense its supporters lay at Iran\u2019s door.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2010\/may\/23\/israel-south-africa-nuclear-weapons\"><em>Guardian<\/em> investigation revealed<\/a> in 2010, Israeli officials didn\u2019t just conduct a likely nuclear test with apartheid South Africa back in the 1970s. They also tried to <em>sell <\/em>nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa. As <a href=\"https:\/\/ta-nehisicoates.com\/blog\/notes-on-the-catastrophe\/\">Ta-Nehisi Coates<\/a> and others have written, the two regimes had a natural affinity, since Israel, too, is an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/report\/2021\/04\/27\/threshold-crossed\/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution\">apartheid state<\/a>; in their <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/12\/israel-south-africa-apartheid-weapons\">official publications<\/a>, South African officials would write that both nations were \u201csituated in a predominantly hostile world inhabited by dark peoples.\u201d For years, Israel defied <a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/12\/israel-south-africa-apartheid-weapons\">international arms embargoes<\/a> to trade conventional arms with South Africa. And in the documents uncovered by the <em>Guardian<\/em>, it\u2019s revealed that Shimon Peres\u2014then Israel\u2019s defense minister, and later its president\u2014offered to sell an early model of the Jericho missile to South Africa in 1975. In response, Lieutenant General R.F. Armstrong stipulated he would only accept if the missiles were \u201carmed with nuclear warheads.\u201d Peres agreed, reportedly saying that \u201cthe correct payload was available in three sizes,\u201d only for the deal to fall apart because of the high cost. But the relationship wasn\u2019t a complete bust: as the <em>Guardian <\/em>reports, \u201cSouth Africa also provided much of the yellowcake uranium that Israel required to develop its weapons.\u201d Does this sound like the behavior of a nation that can be trusted to act responsibly with the most lethal weapons ever created?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If not, don\u2019t worry. It gets much worse. Since the October 7 attacks and Israel\u2019s brutal collective punishment of Gaza, Netanyahu and his Likud government have become more and more erratic, unpredictable, and belligerent with every passing month. There\u2019s really no other term for it: they\u2019re operating like a dangerous rogue state. By itself, <a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/intelligencer\/article\/israel-palestine-gaza-war-crimes-genocide.html\">the assault on Gaza<\/a>\u2014which has included <a href=\"https:\/\/afsc.org\/israeli-violations\">countless war crimes<\/a>, and is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/latest\/news\/2024\/12\/amnesty-international-concludes-israel-is-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza\/\">now recognized<\/a> by major human rights groups as a genocide\u2014is enough to show Israel no longer cares about human rights or international law, if it ever did. Netanyahu himself now has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icc-cpi.int\/defendant\/netanyahu\">warrant for his arrest<\/a> from the International Criminal Court, but rather than show any contrition for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/live-blog\/live-blog-update\/death-toll-gaza-reaches-over-55700-7-october-2023-says-ministry\">more than 55,700<\/a> dead Palestinians on his ledger, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/middle-east\/netanyahu-israel-hamas-100-days-b2478410.html\">he\u2019s ranted<\/a> that \u201cNo one will stop us\u2014not the Hague.\u201d That\u2019s the kind of thing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Slobodan-Milosevic\">Slobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107<\/a> would have said at the height of the Bosnian genocide, and it\u2019s at least as bad as anything the Ayatollah has ever come out with.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But beyond Gaza, Netanyahu has taken this moment to attack and threaten his neighbors, too. There was the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/news\/israel-must-not-get-away-with-pager-terrorism\">terror attack<\/a> with the exploding pagers in Lebanon and Syria, which was illegal under international law and had horrifying collateral damage, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cx2kn10xxldo\">at least two dead children<\/a>. (The attack has since become an inspiration for anti-Muslim terrorism generally, including an <a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/intelligencer\/article\/nypd-investigating-racist-threats-against-zohran-mamdani.html\">anonymous assassination threat<\/a> which told New York City mayoral candidate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/news\/could-a-socialist-mayor-be-just-what-nyc-needs\">Zohran Mamdani<\/a> to \u201ccheck your beeper\u201d this week.) There was the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/israel-bombs-iran-embassy-syria-iranian-commanders-among-dead-2024-04-01\/\">April 2024 bombing<\/a> of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/live-blog\/live-blog-update\/un-experts-say-israeli-attack-iranian-consulate-violated-international\">also illegal under international law<\/a> according to UN experts. There was the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/12\/10\/middleeast\/israel-syria-assad-strikes-intl\">December 2024 assault<\/a> against Syria, which barely made a blip in the U.S. press, but included \u201c480 strikes across the country over the past two days, hitting most of Syria\u2019s strategic weapon stockpiles\u201d and \u201cdestroyed the Syrian fleet overnight.\u201d Israel also took this opportunity to seize territory within southern Syria, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newarab.com\/news\/israel-occupy-syrian-land-indefinitely-us-troop-pull-out\">promises to occupy it<\/a> \u201cindefinitely.\u201d Again, this is something international law <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/press-releases\/2019\/06\/annexation-flagrant-violation-international-law-says-un-human-rights-expert\">takes a dim view on<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Worst of all, Israeli leaders have begun making direct nuclear threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Seymour Hersh documents in his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Samson-Option-Israels-Nuclear-American\/dp\/0394570065\">book of the same name<\/a>, Israeli nuclear policy includes something called <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Samson_Option\">the \u201cSamson Option.\u201d<\/a> It\u2019s named after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Judges%2016&amp;version=KJV\">biblical story of Samson<\/a>, a hero with incredible strength who was captured by Philistines, but single-handedly yanked out the pillars of the building where he was chained up, killing both himself and his captors. In the modern world, the Samson Option refers to the idea that, if they ever perceive an \u201cimminent, existential threat\u201d to the country\u2019s existence, Israeli leaders may <a href=\"https:\/\/progressive.org\/latest\/the-samson-option-israels-plan-to-nuke-its-opponents-dilawar-20240624\/\">deploy their nuclear weapons<\/a> widely and indiscriminately, lashing out with \u201cdeliberate, disproportionate nuclear strikes against non-military targets, such as cities.\u201d It\u2019s a more extreme form of the already horrifying idea of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/mutual-assured-destruction\">\u201cmutually assured destruction<\/a>,\u201d in which only one party possesses nuclear weapons and only its opponents\u2019 destruction is assured. There are historical reasons for this; like so much in Israeli politics, the doctrine is informed by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.972mag.com\/never-again-gaza-war-holocaust\/\">\u201cnever again\u201d mentality<\/a> of early Israeli leaders for whom the Holocaust was a not-too-distant memory. But in today\u2019s world, it\u2019s the possibility of Israeli nuclear strikes that\u2019s the real threat\u2014to the Middle East, to the wider world, and even to Israel itself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;In September 2023, in the same breath as he promised to \u201cdo everything in my power to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons,\u201d Benjamin Netanyahu <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/world\/watch-israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-addresses-the-2023-united-nations-general-assembly\">also said<\/a> that \u201cabove all, Iran must face a credible nuclear threat.\u201d He immediately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/tehran-accuses-netanyahu-of-threatening-to-nuke-iran-in-general-assembly-speech\/\">walked the comment back<\/a>, but the damage was done. He\u2019d admitted what everyone paying attention already knew: that the very \u201cnuclear threat\u201d Israeli leaders claim to fear <em>from<\/em> Iran is one they direct <em>at <\/em>Iran on a regular basis. Other members of his Likud Party have gone further. Shortly after the October 7 attacks, a Likud member of the Knesset named <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/israeli-lawmaker-urged-government-to-use-nuclear-weapons-against-hamas-2023-10\">Revital Gotliv<\/a> urged Netanyahu to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/israeli-official-calls-doomsday-nuclear-missile-option-1833585\">use a nuclear weapon<\/a> on Gaza, posting online:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Jericho missile! Jericho missile! A strategic alert, before we consider introducing our forces. A doomsday weapon! This is my opinion[&#8230;] Israel must use everything in its arsenal.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another post from Gotliv soon followed:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Only an explosion that shakes the Middle East will restore this country\u2019s dignity, strength, and security! It\u2019s time to kiss doomsday.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, you could write this off as the rantings of a lone extremist, especially in the wake of a genuinely traumatic event like October 7. But what Gotliv\u2019s saying here is in perfect accordance with the longstanding concept of the Samson Option. You perceive an existential threat\u2014rightly or wrongly\u2014and you lash out with everything in your arsenal.&nbsp;And Gotliv isn\u2019t alone. In a November 2023 radio interview, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Amihai_Eliyahu\">Amichai Eliyahu<\/a>\u2014a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, and a minister in Netanyahu\u2019s government\u2014also endorsed the idea of using a nuclear weapon on Gaza:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>INTERVIEWER<\/strong>: Your expectation is that tomorrow morning we\u2019d drop what amounts to some kind of a nuclear bomb on all of Gaza, flattening them, eliminating everybody there.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>ELIYAHU<\/strong>: That\u2019s one way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shortly thereafter, Netanyahu <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/world-news\/2023\/11\/05\/netanyahu-suspends-israel-minister-nuke-gaza\/\">suspended Eliyahu<\/a> from his ministerial duties\u2014but, notably, did not fire him or ask him to resign. In 2024, Eliyahu <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aa.com.tr\/en\/middle-east\/israeli-minister-renews-call-for-striking-gaza-with-nuclear-bomb-\/3117351\">doubled down on his statement<\/a>, saying that \u201ceven in the Hague they know my position.\u201d Despite this, he\u2019s still the country\u2019s Heritage Minister, and both he and Gotliv are still MKs in good standing. Taken together, this shows that, far from being an unthinkable last resort, the idea of using a nuclear weapon is just becoming an acceptable part of the political discourse in Israel, especially on the right.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then there\u2019s Netanyahu himself, who was increasingly corrupt and autocratic even before the Gaza genocide. Before October 7, his biggest political priority was to force <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-middle-east-65086871\">sweeping structural changes<\/a> to the Israeli government, which would strip power from the judiciary and concentrate it in the hands of the ruling Likud Party. Even writers like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/news\/the-worst-magazine-in-america\"><em>Atlantic<\/em><\/a><em>\u2019s<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2023\/10\/israel-democracy-judicial-reform-netanyahu-hamas-attacks\/675713\/\">Anne Applebaum<\/a>, who\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2002\/01\/targeting-radio-and-tv-stations.html\">certainly no radical critic of Israel<\/a>, called his actions an \u201cattack on democracy\u201d that could create \u201can undemocratic Israel, a de facto autocracy.\u201d (For Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, of course, autocracy is nothing new.) There\u2019s also the fact\u2014widely reported in the Israeli press, but almost completely ignored in the U.S.\u2014that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces\/\">Netanyahu personally backed Hamas<\/a> for years, in order to undermine the Palestinian Authority, keep the West Bank and Gaza divided, and prevent a unified Palestinian state from ever emerging. And since 2019, he\u2019s been under indictment for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/12\/9\/benjamin-netanyahus-corruption-trial-what-you-need-to-know\">three separate cases of corruption<\/a>. As even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/03\/opinion\/netanyahu-trump-harris.html\">the <em>New York Times\u2019 <\/em>Thomas Friedman<\/a>, another <a href=\"https:\/\/inthesetimes.com\/article\/thomas-friedman-new-york-times-op-ed-dinosaur-new-world-gaza-palestine-genocide-israel\">firmly pro-Israel writer<\/a>, admits, many of his decisions are driven by a simple calculus: \u201che must stay in power to stay out of prison.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One way of staying in power is by <a href=\"https:\/\/arabcenterdc.org\/resource\/a-calculus-of-conflict-netanyahus-political-survival-through-extended-war\/\">prolonging the mass murder of the Palestinian people<\/a>. Another way is by launching attacks on Iran, extending Israel\u2019s seemingly never-ending state of crisis even further. If he\u2019s really lucky, and if Donald Trump is particularly stupid and reckless, Netanyahu may even be able to lure the United States in to attack Iran for him. It\u2019s usually a mistake to focus too much on Netanyahu as an individual, because Israel\u2019s violence against Palestinians and others long predates him, and wouldn\u2019t be solved just by removing him from office. But when we\u2019re talking about nuclear weapons, he\u2019s the man with his finger on the red button, and that\u2019s not an encouraging thought. We already know he\u2019ll commit war crimes and boast about it; how much further would he be willing to go?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even a single nuclear bomb, dropped on a city in Gaza or Yemen or Iran, would be a horror. Hiroshima would be nothing by comparison, because modern nuclear weapons are capable of doing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icanw.org\/how_destructive_are_today_s_nuclear_weapons\">many times the damage.<\/a> Hundreds of thousands of people would turn instantly to ash; many more would get cancer, radiation poisoning, and other debilitating health conditions in the weeks and months that followed. The air and water would be poisonous for years. But a so-called \u201cregional\u201d nuclear war would be devastating to the rest of the world&nbsp;too, far beyond the Middle East. As the Nobel Prize-winning group <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ippnw.org\/programs\/nuclear-weapons-abolition\/nuclear-famine-climate-effects-of-regional-nuclear-war\">International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War<\/a> warns, \u201ca nuclear war using as few as 100 weapons anywhere in the world would disrupt the global climate and agricultural production so severely that the lives of more than two billion people would be in jeopardy from mass starvation,\u201d mainly because it would create enormous clouds of smoke and soot, send temperatures plummeting, and kill everyone\u2019s crops. In other words, Israel\u2014more so than North Korea, Iran, or any of the official \u201cbad\u201d countries\u2014now possesses the ability to plunge great chunks of the world\u2019s population into <a href=\"https:\/\/climate.envsci.rutgers.edu\/pdf\/WiresClimateChangeNW.pdf\">nuclear winter<\/a>. And in either scenario, a single bomb or many, Israel would not escape unscathed. Being in the near neighborhood of a nuclear blast, its people would also get cancer and radiation poisoning and dead crops and starvation, just like the people in whatever unhappy country received the strike. In the story of Samson, Samson dies too.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This nightmare scenario has to be prevented, and that means changing the political narrative. When we think about threats to humanity\u2019s collective safety, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/news\/2017\/06\/pretending-it-isnt-there\">nuclear weapons are near the top of the list<\/a>, rivaled only by climate change and <a href=\"https:\/\/hsph.harvard.edu\/news\/next-pandemic-not-if-but-when\/\">pandemic disease<\/a>. But it\u2019s not only North Korea\u2019s nuclear weapons, or Pakistan\u2019s, or Russia\u2019s, or even the possibility that Iran might one day get them that we have to consider. Israel\u2019s arsenal is also a threat. As we\u2019ve seen, it\u2019s actually one of the more worrying threats. For the Middle East and the wider world to truly be secure, Israel\u2019s nuclear stockpile needs to be reduced and ultimately eliminated, just like all the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fortunately, there are ways of doing that. For its part, <a href=\"https:\/\/press.un.org\/en\/2019\/dc3818.doc.htm\">Iranian officials<\/a> have <a href=\"https:\/\/wanaen.com\/iranian-ambassador-israeli-aggressions-highlight-the-need-for-a-wmd-free-zone\/\">consistently said<\/a> that what they want is a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nuclear-weapon-free_zone\">nuclear weapon free zone<\/a> (NWFZ) covering the entire Middle East. In other words, the moment Israel denuclearizes, Iran would also abandon any ambitions for a nuclear bomb. So the main reason the supposed Iranian nuclear threat exists, and U.S. politicians are now debating <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/bunker-buster-bomb-israel-iran-fordo-fordow-b2-nuclear-8a612cbf16aa0f99bd9992334ffc93d7\">whether or not to bomb Iran<\/a>, is because the threat of Israeli nukes <em>already <\/em>exists. (For more on this, see the relevant chapter in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/738224\/the-myth-of-american-idealism-by-noam-chomsky-and-nathan-j-robinson\/#:~:text=About%20The%20Myth%20of%20American%20Idealism&amp;text=Surveying%20the%20history%20of%20U.S.,ironically%2C%20making%20Americans%20any%20safer.\"><em>The Myth of American Idealism<\/em><\/a>.) A nuclear weapon free zone is not a theoretical concept; both Africa and South America are already covered by NWFZs, and it works quite well. (There are no nuclear weapons in Africa or South America.) Israeli leaders could even use denuclearization as a bargaining chip, trading a reduction of X number of warheads for concessions from Iran or any of their other regional antagonists.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This would require changing U.S. politics first. For decades, across both Democratic and Republican administrations, the United States has consistently backed Israel with financial and military aid in all its conflicts, only occasionally <a href=\"https:\/\/responsiblestatecraft.org\/2021\/05\/24\/ronald-reagan-wasnt-afraid-to-use-leverage-to-hold-israel-to-task\/\">using its vast leverage<\/a> to stop Israeli leaders from doing something really disastrous. It\u2019s always been an untenable situation, but in the era of the Gaza genocide, it\u2019s indefensible. If it really wants peace, the United States ought to position itself as a <em>neutral diplomatic broker<\/em>\u2014neither an ally, nor necessarily an opponent, of Israel, Iran, or any other country in the region. Only then can it strike deals that benefit everyone and lead to actual peace and stability, which the Israel alliance has categorically failed to bring about. Again, this isn\u2019t theoretical. It\u2019s precisely the stance China, a more sensible superpower in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.currentaffairs.org\/news\/china-knows-how-to-deal-with-its-billionaires\">many ways<\/a>, has taken in the Middle East. As a result, China was able to <a href=\"https:\/\/gjia.georgetown.edu\/2023\/06\/23\/saudi-iran-deal-a-test-case-of-chinas-role-as-an-international-mediator\/\">broker a historic normalization deal<\/a> between Iran and Saudi Arabia in 2023. There\u2019s no reason, other than the influence of myopic and war-hungry politicians like JD Vance or Chuck Schumer, that the United States can\u2019t do the same.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bizarrely, it\u2019s the fringe elements of the Republican Party who seem to realize where things stand better than many of their Democratic counterparts. This week, national intelligence director <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/politics\/trump-reportedly-became-incensed-at-tulsi-gabbard-over-unauthorized-video-in-which-she-slammed-warmongers\/\">Tulsi Gabbard took to Twitter<\/a> with a video where she excoriated a \u201cpolitical elite and warmongers\u201d who are \u201ccarelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers,\u201d and warned that the world is \u201con the brink of nuclear annihilation.\u201d She seemed to be criticizing other factions within the Trump administration for their eagerness to strike Iran\u2014perhaps even Donald Trump himself\u2014and Trump reportedly became \u201cincensed\u201d and \u201cexpressed his disapproval to her personally\u201d soon afterward. But Gabbard was entirely correct. So is Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/podcast\/2023\/12\/14\/thomas-massie-why-not-vote-no\/\">libertarian<\/a> whose ideas about other subjects are <a href=\"https:\/\/justfacts.votesmart.org\/candidate\/political-courage-test\/132068\/thomas-massie\">mostly horrible<\/a>, but whose foreign policy positions are strangely good. Massie has introduced a War Powers Resolution in an effort to prevent the U.S. attacking Iran, which currently has <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepThomasMassie\/status\/1936066841677299804\">39 co-sponsors<\/a> from both parties. And of <em>all<\/em>people, the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bennyjohnson\/status\/1935822963791515774?t=K0J0mEt0Jk_TikIrPFsVuw\">disgraced former Representative Matt Gaetz<\/a> has proposed Israeli denuclearization\u2014or as conservative pundit Benny Johnson sums it up, \u201ca dual disarmament deal, brokered by Trump, sealed with a Nobel Peace Prize.\u201d Gaetz is <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/matt-gaetz-congress-ethics-report-538cb5387bf95925245bf87fa6b1adcb\">loathsome<\/a> in too many ways to count, and to anyone familiar with Trump\u2019s record of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/jun\/18\/trump-yemen-bombings-killed-civilians-us-attacks-analysis\">bombing civilians in Yemen<\/a>, the suggestion of giving him a Nobel is distasteful. But like Gabbard, Gaetz is right about this one issue. If President Deals could really pull such a thing off, he\u2019d arguably deserve that Peace Prize&nbsp;more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nobelprize.org\/prizes\/peace\/2009\/obama\/facts\/\">Barack Obama<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nobelprize.org\/prizes\/peace\/1973\/kissinger\/speedread\/\">Henry Kissinger<\/a> deserved theirs. At the very least, it\u2019s better than what John Fetterman has in mind.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Right now, the United States is trying to defend a double standard, in which Israel can have all the nuclear weapons it wants\u2014and talk threateningly about usingthem\u2014but nobody else in the Middle East is allowed to make even tentative steps toward acquiring any. We\u2019re now on the brink of a catastrophic war with Iran, all from trying to enforce that double standard. It\u2019s not a sustainable situation. There are only two coherent stances: either Iran has just as much right to a nuclear weapon as Israel does, or neither country should have one. Of the two, the latter is obviously the safer option for everyone involved. There are practical and political obstacles to a nuclear-free Middle East, and they\u2019re significant. But the consequences of <em>not<\/em> reaching one could be apocalyptic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wait, Why Is Israel Allowed To Have Nukes? According to our elected leaders, we should be very scared of the possibility that Iran could get a nuclear bomb. But Israel already has them, and its government is increasingly unstable and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2674,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions\/2674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}