Israel’s Right To Dimona And To The Weapons That Emerge From It

Marty Peretz
The New Republic
13 May '10

Having failed (and failed abysmally) to curb Iran’s nuclear vault, what’s called the “international community”—a very silly phrase, isn’t it?—is attempting to focus an accusatory spotlight on Israel’s long-held (but ritualistically shrugged off) capacity to make atomic war. The truth is that an Israel without nukes is an axiomatic target for wave combat in which hordes of soldiers, terrorists, and civilians would be deployed almost haphazardly literally to overwhelm the Jewish state.

It is ironic that this fixation on Israel comes at the tail-end of President Obama’s phlegmatic and ultimately failed effort to bring Dr. Ahmadinejad’s Tehran into line. There is meaning to the connivance of both Russia and China in this adventure of the mullahs. But hardly anyone seems to want to make the point.

In any case, as to Israel’s atomic capacity as a guarantee of its survival, Ari Shavit—perhaps the country’s most sage columnist, who publishes weekly in Ha’aretz—has written a very persuasive justification.

And, here, a one-time plea: To the three or four frothers who prevent a sensible discussion of the matters I raise, why don’t you just leave this one alone? Go to The Nation and Matthew Yglesias. You’ll have a very good time.

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