Israel Matzav

'Our friends the Egyptians' press to monitor Israel's nuclear program

Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit (pictured) has sent a letter to all 15 members of the UN Security Council urging them to put Israel's purported nuclear program under international supervision and calling for the Council to set a time frame for a nuclear-free Middle East. The letter follows the passage of a resolution at the IAEA meeting in Vienna last week that for the first time called on Israel to sign the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.

For the first time in 18 years, Israel, the United States and the Western powers last week were unsuccessful at preventing passage of a resolution calling on Israel to sign the NPT.

The resolution, passed at the end of the annual general assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on Thursday, also demands that Israel open its nuclear reactor in Dimona to international inspectors.

The resolution was passed by a majority of 49 countries, among them the members of the Arab League and the bloc of developing nations; against 45 Western countries, including the European Union and the United States, and 16 abstentions.

The non-binding resolution mentions "Israeli nuclear capabilities."

In the past, the United States and other Western countries were able to persuade the developing countries not to join the resolution, thus thwarting its passage.

The proof that Israel having nuclear weapons does not endanger the region is that Israel has allegedly had nuclear weapons for 45 years and has never used them - not even when it had its back to the wall during the first days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Egypt is simply fighting a danger that does not exist.

But what's most astounding here is where Egyptian hubris has led. Arguing that Israel ought to be subject to the NPT is exactly the tactic Iran has taken in arguing that the World should not interfere in its quest for nuclear weapons unless it puts equivalent pressure on Israel. Egypt is one of the countries that most fears Iran - it has already busted an Iranian - Hezbullah plot to destabilize the Egyptian government. And yet Egypt is playing right into Iran's hands by taking the lead on excoriating Israel for its non-membership in the NPT treaty.

Why is Egypt behaving this way? As usual with the Arab Muslims, it's a question of their 'honor.' The Greeks called undue concern about honor hubris. They must have had the Egyptians in mind.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:09 PM