Israel Matzav

Israel's right to Dimona

Israel has the right to have its nuclear reactor in Dimona treated differently than any other country's reactor. The World recognized that in the 1960's, and the reasons for which it was recognized then have not changed since, writes Ari Shavit. We are still surrounded by enemies who wish to destroy us.

In the superficial terms of shallow political correctness, Dimona is an outrage. It does not meet the universal demands of equality: Why should Israel be permitted that which is prohibited to other states? It does not comply with the fashionable demand for transparency: Why should it be protected by an umbrella of opacity? It does not meet accepted standards of clarity: Why has the international community agreed that it should exist inside a cloud of ambiguity?

The answer to these questions: Because the international community of the second half of the 20th century was moral. Not moralistic, but moral. It remembered that for more than a millennium the Jewish people was the persecuted "Other" of Europe, and that between 1940 and 1945 a third of its number were murdered, and even Roosevelt and Churchill didn't lift a finger to save the one million Jews who could still have been rescued in 1944. It was therefore aware that it had the moral obligation to ensure the existence of the Jewish people, who had a unique right to enjoy reverse discrimination.

Since its eyes were open, the international community could see that the Jewish state was surrounded by a sea of enmity and if it were not encircled by a glass wall to protect it from being devoured, the result would be a bloodbath. It also understood that precisely because the nuclear reactor on the Plain of Rotem was not for peaceful purposes, it would ensure peace. It is Dimona that stabilizes the Middle East.

The international community was right. The past 40 years have been fairly quiet in the Middle East. Dimona did not avert the Yom Kippur War, nor the Lebanon wars nor the intifada, and it has not ended the occupation. But ever since Dimona came into the world, there has not been a total war here and some peace agreements have been signed. Thanks to Dimona, there hasn't been a catastrophe. Very many Arabs and Jews owe their lives to Dimona. And the same goes for the vital interests of the West and moderate Arabs.

Israel was also right. At the same time as it adopted a foolish policy on the Palestinians, its policy regarding Dimona was responsible. Unlike the United States, it never used nuclear weapons; unlike Britain and France, it never based its defense policies on the nuclear weapons that it was supposed to possess; and unlike China, India and Pakistan, it never demonstratively tested a nuclear weapon.

Israel did not boast or behave ostentatiously, or in any way misuse the capability that was attributed to it. Even in difficult circumstances, it acted with deliberation and composure. It never unsheathed the sword that those foreign reports describe as a terrible one.

Shavit got it mostly right.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:18 AM