Israel Matzav

US and Israel to cooperate on nuclear technologies

Once again I've been offline for a few hours, but this time I can tell you exactly where I was. I was invited to hear Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz speak about Israel's economy with a group of the foreign press corps and diplomats in Tel Aviv. The event was co-sponsored by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs' Institute for Contemporary Affairs and by the Wechsler Foundation (the Wechslers were actually there).

I hope to have more on this later, but I wanted to tell you that Steinitz started with a very brief review of Prime Minister Netanyahu's meeting with President Obama. He said that the meeting had two major accomplishments. The first was getting President Obama aboard for the idea that the talks with the 'Palestinians' had to be direct talks in order to go anywhere. That's one we all knew already. But the second thing he mentioned was something I had not even heard about because it was just disclosed the public late last night Israel time.

Steinitz reported that Israel has entered into a nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States. This is a big deal because the only other country that has such an agreement is India - ironically one of the other countries that has not signed the NPT (even more ironically, the gentlemen sitting directly behind me during Steinitz's speech was - according to his name tag - the first Secretary of the Indian embassy in Tel Aviv). I went online and found some details about the nuclear cooperation agreement.

In a secret document between the U.S. and Israel, the Obama administration has pledged to sell products used for electricity, nuclear technology and other supplies to Israel, Army Radio reported.

This report proves the two allies are, in fact, in nuclear partnership.

Israel has refused consistently to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, maintaining that they do not admit to, nor deny, the presence of a nuclear cache.

Israel, however, is not alone in refusing to sign; India, too, has refrained from signing the NPT, and is an openly nuclear nation after having secured a U.S.-led deal leading to a grant in nuclear imports.

This document apparently clears the way for Israel to admit to being a nuclear power without signing the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. It also does not require Israel to sign the treaty.

I suppose that this is meant to make up for the Obama administration abandoning us at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation conference in May. They also talked about the Middle East disarmament conference to which Obama agreed with the Egyptians.

Obama and Netanyahu agreed in their meeting that the next Middle East nuclear conference should have a broad agenda, one that includes regional security issues, verification, and compliance with stipulations regarding all types of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear power.

This time, however, Obama stated that the conference, to be held in September of this year, should only be held if all nations invited can attend.

Netanyahu has stated before that Israel does not wish to cooperate in a peace deal that could compromise the security of the nation and its people. For this reason, Obama has stressed that the U.S will continue to work together with Israel to ensure that arms control would not detract from, nor compromise, Israel’s security.

This goal, however, has been criticized as dated and unrealistic, according to Dan Meridor, Israel’s deputy prime minister responsible for nuclear affairs.

Said Meridor, Obama’s endorsement is “important for us, and it was important for the region," but it is simply not significant enough to bring about disarmament in the Middle East.

I don't know what he means by "only if all nations invited can attend," but given our history with Obama, I am loathe to trust any commitment from him, especially one like this one dealing with the Middle East disarmament conference, which as far as I can tell is not in writing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:57 PM