Israel’s nukes the guarantor of ‘never again’

Geoff Sifrin

TAKING ISSUE

The UN Security Council approved a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa in 1977 because of apartheid.

Something many people would rather not remember is that Israel – among various major powers such as France, who also doesn’t like to talk about it – is believed to have helped South Africa in the 1970s to achieve its military power, conventional and nuclear.

Those were very different days. It was during the Cold War, with its “MAD” – mutually assured destruction – philosophy holding the fragile peace between the USSR and the West, each with their nuclear bombs pointing at each other.

Israel had yet to conclude peace treaties with its neighbours such as Egypt and Jordan, and its “pariah” status at the UN and elsewhere was extreme – it looked for all the friends it could find. Nuclear weapons for Israel seemed the ultimate guarantor for the “Never Again” mindset after the Holocaust.

South Africa no longer has any enemies at its borders which would even remotely suggest a need for nuclear weapons. Removing apartheid ended all that. Sadly, however, Israel doesn’t have that luxury – it still lives as a “fortress” in a profoundly hostile region, knowing that its military power – including its nuclear weaponry, which has never been officially confirmed but is known to exist – remains essential to its survival. One wouldn’t know it walking down the beachfront in Tel Aviv, where everything seems so peaceful and safe.

The deal just concluded with Iran comes after more than a decade of negotiations. It specifies that all sanctions will be lifted from Iran, but temporary restrictions – such as on arms trading – will remain in place for a period of time. All the economic sanctions and bank-related sanctions will be lifted immediately after the agreement is adopted.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the world powers over the imminent deal. “Iranian leader [Ali] Khamenei has said that the US should be fought even if an agreement is reached, [Iran President Hassan] Rohani is heading a hate march in which US and Israeli flags are being burned and calls for death to America and Israel are being made, and at the same time, concessions are being offered to Iran,” he said at the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting.

He said the deal reminded him of the one signed between the US and North Korea in 1994, meant to put an end to the communist state’s nuclear programme. Former US President Bill Clinton made a speech the day the US and North Korea concluded the agreement, saying it would bring the latter to dismantle its nuclear weaponry and the world would become a safer place.

But in 2003, North Korea renounced the whole arrangement, and resumed its military nuclear activities. According to some estimates it possesses several nuclear bombs today.

South Africa ended its nuclear weapons programme in 1989, not because it was forced to, but as part of the euphoria and idealism of building a peaceful, democratic nation integrated into its African region. All the bombs – six were constructed and one more was under construction – were dismantled.

South Africa signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1991 and played a leading role in establishing the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty – also referred to as the Treaty of Pelindaba – in 1996.

South Africa has lots of problems, but we can be thankful we don’t have enemies at our borders wanting to destroy us.

Will Israel ever be able to publicly dismantle its nuclear weapons, like South Africa did? Seems very unlikely. In the Middle East, the trend is in the opposite direction, as the region descends further into chaos, and countries like Saudi Arabia are making it known that if Iran achieves nuclear weapons, it would feel the need to do so as well. We must hope that somehow Iran will be deterred from achieving nuclear bombs and a nuclear arms race in the Middle East can be avoided.

Geoff Sifrin is former editor of the SAJR. He writes this column in his personal capacity.