Sunday, January 22, 2006
Editorial RhetIraq: The Daily Star
Source: The Daily Star (Lebanon)
Quotes: From editorial titled, "The real standoff has nothing to do with nuclear weapons"
When it comes to credibility, the Iranians - and others in the region - might also pose a few questions. How can we believe, they might ask, that the West, and particularly the United States, harbors only peaceful intentions toward the region when its closest ally, Israel, is armed to the teeth with nuclear weaponry and yet no one even acknowledges its existence let alone insists on inspection of its facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency?
The first step toward emerging from the nuclear impasse is for there to be public acknowledgement of Israel's weaponry and subjection of the Jewish State to the same rules as every other nuclear power. The next is to begin to remove the biggest single source of aggression in the area by creating a Palestinian state. And the last is to accept that even in a balance of terror, nuclear weapons are locally irrelevant. Wiping out Damascus with a nuclear blast or destroying life in Tel Aviv with chemical or biological weapons is a lose-lose draw. Acceptance of the reality on the ground might hopefully lead one day to the declaration of the oil-rich Middle East as a nuclear-free zone.
Quotes: From editorial titled, "The real standoff has nothing to do with nuclear weapons"
When it comes to credibility, the Iranians - and others in the region - might also pose a few questions. How can we believe, they might ask, that the West, and particularly the United States, harbors only peaceful intentions toward the region when its closest ally, Israel, is armed to the teeth with nuclear weaponry and yet no one even acknowledges its existence let alone insists on inspection of its facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency?
The first step toward emerging from the nuclear impasse is for there to be public acknowledgement of Israel's weaponry and subjection of the Jewish State to the same rules as every other nuclear power. The next is to begin to remove the biggest single source of aggression in the area by creating a Palestinian state. And the last is to accept that even in a balance of terror, nuclear weapons are locally irrelevant. Wiping out Damascus with a nuclear blast or destroying life in Tel Aviv with chemical or biological weapons is a lose-lose draw. Acceptance of the reality on the ground might hopefully lead one day to the declaration of the oil-rich Middle East as a nuclear-free zone.
