Does Israel possess nuclear weapons? If so, what are the ethical or strategic arguments against the Iranians developing nuclear weapons to protect themselves from Israel?

Hi mac

Not officially, but Dimona was built for a reason and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu was put away for a reason.

Best to read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_nuclear_program and wikipedia's "Israeli nuclear program".

Pete

plantagenent,

Interesting, apparently the trick for any nation to build nuclear weapons with impunity is, to deny everything, and of course, be America's pet.

mac wrote:

>>Interesting, apparently the trick for any nation to build nuclear weapons with impunity is, to deny everything, and of course, be America's pet.>>

That can help although both India and Pakistan made no secret of their nuclear programs. Nor can it be said either country is an American "pet." Neither country had to endure much in the way of punishment and India and the US have now signed a nuclear cooperation treaty.

Taiwan kept its program secret but the US discovered it and stopped them - so far as we know.

North Korea apparently claimed to have nukes before it had even succeeded in assembling one that actually went bang. Definitely not an American pet. Nothing America has done to that unhappy country remotely matches what the Kim dynasty has done.

See also my previous post about South Africa's nuclear program.

So apparently a number of countries have acquired nukes who were neither secretive nor "pets" nor did they suffer much in doing it.

stevenmeyer,

The reference was to small countries, which I thought was implicit, so let's compare apples with apples.

(1) "Taiwan kept its program secret but the US discovered it and stopped them - so far as we know." Obviously not "family" like Israel.

(2) North Korea is a Chinese 'pet", God knows why, however it is.

(3) India is far too powerful for even America to intimidate and if India has the bomb, Pakistan must have nuclear weapons.

(4) What role did Israel play in the development of apartheid South Africa'd nukes? Obviously SA wasn't anyone's favourite.

So, we're back to one of those special cases, Israel, like North Korea, has a powerful patron

mac wrote:

>>The reference was to small countries, which I thought was implicit, >>

Well mac, in fairness you did say "any nation", an explicit statement.

I don't think the Chinese are too happy about North Korea's bomb. In fact I think they regard the whole North Korea thing as a great embarrassment but don't know what to do about it. The Chinese leadership may be ruthless and in no small measure corrupt but unlike Kim Jong Un they're not clinically insane.

Seriously though, A lot of countries seem to think about the nuclear ace in the hole. The only way the new reactor at Lucas Heights makes sense is to keep in being a corp of scientists able to kick start a weapons program should the need arise.

Switzerland had a low level nuclear weapons program from 1946. They dropped it in 1988 when it became obvious the Soviet Union was a spent force.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Switzerland

Japan is a nuclear armed state in all but name but it's not a small country.

The fact is that nukes are, as Charles de Gaulle understood, the great equaliser.