The 10 June 2007 edition of the Trinity Uniting Church Of Christ's newsletter contains the following passage:

"Both [Israel and South Africa] worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs."

See:

http://tucc.org/upload/tuccbulletin_june10.pdf

Trinity Uniting Church of Christ is, of course, Obama's church and Jeremiah Wright was pastor at the time.

So is this another example of Wright's paranoid delusions akin to his allegation that the Federal Government manufactured HIV to wipe out Blacks?

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) defines an ethnic weapon as "A genotype-targetable weapon. A BW or CW agent that would employ differences in gene frequencies among different ethnic groups."

See: http://www.sipri.org/contents/expcon/CBW%20Publications/CBW_chapters/cbw_1984_app12A.pdf

Is an "ethnic bomb" even possible?

Such a weapon is probably not possible with current technology.

But looking ahead it does seem to be within the realm of possibility. There are small but definite differences in the genomes of different population groups. This does affect susceptibility to infectious diseases. For example a small percentage of people of European and Central Asian origin have an allele that seems to confer resistance to HIV.

See: http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2005/01/66198

This article from the BBC website sums up the situation nicely.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/259222.stm

Quote:

"Advances in genetic knowledge could be misused to develop powerful biological weapons that could be tailored to strike at specific ethnic groups, the British Medical Association has warned."

So could the Israelis develop an "Arab bomb?"

I doubt it will ever be possible to develop a pathogen that kills only Arabs and no Jews. But it might be possible to develop one that kills a much higher proportion of Arabs than of Jews. Say a pathogen that wipes out 75% of all Arabs but "only" 25% of all Jews.

Are the Israelis IN FACT working on such a weapon?

I suspect EVERYONE is doing research into ethnic weapons.

A more reasonable question is not "Is Israel working on an ethnic bomb?" but "who from Al-Qaeda to the Iranians isn't?"

Yes I think it is. Certain races have a predisposition to certain weaknesses. I believe asians are not suited to milk products and well...look how they drive?
It would be a pretty evil scientific world that would want to seek out and so grossly misuse a races' infirmities to get rid of them.

Dear Steven,

I would never believe that Israel would even contemplate such a thing.

They would lose all credibility and support if anything like that was to occur.

It, in my opinion, is a 'no go area.'

Steven: the answer to your question is "NO", now get a life.

Gibo, your statement is one of the most racist I have seen here.

We have children starving in third world nations, a polluted environment, peak natural resources, possible climate change and this latest discussion thread is considered another topic worthy of discussion by OLO editors?

Foxy,

Do you doubt that Iranian President Ahmadinejad would hesitate to deploy a "Jew bomb" if he could get one? My own feeling is that if they think it technically feasible the Israelis will explore this technology if for no other reason than to have a deterrent.

Fractelle,

The history of weapons development suggests that any weapon that can be developed will be.

Gibo's statement about lactose intolerance is correct. With one exception all mammals become lactose intolerant after being weaned. The exception is humans; but only a minority of us. About 60% of adult humans - mainly people of African and Asian origin - are lactose intolerant.

Here is a link to an interesting article that explains how this may have come about:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/06/050602012109.htm

Lactose intolerance is one genomic difference could be exploited in the development of an ethnic weapon.

However, so far as I know both Jews and Arabs are mostly lactose tolerant so that particular genomic difference could not be utilised by either the Arab or the Israeli side.

The terrifying thing about bio-war is that you may not actually know you are under attack. It may be difficult to tell the difference between a naturally occurring epidemic and a biological assault.

Only an idiot would try to use one. Its like people trying to created viruses which only target one particular racial group. What you would find would happen is that in the first year it might be a great success with a 60% kill rate but the next year it might mutate into something which attacks your own people with a 70% kill rate.

I think Jeremiah Wright is a raving lunatic and the only reason Obama condemn him now is because he is running for president, before he was running for President after one of Jeremiah crazy speeches Obama would have said amen.