Yesterday, the Israeli military attacked and boarded one of the Turkish aid ships sailing to Gaza as part of a flotilla, killing 19 (according to some reports) and injuring many more.
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Why are so many nations bending to Israel's will or staying silent on its actions? What is it about this minuscule country that enables it to have so much control on decisions made by larger and more powerful nations?
If any other country or territory with a smaller population than New York behaved as outrageously as Israel, it would be isolated, boycotted and, perhaps, even invaded. Yet, Israel gets away with ignoring a long list of UN Security Council resolutions -- as opposed to Saddam's Iraq, which was invaded, plundered and occupied on those same grounds.
Israel has a stockpile of undeclared nuclear weapons and, as documentation recently released by Pretoria confirms, was prepared to sell nuclear warheads and technology to South Africa during apartheid; a reality that counters US claims that Israel is a responsible democracy that would never supply weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to rogue states. Iran, on the other hand, which does not have nuclear weapons -- and, unlike Israel, is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) -- is being subjected to UN sanctions.
Last Friday, all 189 signatories to the NPT -- including the US -- agreed to hold a conference during 2012 "on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons ..." Sounds good! President Barack Obama has espoused the idea of a nuclear-free Middle East. The entire Arab world has been pushing for a nuclear-free Middle East and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has long called for a nuclear-free region.
But wait! The usual suspect, Israel, is none too pleased because it believes it is being singled out. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the call as "deeply flawed and hypocritical", while his office has issued a statement that reads: "As a non-signatory state of the NPT, Israel is not obligated by the decisions of this conference, which has no authority over Israel".
No surprise there! But then Obama promptly does an about-turn, saying, "We strongly oppose efforts to single-out Israel and will oppose actions that jeopardise Israel's security". His message begs the question, how on earth can the region ever be free of nuclear weapons if Israel is kept out of the equation when it is the only nuclear country in the area
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SOURCE: Gulf News
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at: lheard@gulfnews.com. Some of the comments may be considered for publication. The article above has been edited from its original form.
