"It's possible that in 2006 we'll see the first steps in launching a nuclear disarmament process in the Middle East. A report published in late November by the U.S. Army War College argues that Iran's march toward nuclear weapons cannot be stopped by any of the military or diplomatic options currently being considered, including bombing and bribing the Islamic Republic. "Getting Ready for a Nuclear-Ready Iran" recommends that the U.S. encourage Israel to "mothball" its Dimona nuclear reactor and agree to international monitoring." - Churches for Middle East Peace Policy Outlook for 2006. Corinne Whitlatch, CMEP executive director, issued the following Jan. 5, 2006.
"The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright
In a 2004 interview shortly after his release from 18 years in jail Mordechai Vanunu, whistle blower of Israel's nuclear weapons program spoke to Amy Goodman. She questioned him regarding his assertion that Israel had 100 to 200 atomic bombs and was developing a neutron and hydrogen bomb while he was employed as a low tech worker in the underground Dimona nuclear reactor plant in the Negev.
During the past forty plus years, thousands of people have worked in the Dimona. Vanunu was the first to speak out and has become the example to others of what happens when one follows their conscience and speaks a warning to the world. After 18 years in jail for treason and espionage, Vanunu has spent nearly two more captive in Jerusalem under the draconian Emergency Defense Regulations that restrict his speech and movement.
Vanunu stated to Goodman: "The nuclear weapons Israel built make it very aggressive and powerful. In 1962 Israel was ready to deal to make real peace with the Arab world after the independence war in 1948... But then I believe some people had the idea to get Israel nuclear weapons, to build the French reactor in Dimona. That power made Israel free not to make real peace with the Arabs; made Israel free not to solve the Palestinian refugee problem. ... They [took] the West Bank, Golan Heights and Sinai and keep them until now. Now Israel is much more aggressive, not to give anything to the Palestinians or to make real peace with Syria or Lebanon or Jordan or the Palestinians. So the nuclear weapon is used as a political power. Without even using nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons help Israel do what it wants without respecting international law or respecting the Middle East states... But my view is that my revelation in 1986 it prevented Israel from using nuclear weapons. Otherwise it is my view that they were ready to use nuclear weapons in their next war, it could have happened in the Cold War. My revelation let the world see what they had and made it impossible for Israel to use nuclear weapons...The king is naked but no one wants to see the king is naked. That is the truth. And Israel is succeeding to impose on the United States and all the world to play this game."
The world rightly demands Iran must allow International Inspectors in.
Israel has yet to allow International Inspections of the Dimona, that dinosaur of nuclear technology.
Vanunu faces his next trial January 25, 2006 charged with speaking to the media. If democracy is truly spreading throughout the Middle East the democracy known as Israel is also on trial.
Any state that claims to be a democracy yet denies inalienable human rights such as speech and movement maybe a democracy in name but is not one in fact.
Vanunu has been severely punished for telling the world the truth that Israel had gone nuclear in 1986. Israel has not suffered any breach of security because of his admission yet they continue to deny him freedom after twenty years and have revoked his inalienable human rights.
The king is naked and the emperor has no clothes as long as Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity continues and America fails to support a citizen of the world who exercised his inalienable human rights of conscience and speech.
Dissent is what keeps democracies healthy and God speaks to us all through our conscience.
When the voices of conscience are squelched, can we truly claim we are civilized?
Eileen Fleming
http://www.wearewideawake.org
