Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that an Israeli minister’s comments about nuking Gaza raised questions about Israel’s unofficial nuclear arsenal.
Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu made the comments on Sunday, saying there are no innocent civilians in Gaza and that dropping nuclear weapons on the enclave is an option for Israel.
Israel is estimated to have somewhere between 90 and 300 nuclear warheads but does not acknowledge its arsenal. Eliyahu’s comments appeared to confirm that Israel has nuclear weapons, going against the Israeli government’s policy of ambiguity on the issue.
“It raised a huge number of questions,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said about Eliyahu’s comments. “The number one question is, did we hear an official declaration that [Israel] has nuclear weapons? Consequently, the next questions that everyone had were: Where are the international organizations, where is the IAEA, where are the inspectors?”
Zakharova also asked where Israel has conducted nuclear tests. “If this program exists and existed, where were the tests conducted, at what testing grounds? Obviously, apparently not in the region, then where? And isn’t the United States behind all this?” she said.
The US also maintains a policy of ambiguity concerning Israel’s nuclear weapons program. In 2021, Axios reported that President Biden and then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett renewed a decades-old informal agreement on Israel’s nukes.
Every US president since Nixon has agreed not to press Israel to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and in return, Israel agrees not to declare its nuclear arsenal and operate the program covertly.
The ambiguity allows the US to give Israel aid, which is technically illegal due to the existence of Israel’s nuclear arsenal. Under foreign assistance laws, the US cannot provide aid to nuclear-armed states that refuse to sign the NPT.
In its avatar as the USSR,Russia had no problem threatening Israel with nukes.Now they should have nothing to say.
EVERYONE SHOULD have SOMETHING to SAY!
There are no winners in a nuclear war and that is exactly where we are, potentially, headed Jake…..
The challenge, for those of us who support peace, is how to get all sides involved, to have a sit down at a table to verbally sort it out and press everyone to agree and settle on long term sustainable PEACE or else…We can all kiss our asses good-bye.
The first task is the elimination and making Nukes illegal. If we can not accomplish this get ready to say goodby to planet Earth.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
I mean if your twisted logic is taken to its ultimate conclusion Israeli babies are legitimate targets given that they will grow up to be Israeli soldiers, right? What is good for the goose (the Palestinians) is good for the gander (the Israelis), right? Israel gets to indiscriminately target women and children, therefore so does Hamas. Do you see the moral depravity inherent in such a position?
Israel should be under sanctions for their nuclear program and under U.S. law they should not be eligible for military aid. A small, insignificant country like Israel should not be in possession of such weapons.
You mean when the so-called ‘Israel’ launched a war against Egypt and the USSR end it with a quick call to Tel Aviv?
Great reply to our loyal moron.
You still have your face stuck in a mirror. check the truth in my response and despair.
Absolutely-USSR used nuclear blackmail,so now let them STFU about nukes others have.
Nasser’s removal of UN monitors,blockade of Tiran, and stated voice that his mission was “to destroy Israel”,all started the war.Russia provoked this on order to strike at the Dimona reactor.
Please provide evidence that Russia have threatened Israel with nukes.
Thats why Nixon put US forces on nuclear alert in 1973. Nukes were detected on soviet ships in Egypt.
I thought you meant that Russia communicated a threat to use nuclear weapons. I’m not convinced they have ever done that, at least not to the US or Israel.
I note that 1973 was the year that Golda Meir first threatened the use of the Samson Option (which 𝒅𝒊𝒅 communicate to Nixon that Israel was considering the detonation of 13 atomic bombs… unless the US/Nixon implemented an airlift to deliver supplies to Israel immediately.
That’s not evidence, and Nixon was a paranoid psycho.
But Russia isn’t the USSR anymore, so your point is irrelevant.
Russia is the new incarnation of a reduced USSR,but it is still ruled by ethnic Russians. Russian policy calls for use of nukes if faced with an existential threat,as does Israel’s.What is good for the goose is good for the gander
Following your logic neither the USA nor Israel “should have nothing to say” about Iran’s hypothetical nuclear ambitions. I think that non-proliferation and nuclear de-arming should be the goal. That was the goal until the U.S. decided to start torpedoing arms control agreements.
Iran repeatedly stated its plan to destroy Israel,a country with a tiny population 1/10 Iran’s size. Its gangster armies march around a mock up of the dome of the rock. They would love to seize Jerusalem.Iran is lead by very shrewd,cruel,patient theocrats with an apocalyptic world view.
I see. Thanks for outing yourself as a fascist pig. Good to know moving forward. Israel has repeatedly stated that it does not want a two state solution. Where does that leave the palestinians?
In other worlds,if anyone disagrees with you,they are a @#@!@@#%. Palestinian leaders repeatedly turned down any two state solution. There.
No there are plenty of people who disagree with me who aren’t fascist scum like you and your fellow travelers the Likudites (I hear they have a coalition government with even more extreme right wing crazies). What Palestinian leaders? Who? When? Where?
This guy is an obsolete cold warrior who should have been decommissioned decades ago. Not that cold warriors were ever legitimate anyway. Some people just can’t stop irrationally and immorally hating Russia.
Russia’s foreign ministry has Zakharova and the US State Department has Matthew Miller. It’s embarrassing.
https://info.thebulletin.org/l/878782/2021-11-17/2b9kn/878782/1637181534U7IjP6MS/CombinedLogo_Piano.png
“If this program exists and existed, where were the tests conducted, at what testing grounds? Obviously, apparently not in the region, then where?”
Indian Ocean, joint test with South Africa, Sept 22nd 1979 (the Vela Incident). Detected by the US ‘Vela Hotel’ satellite, in orbit to detect nuclear weapons tests – more than 40 of which it had already found conducted by other nuclear states.
The components already tested were donated by Washington.
Talking about getting caught with your pants down…!
Just a series of more lies over a period of 30 or 40 years from still another corrupt,incompetent Administration whether Republican or Democratic.
I wish they act as Republicans and Democrats representing US citizens… But in reality they are bunch of RetardiQAns and DemonRats…!
Cat’s out of the bag. Hypocrisy reigns supreme in the US gov’t.
I am damn sure that hypocrisy has never left any government in the US as well as other countries. We the people are no more then guinea pigs for the Masters of Mankind.
In addition to being their workers and consumers. Eat the rich!!!
Can you imagine what would happen if Israel were to do that? These people get more psycho by the second.
Those Zionist lunatics in Israel while never admitting to possess Nukes are crazy enough to actually use these nonexistant weapons.
Dumbass statement.
But GOD is on their side RIGHT ? .
I never said I was on their side.
righteous self defense.
The US and France helped Israel develop nuclear arsenal. Another proof of the double standards and hypocrisy.
It is to be remarked that France assisted the Israeli state with its nuclear program for a limited time. France and De Gaulle stopped the military and nuclear cooperation with Israel during and after the war of 1967, when De Gaulle viewed or described the Israeli state as aggressive and expansionist.
Too late at that point.
So did the Brits
The US was obstructionist in this matter.
Nukes where given to Israel by the Brits , Americans / French , they have never needed to test nukes they have all ready been tested for them .
How did we profit from giving nukes to Israel? Iran? GB and France I can understand. Oil.
The US never gave nukes to Israel.
Nothing was given.
You’re right, they stole a lot of it from us.
As your man Malcolm said “by any means necessary”.Israel had extensive above board assistance from France, and a lot of high quality home grown brains. A beautiful thing.
Now that the Netanyahu government has publicly admitted, through one of his ministers, of having a nuclear arsenal, when US foreign assistance laws against providing aid to nuclear-armed states be applied?
Are US laws facultative and arbitrarily applied? Who is above US laws? Is the US government a government of law or a government of privilege?
https://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2021/08/23/israels-nukes-make-us-aid-illegal/
What difference does it make? If the law is applied to Israel, the law will get changed. So it does not matter.
Every day, police will overlook paper offenses if it suits them-refuse to arrest a starving shoplifter for instance,let a speeder go with a warning.NO big deal.
There is no question about Israel’s nuclear arsenal, nor any questions about its use as ‘nuclear blackmail’ against the United States and others. Here’s a paper from the US Air Force from 1999 detailing the history of Israel’s nuclear weapons program. Despite the evidence being public knowledge, apparently not actually SAYING it makes it a secret.
https://media.defense.gov/2019/Apr/11/2002115467/-1/-1/0/02ISRAELSNUCLEARWEAPONS.PDF
and
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-us-discovery-israels-secret-nuclear-project
Not that they wouldn’t potentially want to carry it out but it would be counterproductive since the Mediterranean offshore would blow all that radioactive pollution right into Israel.
She needs to question her own colleagues first since over the last 21 months {several senior Russian politicians, including president Vladimir Putin, former president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, and foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, have made a number of statements widely seen as threatening the use of nuclear weapons.}
Our political elite have threatened the use of tactical nukes let’s not forget. Meanwhile it’s propagandized Russia statements as a threat when Russia wasn’t speculating about a “winnable nuclear war” but restating their existing nuclear doctrine. Given Biden’s escalatory pattern in Ukraine and our own nuclear analyzing unsurprising Russia would join the convo.