An article published by the New York Times revealed that the United States covered up for decades over the Israeli nuclear program due to an agreement between former US President Richard Nixon and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir that neither country would authorize Israel to possess nuclear weapons and Washington's commitment not to Pressure on Israel to subject its nuclear program to international control.
Journalist and political analyst Peter Beinart said in his article in the newspaper that American politicians have been warning that Iran's possession of nuclear weapons would launch a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East.
However, these warnings, and the writer's words, have become so familiar that it is easy to miss that they are deceptive. When American politicians warn that Iran's possession of a nuclear weapon could make the Middle East a nuclear weapons zone, they are indicating that the region is free of nuclear weapons. Now, but it doesn't, Israel already has nuclear weapons.
He explained that US leaders have spent the past half century feigning ignorance of the Israeli nuclear program, a deception that undermines America's supposed commitment to non-proliferation and distorts the ongoing US debate over Iran's nuclear program.
Beinart, who specializes in US foreign policy, called on the administration of President Joe Biden to stop covering up the Israeli nuclear program and announce its truth to the American people and the world.
hypocrisy
He said that successive presidents who ruled the United States, over the past 50 years, have adhered to the agreement not to authorize Israel's possession of nuclear weapons, and that scientists believe that when Israel tested a nuclear weapon in the Indian Ocean in 1979, the administration of former US President Jimmy Carter covered it up.
When a journalist asked former President Barack Obama in 2009, if he knew "which country in the Middle East has nuclear weapons?"
Obama replied that he did not want to speculate on this matter.
The writer believed that Obama's pretense of ignorance of Israeli nuclear weapons calls for a mockery of the United States' commitments in the field of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
He said that despite Obama's pledge to seek a world free of nuclear weapons, his administration thwarted a United Nations conference aimed at making the Middle East a nuclear-weapon-free zone, in an effort to prevent any discussion of Israel's nuclear arsenal.
He noted that the Biden administration continues to impose sanctions on Iran to force it to agree to inspections of its nuclear program more stringent than those required by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while turning a blind eye to Israel, which has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, nor It allows no inspections at all.
Beinart stated that this hypocrisy by US administrations about Israel's nuclear program makes many politicians around the world laugh when US diplomats claim that they are defending a "rules-governed world order" and also supports the opinion of the Iranians, who believe that Tehran has a right to what its regional rival Israel has reached.
He concluded that the Biden administration could not force Israel to give up its nuclear weapons, but that does not mean that it should undermine America's credibility around the world and deceive its people by denying the truth.
The writer believes that opening an honest discussion in the United States about the Israeli nuclear arsenal may breathe life into an unattainable dream of a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.