Israel's Stockpile of Chemical Weapons

 

(and not forgetting its huge nuclear arsenal!)

by Martin Webster

 

 

 

 

 My attention has been directed to an article about Israel’s chemical and nuclear weapons, which I run out below

The question now is:

Is Israel to be the only nation in the Middle East allowed to possess not only a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons (which it has never officially admitted to owning), but also a similarly large arsenal of chemical and biological weapons?

If the answer is “Yes”, then the resolution to the Syria chemical weapons crisis negotiated by Russia and grudgingly supported by America, whereby Syria surrenders all its chemical weapons into the care of “the international community”, can be seen as a great triumph for Israel.

After this, Israel will have only one more well-armed and hostile nation in the Middle East to contend with: Iran.

If Iran can be isolated and neutralised, then there will be nothing to prevent Israel from enlarging itself to the fullest extent of the Zionist dream. America, as ever, will be on hand to protect this and Russia will not initiate WW3 to prevent it.

Putin may have had a personal “diplomatic triumph” in terms of making himself appear as a smooth operator and Obama as a dithering blithering incompetent, but Israel, not Russia, looks set to be the real beneficiary of Syria’s chemical weapons surrender.

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http://imemc.org/article/66095
International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) – Wednesday 11th September 2013
[Info on IMEMC: <http://imemc.org/about> ]

http://nsnbc.me/2013/09/11/cia-documents-reveal-israeli-stockpile-of-chemical-weapons/
News Network and Broadcasting Collective (NSBC) – Wednesday 11th September 2013

CIA documents reveal Israeli stockpile of chemical weapons

by Saed Bannoura* <http://nsnbc.me/author/saedbannoura/>

IMEMC – A newly-discovered document of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency revealed Monday by Foreign Policy magazine shows that the U.S. agency had decisive evidence dating back to at least the 1980s that Israel had a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons.

The revelation comes in the midst of reports about the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government on August 21st, although there is still no clarity as to whether the regime or the rebels carried out the attack, or whether it was an accident.

While U.S. President Barack Obama threatened to go to war with Syria over the attack, the Syrian government has denied responsibility, and has agreed to a proposal by the Russian government to open its stores of chemical weapons to international inspection and destruction.

The document revealed by Foreign Policy magazine on Monday shows that, in addition to building up a nuclear stockpile of an estimated three hundred nuclear weapons during the 1960s and 70s, the Israeli military also developed an extensive stockpile of chemical and biological weapons.

The 1983 document stated that U.S. spy satellites had identified “a probable CW [chemical weapon] nerve agent production facility and a storage facility… at the Dimona Sensitive Storage Area in the Negev Desert. Other CW production is believed to exist within a well-developed Israeli chemical industry.”

“While we cannot confirm whether the Israelis possess lethal chemical agents,” the document adds, “several indicators lead us to believe that they have available to them at least persistent and nonpersistent nerve agents, a mustard agent, and several riot-control agents, marched with suitable delivery systems.”

The single page of a larger CIA report was discovered at the Ronald Reagan Library in California in its unredacted form – the report had been released several years ago to the National Archives, but was heavily censored.

According to the Foreign Policy report, “Israeli historian Avner Cohen, in his 1988 book Israel and the Bomb, wrote that Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion secretly ordered that a stockpile of chemical weapons be built at about the time of the 1956 war between Israel and Egypt. The CIA, on the other hand, believed that Israel did not begin work on chemical weapons until either the late 1960s or the early 1970s.

The article included the following assessment from the 1983 CIA report: “Israel, finding itself surrounded by frontline Arab states with budding CW [chemical weapons] capabilities, became increasingly conscious of its vulnerability to chemical attack. Its sensitivities were galvanized by the capture of large quantities of Soviet CW-related equipment during both the 1967 Arab-Israeli and the 1973 Yom Kippur wars. As a result, Israel undertook a program of chemical warfare preparations in both offensive and protective areas.”

The Israeli government has harshly criticized the Syrian government for its alleged use of chemical weapons three weeks ago, and has encouraged President Obama’s pledge to respond militarily.

Israel did sign the Convention to Ban Chemical Weapons, but the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) never ratified the treaty. Israel has never opened its nuclear facility or its chemical weapons stockpile to international inspections.

*Saed Bannoura via International Middle East Media Center – IMEMC <http://imemc.org/article/66095>

Related articles:

•  Photo-Video Evidence of Chemical Attack Fabricated say Experts to UN
<http://nsnbc.me/2013/09/10/photo-video-evidence-chemical-attack-fabricated-say-experts-un/>

•  Syria agreed to put Chemical Weapons under International Control
<http://nsnbc.me/2013/09/10/syria-agreed-to-put-chemical-weapons-under-international-control/>

•  False Flag Chemical Attack on Israel may be planned – Warns RT
<http://nsnbc.me/2013/09/10/false-flag-chemical-attack-on-israel-may-be-planned-warns-rt/>