Turning a blind Eye
The recent UN round of meetings was used to condemn Iran for its nuclear ambitions. I personally have no reason to defend a dictatorial theocracy who have for the sake of preserving their power have fatally damaged the admittedly limited democracy that Iran had built in to its system of government.
Even, as is likely, Ahmedinajad won the elections, the violent response to protests by varied government militias showed that the establishment behave no differently when their power is threatened than any other elites. This governing elite gaining a nuclear weapon, I think we can agree is a outcome most people would wish to avoid.
The problem is that all the posturing by the President Obama and Prime Minister Brown is fatally wounded by the fact that one country in the Middle East already HAS nuclear weapons , has REFUSED to sign the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, has REFUSED inspectors on its soil and yet has had no sanctions and is the biggest recipient of US aid, who but Israel of course.
Only one “Western” commentator mentioned this small but significant point. Yasmin Alibhai Brown in her column in “The Independent” asking “Don’t Israeli weapons count?”.
Now, I have no problem in rationalising the fact that the US and the UK are friendly towards Israel and will act accordingly, but even then surely there should be some acknowledgement of the facts, but no instead we have the sheer chutzpah of the Israeli Prime Minister standing in the very institution who’s resolutions & reports it condemns or at the least ignores condemning weapons of mass destruction! Going on in the speech to equate the bombing of British cities during World War 2 with the war on Gaza.Transcript here
Again I can rationalise the Israeli Prime Minister doing what he did but the amazing thing is no where did I read any criticism and reasoned analysis. Today we have the farce of the man, Ehud Barak, who led the assault on Gaza addressing the Labour Party annual conference.
How will the conference attendees react I wonder?
I can’t do better than quote from Ms Brown’s article in which an Israeli pleads for Israel to be treated like all other states:
“The Israeli human rights activist Gideon Spiro bravely asks that his country be subject to the same rules as Iran and all others in the Middle East: “Rein in Israel, compel it to accept a regime of nuclear disarmament and oblige it to open all nuclear, biological and chemical facilities and missile sites to international inspection.”
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