_______ ____ ______
/ |/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S
/ /|_/ / /_/_ / /\\ Making Sense of the Middle East
/_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ \\ ISRAEL RAISES NUCLEAR STAKES
http://www.MiddleEast.Org
News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups,
and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know!
- - - - - - - - - -
To receive MER regularly email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
ISRAEL AND INDIA TO ATTEMPT AGAIN TO
TAKE OUT PAKISTAN'S "MUSLIM" BOMB?
MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 6/20/00:
The "peace process" may be dominating the headlines; but it is the "arms race"
-- including its nuclear component -- which is also transforming the entire Middle
East region.
Even as the Israelis push the U.N. into protecting its northern border, and even
while intense attempts are being made to consolidate the gains made in restricting
the Palestinians while Arafat remains alive, the Israeli military is racing ahead
with major new weapons systems to insure regional domination and impose political
will.
These first two articles were published last weekend in the London Sunday Times,
the same newspaper that more than a decade ago first provided the public details
of Israel's extensive nuclear weapons capabilities.
And the third article, this one from Ha'aretz about the still growing nuclear
cooperation between India and Israel, only hints at the extensive military ties
the two countries have had for some time, including still secret joint attempts
in the past to destroy Pakistan's nuclear capabilities.
FEARS OF NEW ARMS RACE AS ISRAEL TESTS CRUISE MISSILES
Uzi Mahnaimi and Peter Conradi
London Sunday Times, 18 June:
ISRAEL has test-fired cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear
warheads, fuelling fears of an escalation in the Middle East arms
race.
Israeli defence sources revealed that the tests, involving two
German-built Dolphin-class submarines, took place last month off Sri
Lanka.
The Israeli-made missiles, which were equipped with conventional
warheads, hit targets at sea at a range of about 930 miles, they said.
Israel is the third country - after America and Russia - to be able to
fire nuclear cruise missiles from submarines.
The tests will alarm Israel's neighbours and embarrass the German
government. It paid for the £200m submarines to compensate for
Iraq's use of German-made weapons against Israel during the Gulf
war. A third submarine is expected to be operational within weeks.
Despite moves towards Middle East peace, Israel remains concerned
about its vulnerability to attack, particularly from Iran. Israeli
intelligence believes Tehran will develop nuclear weapons within
two years.
Israel has never acknowledged its nuclear programme, revealed by
The Sunday Times in 1986. However, its military planners are
believed to have produced between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons.
Sources said these included several 200kg warheads - each
containing 6kg of plutonium - that could be mounted on cruise
missiles.
Israel already has land and air-based nuclear weapons. It now plans
to equip each of the three submarines, which have the advantage of
being almost impossible to detect, with four cruise missiles.
Their ability to strike back after a non-conventional attack on Israel
makes them a formidable deterrent. Under a system of rotation, two
of the vessels will remain at sea: one in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf,
the other in the Mediterranean. A third would remain on standby.
The missiles could be fired only after approval by four people: the
prime minister, defence minister, chief of staff of the Israeli army and
the commander of the navy.
The 1,720-ton diesel-electric submarines, which are among the most
technically advanced of their kind in the world, can remain at sea for
up to 30 days.
---------------
ISRAEL MAKES NUCLEAR WAVES WITH SUBMARINE MISSILE TEST
Uzi Mahnaimi and Matthew Campbell
London Sunday Times - 18 June:
JUST as President Bill Clinton is engaged in a bitter public debate
about how best to defend America from missile attacks launched by
"rogue" countries such as Iran, Israel's intensely secretive military
preparations against the same threat have gone a stage further.
Israeli defence sources claim the country has secretly carried out its
first test launches from submarines of cruise missiles capable of
carrying nuclear warheads. The launches last month from
German-built vessels in the Indian Ocean were designed to simulate
swift retaliation against a pre-emptive nuclear attack from Iran.
While Israel's generals may be jubilant at the breakthrough - the
missile is said to have hit a target more than 900 miles away - the
development raises the worrying prospect of an escalation in the
Middle East's nuclear arms race just as peace talks have been thrown
into uncertainty after the death of President Hafez al-Assad of Syria.
According to Israeli sources, the three Dolphin-class submarines will
give Israel a crucial third pillar of nuclear defence to complement the
country's already much-vaunted land and air ramparts. While the
Israelis' intention of using the German submarines as roving nuclear
launch platforms had long been suspected, few experts had expected
them to develop the capability to fire submarine-based cruise
missiles so soon.
Planning for a submarine-launched nuclear deterrent was accelerated
after reports in the early 1990s by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence
service, that Iran would be capable of staging a nuclear missile
attack against Israel by 2000.
The latest Israeli estimate has put that threat back by two years. But
uncertainty over Iran's level of nuclear capability has not slowed
Israel's drive to bolster its defences.
The Dolphin-class vessels are among the most technically advanced
of their kind in the world. They are twice as big as the 23-year-old
Gal-class submarines that the Israeli navy has relied on to date.
Israel ordered the submarines from Germany when it could not find
an American shipyard to produce the diesel and electric-powered
vessels it needed, according to Israeli sources.
In a sign of the sensitivity of the project, elite crews have been
assembled to man them: the 35 officers and men aboard each vessel
have been nicknamed "force 700" because of the average 700 points
they scored in psychological tests devised by the Israelis. The
scores are equivalent to an IQ of 130-140. Another five specially
selected officers solely responsible for the warheads will be added to
each vessel once the missiles are operational.
America's supply of military technology to Israel is a sensitive
political issue. Last week there were calls in Washington for a cut in
aid to Israel unless it cancelled the sale to China of a spy plane built
with American-supplied technology. The Pentagon fears it could be
used against American pilots.
Since achieving nuclear capability in 1966, Israel has kept a hawkish
eye on its neighbours' fumbling steps towards acquiring weapons of
mass destruction.
Its fears were dramatically illustrated in 1981 when Menachem Begin,
then prime minister, sent eight F-16 jet fighters to destroy a nuclear
reactor in Iraq in an episode condemned around the world as
reckless military adventurism.
In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at the Dimona
nuclear reactor who revealed secrets of Israel's programme to The
Sunday Times, was kidnapped by Mossad and jailed. He remains
incarcerated.
A decade later, Israeli fears appear to have proved well-founded.
Washington routinely cites Iraqi and Iranian nuclear ambitions as
justification for America's multi-billion-dollar missile defence system,
whose deployment may be ordered by President Bill Clinton this
year.
America will not look kindly on Israel's development of a remarkable
new military capability at such a delicate stage in the peace process.
"This is certain to irritate the Clinton administration," said a defence
analyst in Washington. "It makes it that much harder to get
non-proliferation to stick in the Middle East."
Despite a good personal relationship between Clinton and Ehud
Barak, the Israeli prime minister, relations between the two countries
have soured in recent weeks. On top of reports of the extraordinary
extent of Israeli espionage in Washington, Israel's proposed sale of
the spy plane to China has outraged American congressmen.
Under a contract with the Chinese, Israel Aircraft Industries has
installed a Phalcon airborne early-warning system in a Russian-made
Ilyushin. China has an option for three more such planes. American
officials say they fear they will pose a threat to Taiwan - as much of
an American ally as Israel - and upset the military balance. Relations
have been strained further by other Israeli missile tests conducted
without advance warning to the Pentagon. Last month the American
navy criticised Israel for test-launching a Jericho ballistic missile off
its coast in April when an American warship in the vicinity
momentarily thought it was under attack.
Pentagon officials said the missile landed about 40 miles from the
warship. "That's pretty close for a missile that's not the most
accurate," said one official, adding that this was the third time in two
years that Israel had conducted "nonotice" missile tests near an
American warship.
------------------
INDIA'S VISITING STRONGMAN WANTS TO
EXPAND NUCLEAR COOPERATION WITH ISRAEL
By Yossi Melman
Ha'aretz, Friday 16 June 2000:
The task of hosting India's Minister of the Interior fell on the shoulders of
Shimon Peres, Minister of Regional Development, ostensibly because Public
Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami is tied up in final status talks with the
Palestinians.
But the choice of Peres contained more than a touch of coincidental
symbolism. The Indian and Israeli ministers each are considered the
architects of their nation's nuclear power.
Indian Interior Minister Lal Krishna Advani arrived on Wednesday and met
Peres at the residence of India's ambassador in Herzliya Pituach.
On his first day he also managed to meet Mossad head Ephraim Halevi, and the
head of the Shin Bet security service, Avi Dichter. Today he will see Prime
Minister Barak.
Not every visiting interior minister managed to meet immediately (if ever)
the prime minister and the top brass of Israel's secret services. This easily
illustrated the great importance of the visit - but why?
It comes from a combination of factors - Advani's special status at home, and
the strategic alliance that increasingly has emerged between the two states,
which renewed diplomatic ties in 1994 after the Oslo agreements. Since then
the relationship has blossomed.
India is Israel's third largest export market (after China and Turkey) for
arms and defense equipment - sales amount to half a billion dollars and there
are programs for additional initiatives.
Scientists involved in developing India's nuclear arms program visited Israel
and included A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, science adviser to the prime minister.
Advani is the leader of the ruling BJP (Bhartiya Janata) party. The Interior
Ministry is considered the second post in the government after the prime
minister - because of India's vast size (3 million sq.km. and a population of
one billion), the ministry commands gigantic budgets and runs the police and
security services.
The heads of these forces arrived with Advani and will meet for talks with
their counterparts from Israel's police, Mossad and Army Intelligence.
As if this weren't enough, Advani enjoys the status of government "strong
man." Fierce international opposition and domestic fears at home prevented
him from becoming prime minister when his party vanquished the Congress Party
in the 1996 elections. Advani stepped aside and his fellow party member Atal
Bihari Vajpayee became prime minister.
Fear of Advani and the BJP derives from their world view - hardline (Hindu)
religious nationalism. The party and its leaders accumulated power and public
support in the early 1990s after pledging to rebuild a Hindu temple in an
area wracked by conflict with Moslems. The party philosophy is characterized
by a religious devotion, crude nationalism, hostility to the Moslem
neighbor-enemy Pakistan, and bolstering military power with a nuclear option..
In May 1998, the government of Vajpayee and Advani rocked the world with
three nuclear tests - one of them of the strength of a hydrogen bomb. This
set off a chain reaction in which Pakistan responded with its first tests and
openly declared itself a nuclear power.
A clear indication of his ideology and Weltanschauung was audible in an
interview with Advani. Unlike other visiting leaders, he did not hesitate to
express his views openly and bluntly, even on such a sensitive matter as
nuclear cooperation. "Yes," he said "I am in favor of cooperating with Israel
in all areas, especially the nuclear field, and this should be strengthened."
(His aides, bidding to play down the startling impression this statement
might impart hastened to emphasize that he was not planning to visit Israel's
nuclear reactor at Dimona.)
Asked about past reports that the two countries had drawn up a joint plan to
take out Pakistan's nuclear sites, the minister said no. "India has no
offensive plans and nuclear cooperation with Israel is not aimed against any
other state.
MID-EAST REALITIES
http://www.MiddleEast.Org
Phone: 202 362-5266 Fax: 815 366-0800
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To receive MER regularly email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with subject SUBSCRIBE
To stop receiving MER email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with subject UNSUBSCRIBE