Not really. We've known Israel has nukes for so long, they don't even try to hide it anymore...as long as it's not written down anywhere official.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert included Israel among a list of nuclear states in comments in December 2006, a week after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates used a similar form of words during a Senate hearing.
Still, there are those who are disturbed by any sign of reality at all.
Former Israeli military intelligence chief Aharon Zeevi-Farkash told Reuters news agency he considered Mr Carter's comments "irresponsible".
"The problem is that there are those who can use these statements when it comes to discussing the international effort to prevent Iran getting nuclear weapons," he said.
Ya think?
Israel 'has 150 nuclear weapons'
Ex-US President Jimmy Carter has said Israel has at least 150 atomic weapons in its arsenal.
The Israelis have never confirmed they have nuclear weapons, but this has been widely assumed since a scientist leaked details in the 1980s.
Mr Carter made his comments on Israel's weapons at a press conference at the annual literary Hay Festival in Wales.
He also described Israeli treatment of Palestinians as "one of the greatest human rights crimes on earth".
Mr Carter gave the figure for the Israeli nuclear arsenal in response to a question on US policy on a possible nuclear-armed Iran, arguing that any country newly armed with atomic weapons faced overwhelming odds.
"The US has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons; the Soviet Union (sic) has about the same; Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more," he said.
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So why does our government
So why does our government need to offer security assurances to a nation that has 150 nuclear weapons and one of the most powerful and technologically advanced militaries in the world? At some level this crap is not about protecting Jews but the making and selling of military weapons and the maintenance of control over resources in the Middle East. If every Jew in Israel left tomorrow, the United States would continue to press the case for its military presence in the Middle East. Israel has become a convenient excuse for empire and imperialism.
I agree
With you PT. I haven't the faintest idea why it's up to the US to play protective big brother to Israel. I aware of Revelations, but I doubt this is what John had in mind. What's more, I don't think God will "damn" America for pointing out Israel's inhumane treatment of the Palestinian people.
Also, could someone tell me whether or not the right Arabs agreed 60 years ago to the creation of Israel?
oh, yeah
What is it with people inability to acknowledge the truth? I'm tired of living in fantasy land!
The Palestinians did not
The Palestinians did not agree to anything at all. Nada. BTW, the Holocaust did happen. The Nazis and their European allies in France, Austria, Poland, Hungary etc. killed more than a third of the Jews in the world. The Holocaust did not occur in the Middle East and the Arabs played absolutely no role in transporting and murdering Jews for the Axis powers.
Holocause did happen
I would never deny that the Holocaust happens. It just bothers me that Hamas and Hezbollah are expected to place nice with a group of people who took their land and are killing them. I disagree with Obama on his stance with respect to Hamas and Cuba.
"The Holocaust did not occur in the Middle East and the Arabs played absolutely no role in transporting and murdering Jews for the Axis powers."
That's why I really can't accept the caricature of Ahmedinejad that is portrayed by MSM. His point isn't so much that the Holocaust NEVER happened as much as it is that the Holocaust didn't have anything to do with the Arabs who had to give up their homes.
I have viewed both the cut
I have viewed both the cut and uncut version of Ahmedinejad's interview with Mike Wallace. He both denies the Holocaust and then correctly claims that it took place in Europe and that Arabs had nothing to do with it. I wish he had stuck to this second point and that he and other leaders in the Middle East stop denying that the Europeans murdered more than 6 million Jews. If they were not killed, then you have to believe that they were taken away in spaceships by aliens. That they were killed by their fellow Europeans is the only plausible conclusion.
I don't have any problems with Hamas and Hezbollah save for their denial of the Holocaust which their ancestors were not responsible for and, in any case, whose occurrence does not justify taking away their people's land.
So over Israel ...
I was just about to post on this too. I'm glad Jimmy Carter has the guts to speak up about this. The entire notion that Israel is a victim in the midst of a bunch of aggressive enemies is starting to get absurd because they could blow the US sky high if they wanted to. Also, it's not just Palestinians who've been displaced by the creation of Israel and it's expansion over the decades. The Bedouins are being systematically "ethnically cleansed" too ...