Israel Thanks Obama for Sabotaging Nuclear Nonproliferation Deal
US officials blocked deal last week, sparking concern and criticism around the world
The U.S. sabotage last week of an international agreement aimed at eradicating nuclear weapons stockpiles has been met mostly with alarm and frustration around the world--but gratitude from one key U.S. ally: Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday to thank the White House for leading the charge to block a final document that would have expanded the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)--of which Israel is not a signatory.
Netanyahu conveyed "his appreciation to President Obama and to the secretary," an anonymous Israeli official told media outlets. "The United States kept its commitment to Israel by preventing a Middle East resolution that would single out Israel and ignore its security interests and the threats posed to it by an increasingly turbulent Middle East."
But Phyllis Bennis, senior fellow at Institute for Policy Studies, told Common Dreams on Tuesday, "It is appropriate for Israel to be singled out, as Israel is the only nuclear weapons state in the Middle East." With an estimated 200 nuclear warheads, the Israeli government has repeatedly refused to publicly acknowledge its arsenal.
Bennis said the latest U.S. move "flies in the face of the statement recently made by Obama that the U.S. would have to at least consider changing its posture at the United Nations and reconsider its consistent protection of Israel at the United Nations. It's now clear that this is not seriously underway."
After weeks of negotiations at the 2015 NPT Review Conference, the U.S.--backed by Britain and Canada--led the charge on Friday to reject the final document from the gathering, which requires consensus to pass. The treaty will not be reviewed again until 2020.
The U.S. cited the attempt by states, including Egypt, to establish a Middle East conference within months aimed at eliminating "weapons of mass destruction" in the Middle East. U.S. officials accused the push for the conference as an attempt to "manipulate" the process to single out Israel.
According to Alice Slater of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Abolition 2000, the focus should be on the "aggressive" policies of the U.S., which along with Russia, accounts for the vast majority of the world's nuclear stockpiles.
"The fact is that our country is going to spend a trillion dollars over the next 30 years to build two new bomb factories plus submarines, airplanes, and missiles to deliver nuclear weapons and is constantly refurbishing weapons we have," Slater told Common Dreams. "This is incongruous with what was promised in the treaty in 1970."
The WMD conference is not a new concept, Slater added, but in fact was promised to Middle Eastern states as early as 1995, yet has never gotten off the ground.
Iranian delegate Hamid Baidinejad charged that, by blocking consensus, the U.S. and Britain were seeking to "safeguard the interests of a particular non-party of the treaty which has endangered the peace and security of the region by developing nuclear-weapons capability" without global oversight.
Ban Ki-moon last week expressed dismay last week that nations were "unable to narrow their differences on the future of nuclear disarmament or to arrive at a new collective vision on how to achieve a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction (WMD)."
Slater, however, said that civil society organizations around the world are finding hope in a humanitarian pledge that emerged from the NPT review, signed by 107 non-nuclear weapons states, calling for an all-out prohibition of the weapons: "What we have now are whole movements to get an international ban."
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just four days to go in our Spring Campaign, we are not even halfway to our goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
The U.S. sabotage last week of an international agreement aimed at eradicating nuclear weapons stockpiles has been met mostly with alarm and frustration around the world--but gratitude from one key U.S. ally: Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday to thank the White House for leading the charge to block a final document that would have expanded the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)--of which Israel is not a signatory.
Netanyahu conveyed "his appreciation to President Obama and to the secretary," an anonymous Israeli official told media outlets. "The United States kept its commitment to Israel by preventing a Middle East resolution that would single out Israel and ignore its security interests and the threats posed to it by an increasingly turbulent Middle East."
But Phyllis Bennis, senior fellow at Institute for Policy Studies, told Common Dreams on Tuesday, "It is appropriate for Israel to be singled out, as Israel is the only nuclear weapons state in the Middle East." With an estimated 200 nuclear warheads, the Israeli government has repeatedly refused to publicly acknowledge its arsenal.
Bennis said the latest U.S. move "flies in the face of the statement recently made by Obama that the U.S. would have to at least consider changing its posture at the United Nations and reconsider its consistent protection of Israel at the United Nations. It's now clear that this is not seriously underway."
After weeks of negotiations at the 2015 NPT Review Conference, the U.S.--backed by Britain and Canada--led the charge on Friday to reject the final document from the gathering, which requires consensus to pass. The treaty will not be reviewed again until 2020.
The U.S. cited the attempt by states, including Egypt, to establish a Middle East conference within months aimed at eliminating "weapons of mass destruction" in the Middle East. U.S. officials accused the push for the conference as an attempt to "manipulate" the process to single out Israel.
According to Alice Slater of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Abolition 2000, the focus should be on the "aggressive" policies of the U.S., which along with Russia, accounts for the vast majority of the world's nuclear stockpiles.
"The fact is that our country is going to spend a trillion dollars over the next 30 years to build two new bomb factories plus submarines, airplanes, and missiles to deliver nuclear weapons and is constantly refurbishing weapons we have," Slater told Common Dreams. "This is incongruous with what was promised in the treaty in 1970."
The WMD conference is not a new concept, Slater added, but in fact was promised to Middle Eastern states as early as 1995, yet has never gotten off the ground.
Iranian delegate Hamid Baidinejad charged that, by blocking consensus, the U.S. and Britain were seeking to "safeguard the interests of a particular non-party of the treaty which has endangered the peace and security of the region by developing nuclear-weapons capability" without global oversight.
Ban Ki-moon last week expressed dismay last week that nations were "unable to narrow their differences on the future of nuclear disarmament or to arrive at a new collective vision on how to achieve a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction (WMD)."
Slater, however, said that civil society organizations around the world are finding hope in a humanitarian pledge that emerged from the NPT review, signed by 107 non-nuclear weapons states, calling for an all-out prohibition of the weapons: "What we have now are whole movements to get an international ban."
The U.S. sabotage last week of an international agreement aimed at eradicating nuclear weapons stockpiles has been met mostly with alarm and frustration around the world--but gratitude from one key U.S. ally: Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday to thank the White House for leading the charge to block a final document that would have expanded the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)--of which Israel is not a signatory.
Netanyahu conveyed "his appreciation to President Obama and to the secretary," an anonymous Israeli official told media outlets. "The United States kept its commitment to Israel by preventing a Middle East resolution that would single out Israel and ignore its security interests and the threats posed to it by an increasingly turbulent Middle East."
But Phyllis Bennis, senior fellow at Institute for Policy Studies, told Common Dreams on Tuesday, "It is appropriate for Israel to be singled out, as Israel is the only nuclear weapons state in the Middle East." With an estimated 200 nuclear warheads, the Israeli government has repeatedly refused to publicly acknowledge its arsenal.
Bennis said the latest U.S. move "flies in the face of the statement recently made by Obama that the U.S. would have to at least consider changing its posture at the United Nations and reconsider its consistent protection of Israel at the United Nations. It's now clear that this is not seriously underway."
After weeks of negotiations at the 2015 NPT Review Conference, the U.S.--backed by Britain and Canada--led the charge on Friday to reject the final document from the gathering, which requires consensus to pass. The treaty will not be reviewed again until 2020.
The U.S. cited the attempt by states, including Egypt, to establish a Middle East conference within months aimed at eliminating "weapons of mass destruction" in the Middle East. U.S. officials accused the push for the conference as an attempt to "manipulate" the process to single out Israel.
According to Alice Slater of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Abolition 2000, the focus should be on the "aggressive" policies of the U.S., which along with Russia, accounts for the vast majority of the world's nuclear stockpiles.
"The fact is that our country is going to spend a trillion dollars over the next 30 years to build two new bomb factories plus submarines, airplanes, and missiles to deliver nuclear weapons and is constantly refurbishing weapons we have," Slater told Common Dreams. "This is incongruous with what was promised in the treaty in 1970."
The WMD conference is not a new concept, Slater added, but in fact was promised to Middle Eastern states as early as 1995, yet has never gotten off the ground.
Iranian delegate Hamid Baidinejad charged that, by blocking consensus, the U.S. and Britain were seeking to "safeguard the interests of a particular non-party of the treaty which has endangered the peace and security of the region by developing nuclear-weapons capability" without global oversight.
Ban Ki-moon last week expressed dismay last week that nations were "unable to narrow their differences on the future of nuclear disarmament or to arrive at a new collective vision on how to achieve a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction (WMD)."
Slater, however, said that civil society organizations around the world are finding hope in a humanitarian pledge that emerged from the NPT review, signed by 107 non-nuclear weapons states, calling for an all-out prohibition of the weapons: "What we have now are whole movements to get an international ban."