Maniacs with nuclear razors

While the Western propaganda machine primes the public for war on Iran, it is Tel Aviv and Washington that author the worst atrocities, writes Haim Bresheeth

Al-Ahram, Issue No. 875, 13-19 December, 2007

So as the war drums are beating again in the political jungle that "the West" has become, Russia's Vladimir Putin manages to perceive the danger in this new global hysteria better than more democratic leaders in Europe and the US. His comparison of the sanction- wielders against Iran to "maniacs with razor blades" slashing all about them is apt if somewhat limited; if only we were facing maniacs with razors -- those maniacs have every conceivable weapon that man has ever created, including nuclear bombs waiting to be directed at Iranian targets. The fire of this particular, well-orchestrated hysteria was stoked, as usual, in Washington, but the script was written in Tel Aviv, it seems. It is almost a year now since the public campaign for a war on Iran has been launched by Israel, with many of its politicians, generals and pundits hammering the message incessantly -- Iran is dangerous because it is about to get nuclear weapons. Well, Israel should know, shouldn't it?

For more than three decades, Israel has defied the international community, by illegally and covertly producing hundreds of nuclear weapons -- reportedly between 300 and 400 devices. For even longer, it has been producing chemical and biological weapons based on research in a secret lab in Nes Ziona, near Tel Aviv. Those facts are no secret -- one can find them in any defence publication dealing with the Middle East, and The Sunday Times has brought the story to world readers through the evidence of Israel's courageous whistle-blower, Mordechai Vanunu. Despite this knowledge, the Western powers are, yet again, hell-bent on a search for weapons of mass destruction where all know they do not exist.

Continued . . .