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.

Israel's Dimona reactor is understood to provide plutonium for the country's nuclear weapons

"We have a phalanx of enormous capabilities, not only of weaponry but also of rockets to deliver every one of those missiles on a pinpoint accuracy target."

Most experts estimate that Israel has between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads, largely based on information leaked to the Sunday Times newspaper in the 1980s by Mordechai Vanunu, a former worker at the country's Dimona nuclear reactor.

The US, a key ally of Israel, has in general followed the country's policy of "nuclear ambiguity", neither confirming or denying the existence of its assumed arsenal.

However, 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.

'Imprisonment'

During the press briefing, Mr Carter expressed his support for Israel as a country, but criticised its domestic and foreign policy.

"One of the greatest human rights crimes on earth is the starvation and imprisonment of 1.6m Palestinians," he said.

The former US president cited statistics which he said showed the nutritional intake of some Palestinian children was below that of children in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as saying the European position on Israel could be best described as "supine".

Mr Carter, awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, brokered the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, the first between Israel and an Arab state.

In April he controversially held talks in the Syrian capital Damascus with Khaled Meshaal, leader of the militant Palestinian movement Hamas.

The former US president's Carter Center was unavailable for further comment.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...st/7420573.stm

People have said this for years, but the word of "people" doesn't count for chickens here in the U.S. unless it suits the current agenda ~ and all I can say is it's about time a political pitbull came forward with it. Besides, confession is good for the soul. I've about had it with all the double standards that have been applied in the name of... Israel. I pray for more leaders to come forward.

The Ninth Scribe

Jimmy Carter..."political pitbull"???

That was fun, thanks.

BTW..there is no "double standard". Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. You don't want them to have nukes..go take them away from them.

Can a person be labelled as "Anti-Semitic" for this remarks?

Keep it civil guys.

This isn't really news, everybody knew Israel had nukes already, its just that the Israeli government won't admit to it.

Which is a bit worrying. If you are going to use nukes as a deterrant and not actually launch them, you would let everybody know you had them. You would only keep it secret if you were actually planning to use them.

Mind you, there are probably a lot more countries that could make WMDs if they wanted to. Like Saudi Arabia, or Japan.

No you keep them a secret as a deterrent. Let's say you have a neighbor you don't like. Now you really hate this neighbor and would like to get rid of him and you are willing to use violence to achieve this. You've heard rumors that he might have a big stick. Would you be more or less likely to attack him?

Why didn't the USA and the USSR do that then? Are rumors a better deterrent than facts?

There wouldn't have been any rumors anyway if that scientist hadn't given it all away to the British newspapers.

Because it was kind of hard to hide having nuclear weapons when you destroyed 2 citiies. On top of that there wasn't an effective way to hide testing. Once you test your bomb then the cat is out of the bag. Post NPT the world is not gonna just "let" you have a nuke. Acknowledgement of having one is an invitation to have it taken away.

I would say Israel's strategy of keeping silent on nukes when it is generally agreed they do have nukes is working better than Hussein's strategy of pretending to have WMD's when he didn't anymore.

Of course, Israel would not want its enemies to know how many nukes they have, which is why they aren't likely to be happy with Jimmy. Even if Carter is using secret information he got from a briefing when he was President, it is probably a CIA estimate. We all know how accurate those can be

In fact, it is possible Carter is violating US law by releasing information of this type as the US doesn't want Israel to know how good their information is on the Israeli nuclear program (yes, the US spies on Israel and Israel spies on the US).

Carter hasn't been in office for over 20 years. Do you know how old that intel is? They could have 1000 nukes or they could have one. Saying Israel had 150 nukes was just plain dumb.

Israel had a very strong incentive to keep it secret until their program was mature. The French certianly knew as they supplied them with the nuclear plant and the US would have been able to have suspicions from spy satellites (but they didn't get permission from us). Ditto the Russians at some point which means they likely told their Arab vassal states. Even the government of South Africa apparently knew as it appears the Israelis were allowed to test a nuke on South African soil, perhaps in exchange for technical know-how or plans (yes, the South African (white government) had a nuke program which has since been stopped)

The Israelis know they have a target on their forehead in the UN. Keeping a low profile is exactly the right option for them.

I quite agree. Consider the source.

You've really answered your own point. As everybody did, indeed, know Israel had nukes already why suffer the unecessary political inconvenience of admitting it?

He has more standing than I do so yes, compared to me, he's a pitbull. And, excuse me, but if your statement about the "Non-proliferation Treaty" is correct - then why is America so peeved at Iran for having them?

Maybe the Bush Administration should just mind it's own business. I mean, four states have been wiped out by tornadoes this past week - yesterday's was the rare and infamous F-5... One heck of an air raid! I mean, we've got a "war zone" right here in our own back yard, and nowhere near the man-power we need to clean it up.

Well, just a thought. I'm off to my spinning class now.

The Ninth Scribe