Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons. Full Story »
Posted by Kaizar Campwala - via Digg, Slatest, Josh_Young (t), Tobie Openshaw (f), Kaizar Campwala (f), Jeremy Caplan (f), Jeppe Kabell (f), Gian Antelles (f)
Undoubtedly, a lot of bloggers and biased journalists will have a field day with this one, using this as circumstantial evidence of the Israeli government's feelings about "apartheids." That McGreal doesn't go there but still presents this valuable information in a highly critical light, justifiably compromising Israel's position and calling their policies into question, gives him major journalism points, in my book.
The researcher mentioned in this piece, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, is a friend and former classmate of mine.
Although he opposing viewpoint from Israel here is very brief, that is typical when the existence of something must be denied. It does lack an opposing view from within South Africa, if there is one. The explanation of the evidence is good, and there is a link to a separate story with images and documents.
The uncovered documents offer insight into an important issue, both historically and in the present, but a couple questions come to mind. First, how long ago were the documents released, and is it just coincidence that the author's book is being published this week. If this news is tied to book release, its credibility is undermined. Second, is there really only one person, a spokesperson for Peres, who could discuss the legitimacy of the documents.
A suppressed historical episode has emerged into the light of day in such a way as to deeply embarrass Israel and the United States. A piece of good research by the historian Sasha Polakow-Suransky, and reporting by Guardian.
This article provides good information on the nuclear weapon agreements between Israel and the South Africa apartheid regime. The Democracy Now interview with Polakow-Suransky provides more first person information on the alliance and discovery.
It does my heart good to see SOME of these documents finally declassified. There is a lot more to be seen.
It's a good job of connecting the dots, but lacks any form of skepticism; this would never constitute even the preponderance of evidence in a civil trial, for example. For instance, the author doesn't address the question of why Israel would so diligently guard the secret of their nuclear program, then offer to sell it. Or how the Defense Minister, typically very close to the Prime Minister in Israel, would go off on a tangent like this all the way to generating a paper trail on this top secret issue before discovering somewhat later that the Prime Minister would veto it. At very most, in such a case the Israeli Defense Minister might have a discussion with a foreign power so that the famous deniability could be maintained. And ... More »
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