Latest news with #DavidBen-Gurion
Indian Express
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
It makes the world more dangerous
In the mid-1950s, Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, initiated the country's nuclear journey. Amidst stiff opposition from its principal supporter, the United States, and with discreet help from France, Tel Aviv built its nuclear programme by the end of the 1960s. Today, Israel is widely known as a non-declared nuclear weapons state. This exclusive status is often compared to Iran's nuclear programme of today, which was targeted by US President Donald Trump on June 22 as B-2 stealth bombers of the US Air Force dropped 14,000 kg bunker-buster bombs on three of the country's nuclear sites — Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Iran's nuclear programme has been the centre of delicate political brinkmanship for years. It began under the rule of the former pro-West Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and was pitched as civilian in nature, developed around former US President Dwight D Eisenhower's 'Atoms for Peace' initiative. Tehran ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1970, committing to not attaining nuclear weapon capabilities. All its Arab neighbours are also signatories to the NPT. Internationally, only a handful of nations, including Israel, India, and Pakistan, remain outside the agreement's ambit. In 2003, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons. This, within Iranian polity, is seen as strong an indictment against nuclear weapons as possible coming straight from the ideological leadership. But today, Iran may be on the cusp of exiting the NPT. A broader nuclearisation of West Asia has been a subject of discussion for many years, and in more contemporary times, Iran has been at the centre of this. Tehran's nuclear brinkmanship could arguably be more related to protecting and sustaining the political system set up post the 1979 Islamic Revolution than the bomb itself. It used this strategy to pull in Western powers, negotiate, and mainstream the state back into the international system via the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. However, questions over its enrichment activities under the NPT have lingered for years, raising suspicion, fear, and anxiety about Iran's intent, especially in Israel. Over the years, Israel has publicly raised fears that Iran was rushing towards a nuclear weapon as it pushed back against the JCPOA. Under Trump, Israel eventually found success, as whispers about intelligence suggesting Iran had materials to build nine warheads reached Trump's ears. Trump ignored even his own intelligence apparatus, which had aired doubts. The Israel-Iran conflict is now central to the region's security debate. While speculation continues over the kind of damage the US air strikes have really caused, and how much of a setback has been dealt to potential weaponisation, the path forward could also accelerate nuclearisation instead of deterring it. The impact of nuclear weapons dictating the strategic calculus in West Asia will not be geographically limited — it will be global. Arguments around the validity of nuclear weapons and their relationship to the protection of sovereignty and power cannot be dismissed. Especially at a time when international norms put in place predominantly by the West after World War II face a potential collapse. The latter is giving rise to a strategic calculus of 'might is right' for the future. And there is no better deterrence than a nuclear weapon. Recently, North Korea has proved this. Whether Iran remains adamant on gaining nuclear deterrence is an open-ended question after the recent strikes. Israel will do its best to preserve its newfound status as the region's primary military power. Irrespective of who holds power in Tehran — moderates, conservatives or ultra-conservatives — the probability of a unanimous view that nuclear weaponisation is the only way to prevent a repeat of June 2025 may solidify. And if this happens, a domino effect could play out where nuclear shields — one Arab, one Iranian, and a publicly acknowledged Israeli one — cannot be discounted. Former prime minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto perhaps best described a cornered state's vision of what nuclear capabilities can provide and how it can be marketed to a population. In 1977, according to various accounts, Bhutto said, 'A Jewish bomb, a Christian bomb, now a Hindu bomb. Why not an Islamic bomb?' Pakistan is the only nuclear Islamic country, and its know-how in this regard is widely accepted to be transferable to its Arab partners such as Saudi Arabia if need be. In the end, attaining nuclear weapons in today's day and age is not a technical challenge but a political decision that has long-lasting ramifications. West Asia should make such a decision cautiously and wisely. The writer is deputy director and fellow, Strategic Studies Programme, Observer Research Foundation
India Today
27-06-2025
- Politics
- India Today
How a country that helped Israel get nuclear weapons junked its own nukes
It began with a rescinded invite. In 1955, Israel was all set to attend the Bandung Conference in Indonesia, a landmark summit of newly independent Asian and African nations, which would be the beginning of the India-propelled Non-Aligned Movement. The invitation was quietly withdrawn after then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, under pressure from Egypt, Pakistan, and other Arab states, snapped his support. Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion was Bandung moment marked more than just a diplomatic slight. It exposed newly formed Israel's isolation in the postcolonial world, a world increasingly shaped by Third World solidarity and Arab-led opposition to Zionism. Rejected by India, shut out of African-Asian unity, and encircled by hostile neighbours, Israel pivoted west and south. Its search for allies would lead to a shadowy and strategic nuclear partnership with an unlikely friend: apartheid South Israel had technology, South Africa had uranium. And for a brief period in Cold War history, both had the same goal: survival. South Africa wasn't the only or the first country that Israel clandestinely cooperated with for nuclear weapons. It was France that supported Israel's nuclear programme first. However, the cooperation with South Africa – in the 1970s – is interesting because the country went on to junk its nuclear weapons while Israel emerged as an undeclared nuclear nuclear programme is an interesting study against the backdrop of its 12-day war with Iran, which was triggered after the Jewish nation targeted Iranian nuclear sites. Israel faces existential threats from the regime of Ayatollah Khamenei, and has worked for decades to deny Iran nuclear also stands out among the nuclear powers because it never conducted a nuclear test at home. That's where the South African collaboration comes in. The "Double Flash" of 1979, detected by the US off South Africa, was suspected to have Israeli participation and had all the hallmarks of a nuclear CRISIS AND THE BIRTH OF ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR PROGRAMMEThe Double Flash must have been a sign of the maturing of Israel's nuclear programme, because its N-programme is almost as old as the country PM Ben-Gurion, nuclear capability was not just a defence priority, it was a moral and existential by the Holocaust and aware of Israel's precarious position in a hostile region, he saw atomic power as a safeguard against complete annihilation, writes Sasha Polakow-Suransky in The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South in 1952, the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) was led by Ernst David Bergmann, who declared that a nuclear bomb would ensure Jews were "never again led as lambs to the slaughter", reflecting the post-Holocaust drive for strategic IAEC was set in secret and began quietly scouting for uranium. It recruited Jewish scientists from abroad, forged academic ties, and laid the technical and ideological groundwork for its nuclear it was the 1956 Suez Crisis that turned Israel's ambition into grateful for Israel's role in the joint invasion of Egypt, became a crucial partner, not just diplomatically, but technologically, writes Polakow-Suransky in his FRANCE PASSED ON NUCLEAR KNOW-HOW TO ISRAELIn a secret agreement, France provided Israel with the nuclear know-how, materials, and equipment necessary to build a reactor. French engineers helped design and construct the facility at Dimona in the Negev Desert, officially a research centre, but one that housed a hidden underground plutonium reprocessing plant, according to a report by The began in 1958, shrouded in secrecy even within France's own atomic agency. The assistance included reactor blueprints, uranium fuel, and a separate heavy water supply routed via adopted a policy of nuclear opacity, amimut, refusing to confirm or deny its was the same time that US inspectors were allowed into Dimona, but the visits were choreographed. Lead inspector Floyd Culler reported fresh plaster on the walls that later turned out to conceal elevator shafts to the secret reprocessing facility, The Guardian report growing American suspicions, US pressure waned under President Richard Nixon. In 1969, Israeli PM Golda Meir and US President Richard Nixon agreed upon silence on Israel's nuclear status. In 1969, Nixon and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir struck a quiet understanding: no public nuclear tests or declarations from Israel, and no pressure from Washington to sign the Non-Proliferation the time of the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel had assembled two or three crude nuclear devices, ready as a last resort. They were never used, but the nuclear threshold had already been crossed, silently, ISRAEL, APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA TEAMED UPIn the 1960s and 70s, Israel and apartheid South Africa had a secretive but powerful vastly different in identity, one a Jewish state born from the ashes of genocide, the other a white supremacist regime enforcing racial domination. As traditional allies distanced themselves, the two turned toward each military prowess, especially its swift victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, impressed South African leaders. When France, after a change in leadership, imposed an arms embargo on Israel after 1967, Pretoria stepped in with spare parts for Mirage fighter and South Africa were united by a sense of siege, strategic necessity, and deepening global isolation. One of their earliest connections was had the technology but lacked uranium. South Africa had uranium but lacked the technical 1962, South Africa sent Israel 10 tons of yellowcake uranium. By 1965, this flow was formalised in a deal that dodged international the decade, South Africa helped Israel quietly amass 500 tons of uranium. In return, Pretoria gained access to Israeli nuclear know-how. Officially, both insisted their nuclear programmes were peaceful, but in secret, each pursued Yom Kippur War in 1973 marked a decisive shift: while 20 African nations severed relations with Israel, South Africa extended 1974, South Africa even tested a basic nuclear device, likely with Israeli then, Pelindaba had become South Africa's main nuclear research centre. Its adjacent Y-Plant at Valindaba, built with covert assistance and drawing on earlier Israeli collaboration, began producing weapons-grade uranium by 1978. The enriched uranium was used to assemble six nuclear bombs by the mid-1980s. Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, located near Cape Town, began construction in 1976 and became operational in 1984. (Image: AFP) DID ISRAEL OFFER WARHEADS, MISSILE TO SOUTH AFRICA?In 1975, Israeli Defence Minister Shimon Peres met secretly in Zurich with South African Defence Minister PW meeting suggested a far deeper level of trust between the two Africa, under growing international pressure and eager to secure a nuclear deterrent of its own, sought to purchase Israeli Jericho missiles, which were believed to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads, according to a report by The South African documents later revealed that Peres had hinted the "correct payload" could be made available "in three sizes", a phrase widely interpreted as a veiled offer of nuclear warheads.A memo by senior official RF Armstrong confirmed Pretoria's belief that this was a nuclear offer, and a draft agreement was drawn up, complete with a clause stating it must never be disclosed under any the deal fell through. The exact reasons remain uncertain: the cost may have been too steep, or Israeli leaders may have feared the international consequences if the deal ever came to light. Peres would later deny offering nuclear the Zurich meeting remains striking. Even without a final handshake, it showed how two pariah states—bound by secrecy, ambition, and fear—were willing to step into the shadows of nuclear SATELLITE DETECTED MYSTERIOUS DOUBLE FLASHOn 22 September 1979, the US Vela 6911 satellite detected a mysterious double flash over the South Atlantic near South Africa, widely seen as a nuclear test signature. No country claimed responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on apartheid South Africa and Israel.A US enquiry led by physicist Jack Ruina concluded the flash might have been natural or a sensor glitch, but many intelligence officials and independent experts disagreed. CIA analysts believed it was likely a covert joint test by Israel and South documents suggest both had motive and Africa had a working bomb design; Israel, already nuclear-capable, had never officially tested it. Their past nuclear cooperation, South African naval presence in the area, and perfect weather conditions only deepened never confirmed, the Vela Incident is widely viewed as evidence of secret nuclear collaboration between two isolated regimes operating far from global SOUTH AFRICA GAVE UP NUCLEAR WEAPONSSouth Africa's decision to dismantle its nuclear programme and sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1991 was not just historic, it was layered with strategic calculation, moral posturing, and political was the only instance in which a state developed nuclear weapons independently, then gave them up entirely, voluntarily, and transparently, writes Sasha Polakow-Suransky in his Ukraine too gave up its nuclear stockpile as a barter for independence, those were Soviet-era weapons and not Africa's arsenal, six fully built bombs and a seventh under construction, had been assembled during the height of apartheid, amid fears of Soviet expansion, Cuban involvement in Angola, and domestic insurgency. For the white minority government, nuclear weapons were never meant for battlefield use; they were strategic bargaining chips, meant to signal strength and deter external by the late 1980s, with the Cold War winding down and the apartheid regime losing legitimacy, the weapons began to look less like protection and more like a political was also a deep anxiety within the ruling elite about the future: what if these weapons fell into the hands of the African National Congress (ANC) after the democratic transition? Dismantling the programme before handing over power allowed the apartheid government to retain control over the legacy of the weapons, and perhaps even rewrite its final chapter on its own pressure played its part too. South Africa was still under economic and military sanctions, and rejoining the global economy required a clean break from the secrecy and militarism of the 1991, it became a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). By 1993, President FW de Klerk confirmed what had long been rumoured -- that South Africa had nukes. Klerk also declared that the country didn't have any took no such step and operates the Dimona reactor, built in the desert with French help. The Jewish nation is believed to possess at least 90 nuclear warheads, with stockpiles of fissile material sufficient to build many from the Centre for Arms Control and Nonproliferation and the Nuclear Threat Initiative suggest the true arsenal could even be far larger than publicly Africa, which collaborated with Israel, gave up its nuclear weapons while the Jewish nation holds on to them. For a period in history, their secret pact, one with uranium, the other with know-how, helped shape one of the world's most opaque nuclear programmes.- EndsTune InTrending Reel
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
From Holocaust to Hydrogen: How Israel become a 'nuclear power'; with help from America
In the deserts of southern Israel, tucked away near the town of Dimona, lies one of the world's worst-kept secrets—an undeclared nuclear weapons program that has shaped Middle Eastern geopolitics for over half a century. I srael neither confirms nor denies its nuclear arsenal. It has never conducted a public test, never declared its warheads, and has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Yet among world capitals, intelligence agencies, and military strategists, it is taken as a given: Israel has the bomb. And in a region where tensions simmer perennially, that fact continues to cast a long and powerful shadow. This is the story of how Israel built its nuclear capability—quietly, cleverly, and far from the spotlight—and how it has maintained an aura of ambiguity while standing alone as the Middle East 's sole nuclear-armed state. From Holocaust to Hydrogen: The Origins A desolate landscape embodies the potential devastation of nuclear conflict, with symbolic representations of Israel and Iran clashing in the background. The seeds of Israel's nuclear ambition were sown not just in the sands of the Negev desert, but in the ashes of Europe. For David Ben-Gurion and the architects of the fledgling Israeli state, nuclear weapons represented more than deterrence—they were survival. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Esse novo alarme com câmera é quase gratuito em Nova Iguaçu (consulte o preço) Alarmes Undo By the early 1950s, Israel had established the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, and began exploring uranium deposits in the Negev. But it was the secret alliance with France that truly turbocharged the program. In the aftermath of the 1956 Suez Crisis, Paris and Tel Aviv grew closer, and in this strategic intimacy, France agreed to help Israel build a heavy-water reactor at Dimona. Officially described as a textile plant, the Dimona facility was built with French blueprints, French technicians, and French nuclear expertise. At its core was a heavy-water reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium—a clear sign that this was no energy programme. By the mid-1960s, Israel had reportedly produced enough fissile material for its first nuclear weapon. And by the time the world began to take notice, the programme was already well advanced. American Winks and European Loopholes The United States—Israel's most important strategic partner—was not unaware of what was happening in Dimona. By the early 1960s, American intelligence had raised red flags. But successive US presidents, from Kennedy to Johnson and beyond, ultimately chose quiet diplomacy over confrontation. While Washington occasionally pressured Israel to sign the NPT or submit Dimona to international inspections, these efforts were largely symbolic. Israel would allow U.S. inspectors periodic access—but only to non-sensitive areas, and often with time to prepare. The reactor's most secretive components, including the underground plutonium reprocessing plant, remained off-limits. Meanwhile, European countries played their part—sometimes knowingly, sometimes not. Norway and the UK provided heavy water. Argentina and South Africa, at various points, supplied uranium. And in the shadows, Israeli operatives ensured the procurement of sensitive technologies by any means necessary. Operation Secrecy: Mossad's Global Shopping List Israel's nuclear success didn't come from laboratories alone—it came from suitcases, ships, and subterfuge. In one of the most daring and little-known operations, Israeli agents orchestrated a covert mission to obtain 200 tonnes of uranium yellowcake from Europe. Disguised as a shipment of lead, the cargo was rerouted under the cover of night onto an Israeli vessel and quietly spirited to the Middle East. This was just one of many such missions. Over the years, Israeli intelligence—particularly the secretive units responsible for scientific and technological collection—secured blueprints for centrifuges, acquired materials under false company names, and built an informal global network of suppliers, sympathisers, and strategic traders. Israeli agents also worked hard to keep the lid on the programme. When Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at Dimona, leaked photographs and details of the weapons programme to the British press in 1986, Mossad lured him to Rome, kidnapped him, and brought him back to Israel, where he was tried and imprisoned for 18 years. A Doctrine of Silence: The Policy of Ambiguity Israel's nuclear posture is defined by one of the most unique doctrines in modern defence: deliberate ambiguity. Israeli leaders have consistently refused to confirm or deny the existence of nuclear weapons. The official line—repeated by every prime minister—is that Israel 'will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.' The sentence is a masterpiece of political sleight of hand: vague enough to deflect, but strong enough to deter. This policy has allowed Israel to maintain its strategic deterrent without the diplomatic backlash that might follow an open declaration. It sidesteps international condemnation, avoids sanctions, and denies adversaries the ability to point to a formal arsenal. But ambiguity does not mean invisibility. Satellite images, intelligence leaks, and decades of analysis have made it clear that Israel possesses an advanced arsenal—reportedly including not just gravity bombs, but missile-mounted warheads and possibly submarine-based second-strike capabilities. A Regional Monopoly Israel stands alone in the Middle East as the only country believed to have nuclear weapons. Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Iran have all explored nuclear options at different times—some more aggressively than others—but none have succeeded in acquiring a bomb. Why has Israel succeeded where others have not? The answer lies in timing, alliances, and intelligence. Israel's nuclear development began before the NPT was established in 1968, and it refused to join the treaty, thus avoiding its restrictions. Meanwhile, strong relationships with Western countries—especially the U.S. and France—provided cover and cooperation at critical junctures. Other regional players were not so lucky. Iraq's reactor at Osirak was bombed by Israel in 1981. Syria's nascent programme met the same fate in 2007. Iran has faced years of sanctions, sabotage, and diplomatic isolation for its nuclear ambitions—partly because it is an NPT signatory and therefore subject to inspections and compliance. This disparity has become a lightning rod for criticism across the Arab world. Why, many ask, is one country allowed to operate outside the global non-proliferation regime while others are punished for even exploring nuclear technology? The Geopolitical Fallout Israel's nuclear monopoly has had profound strategic consequences. On one hand, it has likely deterred major conventional wars. During the Cold War and beyond, neighbouring states knew that Israel possessed a last-resort option. Some analysts argue that this 'Samson Option'—the ability to bring down regional enemies in the event of an existential threat—has preserved a tenuous peace. On the other hand, Israel's opacity has created deep resentment. It has made negotiations around a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East virtually impossible. Arab states have long demanded that Israel disarm or at least declare its arsenal. Israel counters that peace and recognition must come first. The unresolved nuclear imbalance also complicates efforts to curb Iran's programme. Tehran routinely points to Israel's undeclared arsenal as evidence of Western double standards. Until this asymmetry is addressed—or at least acknowledged—diplomacy in the region will always be fraught. The Future of the Arsenal Israel's nuclear weapons have never been used, and many hope they never will be. But as regional threats evolve—from Iranian missiles to non-state actors and cyber warfare—the rationale for retaining a nuclear deterrent remains deeply embedded in Israeli defence thinking. In recent years, Israel has focused less on expansion and more on survivability. Submarine-based platforms suggest a move towards second-strike capability. Missile defence systems like Iron Dome and Arrow complement the nuclear umbrella with layered deterrence. But there is also growing international pressure for transparency. As the global non-proliferation regime is tested by North Korea's defiance and Iran's ambitions, calls for Israel to 'come clean' grow louder. So far, they have fallen on deliberately deaf ears. A Strategic Silence That Roars Israel's nuclear program is the paradox at the heart of Middle East security: an arsenal that officially doesn't exist, protected by silence, sustained by history, and tolerated by allies who know better. It began in secrecy, survived by deception, and now endures by design. While the rest of the world debates inspections, treaties, and transparency, Israel's greatest nuclear weapon may not be a warhead—but its policy of never saying anything at all. In the Middle East, where everything is personal, tribal, historical, and existential, Israel's nuclear silence remains the loudest sound in the room.
Middle East Eye
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
The more Israel kills, the more the West portrays it as a victim
Early on Friday morning, Israel launched unprovoked air strikes deep inside Iranian territory, targeting sites near Isfahan and Tehran. Among those reportedly killed were scientists, senior government officials and civilians, including women and children. Yet, within hours, western leaders and media outlets cast Israel's aggression as "preemptive" self-defence. US officials claimed that Israel acted to thwart an "imminent" Iranian threat, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune insisted the strikes were necessary to counter "Iranian aggression" and protect Americans. Despite its ongoing belligerence across the region, the depiction of violent, predatory Israel as a victim of its victims has prevailed in the West since before the establishment of the settler-colonial state in 1948. The more lands and people Israel conquers and oppresses, the more insistently the West portrays it as the victim. This framing was no accident. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters In 1936, a few months after the eruption of the Great Palestinian Rebellion against Zionist settler-colonialism and British occupation, the Polish Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion (born Grun) explained how Zionists must present their conquest of Palestine: We are not Arabs, and others measure us by a different standard… Our instruments of war are different from those of the Arabs, and only our instruments can guarantee our victory. Our strength is in defence… and this strength will give us a political victory if England and the world know that we are defending ourselves rather than attacking. In 1948, and in line with this Zionist strategy, the dominant western narrative cast the Zionists, who massacred Palestinians and expelled them from their homeland, as poor victims merely defending themselves against the indigenous population whose lands they had conquered. It was, however, Israel's "defensive" conquest of the West Bank and Gaza - 58 years ago this month - that firmly entrenched its image as a besieged "victim" and laid the groundwork for the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Today, even that genocide is presented in the West as a matter of self-defence. Israel, we are told, remains the victim of its victims - 200,000 of whom it has killed or injured in its latest war to "defend itself". Saintly victimhood The June 1967 War elevated Israel to the status of untouchable, saintly victimhood in the West. Its supporters multiplied, among western Christians and Jews alike, who viewed Arabs and Palestinians as the oppressors of Israel. Indeed, it was this climate of extreme anti-Arab hostility that marked a turning point in the politicisation of the late intellectual Edward Said, who witnessed it first-hand in the United States. Israel's territorial conquests were celebrated as acts of heroic self-defence - a deliberate inversion of victim and aggressor that continues to shape western perceptions. A review of the 1967 war's so-called achievements helps explain how Israel's image as a victim has endured, even as it carries out mass killings and forced displacement A review of the 1967 war's so-called achievements - and the planning that preceded them - helps explain how Israel's image as a victim has endured, even as it carries out mass killings and forced displacement. Between 1948 and 1967, Israel destroyed some 500 Palestinian villages, replacing them with Jewish colonies. This erasure was hailed in the West as a miracle: the building of a Jewish state after the Holocaust in spite of the hateful resistance of the indigenous Palestinians seeking to save their homeland. The historian Isaac Deutscher - often described as a critic of Zionism - called Israel's effacement of Palestine and the Palestinians "a marvel and a prodigy of history", akin to "the great heroic myths and legends" of antiquity. Moshe Dayan, Israel's military chief of staff, reflected on its mythical achievements in destroying Palestine in 1969: "Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You don't even know the names of these Arab villages, and I don't blame you, because these geography books are no longer in existence. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either." Dayan's pride in Israel's theft of Palestinian land led him a year earlier to urge Israelis never to say "that's enough" when it came to acquiring territory: "You must not call a halt - heaven forbid - and say, 'that's all; up to here, up to Degania, to Muffalasim, to Nahal Oz!' For that is not all." Western complicity That the Zionists established their state on stolen Palestinian land was never a cause for criticism in the West. While glorifying Israel's legendary land thefts, western powers lamented its small territory and backed its colonial expansionist plans - already well underway. After all, if Israel was the victim, then it naturally required more territory to occupy. This view was recently echoed by US President Donald Trump, who in February defended planned Israeli annexation of the West Bank by claiming: "It's a small country… it's a small country in terms of land." Israel's attack on Iran: Why Netanyahu opted to roll the dice Read More » Israel's avarice for the land of others was made unmistakably clear before and after its 1956 invasion and first occupation of Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula. After this conquest, the secular David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding prime minister, waxed biblical, claiming that the invasion of Sinai "was the greatest and most glorious in the annals of our people". The successful invasion and occupation, he claimed, restored "King Solomon's patrimony from the island of Yotvat in the south to the foothills of Lebanon in the north". "Yotvat" - as the Israelis rushed to rename the Egyptian island of Tiran - "will once more become part of the Third Kingdom of Israel". Amid inter-imperial rivalry with France and Britain, the US insisted on Israeli withdrawal, prompting outrage from Ben-Gurion: "Up to the middle of the sixth century Jewish independence was maintained on the island of Yotvat… which was liberated yesterday by the Israeli army." He also declared the Gaza Strip "an integral part of the nation". Invoking the biblical prophecy of Isaiah, he vowed: "No force, whatever it is called, was going to make Israel evacuate Sinai." Despite popular support for Israel in the West, the Israelis withdrew four months later under pressure from the UN, the US and the Soviet Union. Egypt welcomed the UN Emergency Force (Unef) to its side of the border, but Israel refused to receive Unef monitors. Expansionist strategy In 1954, Defence Minister Pinhas Lavon "proposed entering the demilitarised zones [on the Israeli-Syrian frontier], seizing the high ground across the Syrian border [that is part or all of the Golan Heights], and entering the Gaza Strip or seizing an Egyptian position near Eilat." Dayan also suggested that Israel conquer Egyptian territory at Ras al-Naqab in the south, or cut through Sinai, south of Rafah, to the Mediterranean. In May 1955, he even proposed that Israel annex Lebanon south of the Litani River. The Israelis also moved forward with plans to steal all the land in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) along the Syrian border near the Golan Heights. By 1967, they had taken over the entire area. Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of the Israel-Palestine war In addition to these land seizures and occupations, Israel's territorial ambitions expanded steadily between 1948 and 1967. It repeatedly sought to provoke its Arab victims into responding to attacks, in order to create a pretext for invading coveted Arab lands, while continuing to frame itself as the victim of its victims. On 13 November 1966, the Israelis invaded the southern West Bank village of Samu, across the border inside Jordan, and blew up more than 125 houses, along with the village clinic and school. Jordanian soldiers responding to the attack were ambushed before reaching the village. The Israelis killed 15 soldiers and three civilians, and they wounded 54 others. In April 1967, the Israelis were threatening Syria, chipping away at more of the DMZ by sending in farmers, tractors and soldiers disguised as police. When the Syrians responded with mortar fire, the Israeli "victims" launched 70 fighter jets, bombed Damascus itself and killed 100 Syrians. Manufacturing pretext Israeli provocations incensed Arab public opinion. In May 1967, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser finally yielded to popular pressure from across the Arab world to remove Unef from Egypt - forces that Israel had never permitted on its side of the border - and to close the Straits of Tiran, at the mouth of the Red Sea, to Israeli shipping, which was lawful under international law as it fell within Egyptian territorial waters. Nasser sent two army divisions to Sinai to protect the border after Unef's departure and closed the straits, through which less than 5 percent of Israeli shipping passed. Israel, which had been provoking an Arab response and waiting for the right pretext to invade its victims and steal their lands, now had several. Destruction can be seen in Egypt's Suez city following Israeli air raids during the June 1967 War, in which Israel seized Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and Sinai (AFP) On 5 June 1967, Israel invaded Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Within six days, it had occupied the Gaza Strip and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula all the way to the Suez Canal - for the second time in a decade - as well as the entire West Bank from Jordan and Syria's Golan Heights. Unlike the Arab world, which refers to the invasion as the "June 1967 War", the Israelis and their western imperial sponsors not only insist that Israel was the one "invaded", rather than the invader of its Arab neighbours, but also refer to its multiple invasions as the "Six-Day War" - likening Israel to God, who created a new world in six days and rested on the seventh. The West erupted in unbridled racist jubilation. The Daily Telegraph called the war "The Triumph of the Civilised", while the French daily Le Monde declared that Israel's conquest had "rid" Europe "of the guilt it incurred in the drama of the Second World War and, before that, in the persecutions, which from the Russian pogroms to the Dreyfus affair, accompanied the birth of Zionism. In the continent of Europe, the Jews were at last avenged - but alas, on the backs of the Arabs – for the tragic and stupid accusation: "they went like sheep to the slaughter". Erasing Palestine As they had done in 1948, the Israelis proceeded to wipe Palestinian villages in the West Bank off the map, including Beit Nuba, Imwas, and Yalu, expelling their 10,000 inhabitants. They went on to decimate the villages of Beit Marsam, Beit Awa, Hablah and Jiftlik, among others. In East Jerusalem, the Israelis descended on the Mughrabi Quarter, so named seven centuries earlier when Mughrabi volunteers from North Africa joined Saladin's war against the Crusading Franks. In Gaza, Israel expelled 75,000 Palestinians by the end of 1968 and barred another 50,000 from returning home The neighbourhood had been owned by an Islamic endowment for centuries. Thousands of residents were given only minutes to vacate their homes, which were immediately bulldozed to make way for the conquering Jewish masses to enter the Old City and celebrate their victory facing the Buraq Wall - the so-called "Western Wall". The first Israeli military governor of the occupied territories, the Irish-born Chaim Herzog, who would later become Israel's sixth president, took credit for the destruction of the ancient, densely populated neighbourhood. In typical Israeli racist fashion, he described it as a "toilet" that they "decided to remove". This, it seems, is what "civilised" victims do when they triumph over their victims. Israeli jeeps drove through Bethlehem with loudspeakers threatening the population: "You have two hours to leave your homes and flee to Jericho or Amman. If you don't your houses will be shelled." Mass expulsion followed, with more than 200,000 Palestinians forced to cross the River Jordan to the East Bank. As in 1948, Israeli civilians and soldiers looted Palestinian property. In Gaza, Israeli forces expelled 75,000 Palestinians by December 1968 and barred another 50,000, who had been working, studying or travelling in Egypt or elsewhere during the 1967 war, from returning home. The UN recorded 323,000 Palestinians displaced from Gaza and the West Bank, 113,000 of whom were 1948 refugees now expelled a second time. Apparently, this, too, was consistent with "civilised" behaviour. 'Civilised victims' Israel expelled more than 100,000 Syrians from the Golan Heights, leaving just 15,000 in the territory at the end of the war. It demolished 100 Syrian towns and villages, transferring their lands to Jewish colonists. In the Sinai, where the population at the time was mostly Bedouin and farmers, 38,000 people became refugees. Israel killed more than 18,000 Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians and Palestinians during the war, while losing fewer than 1,000 soldiers. During and after the war, the Israelis shot dead at least 1,000 Egyptian prisoners of war who had surrendered, forcing many to dig their own graves before being executed. The Israelis killed the captured Palestinians serving in the Egyptian army, selecting them specifically for execution. Israel continued to deport Palestinians by the hundreds as the occupation advanced. All of the above was, in the eyes of the West, further proof of what "civilised" victims do when they conquer the lands of those they deem uncivilised. Yet, despite its signature war crimes, crimes against humanity and unabashed anti-Arab racism and supremacist contempt, Israel's conquest was still portrayed as a righteous victory by Israeli "victims" over their Arab "oppressors". Colonial expansion While a pro-Israeli chorus in the West insisted that poor Israel was maintaining its brutal occupation of the territories it conquered in 1967 in order to barter them for peace from its warlike victims, in reality, it was proceeding with the business of colonisation. Israeli atrocities are nothing new. The only novelty is the scale Joseph Massad Read More » Let us take a quick inventory. By 1977, 10 years after the invasion, successive Israeli Labor governments had annexed East Jerusalem, built 30 Jewish settler-colonies in the West Bank alone and four in the Gaza Strip, with more under construction. Upwards of 50,000 Jewish colonists had already moved to colonies established in East Jerusalem, which came to be deliberately mischaracterised as "neighbourhoods". Labor governments also established the majority of the 18 settlements in the Sinai Peninsula before the Likud party came to power. In 1972, Labor expelled 10,000 Egyptians after confiscating their lands in 1969. Their homes, crops, mosques and schools were bulldozed to make way for six kibbutzim, nine rural Jewish settlements, and the Jewish colony of Yamit in occupied Sinai. The Sinai colonies were ultimately dismantled in 1982, following the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty. In occupied Syria, Israel established its first Jewish colony, Kibbutz Golan, in July 1967. While touring the Golan Heights immediately after the 1967 war, Israeli Labor Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, born Shkolnik, was overwhelmed with nostalgia for his birthplace, exclaiming joyously: "Just like in the Ukraine." The Israelis evicted some 5,000 Palestinian refugees from their homes in East Jerusalem's "Jewish Quarter", which was never exclusively Jewish and which, before 1948, was less than 20 percent Jewish-owned. At the time, Jewish property consisted of no more than three synagogues and their enclosures. After 1967, Israel returned Jewish property in East Jerusalem to its original owners while confiscating all Palestinian property in the same area In 1948, the quarter's 2,000 Jewish inhabitants fled to the Zionist side when the Jordanian army saved East Jerusalem from Zionist plunder and occupation. Even before 1948, Muslims and Christians were in fact the majority of the inhabitants who lived in the 2-hectare "Jewish Quarter", and most of the Jews who lived there rented their property from them or from Christian and Muslim endowments. After the Israeli conquest, the quarter was substantially expanded to cover more than 16 hectares. The Jordanian Custodian of Absentee Property had preserved all Jewish holdings in the name of their original owners and never expropriated them. After 1967, the Israeli government returned Jewish property in East Jerusalem to its original Israeli Jewish owners, while confiscating all Palestinian property in the quarter. Meanwhile, Palestinian property in West Jerusalem, seized by Israel in 1948, was never returned to the Palestinians of East Jerusalem who now, under occupation, laid claim to it. Remaking Jerusalem On 29 June 1967, Israel placed occupied East Jerusalem under the expanded municipality of West Jerusalem. It dismissed and later deported the Palestinian-Jordanian mayor, dissolved the municipal council and Judaised the entire city administration. Immediately following the conquest, the area was declared "a site of antiquity", banning all construction. Israel closes Al-Aqsa Mosque to worshippers until further notice Read More » Israeli authorities launched archaeological excavations underground in a desperate search for the Jewish temple, leading to the destruction of numerous historic Palestinian buildings, including the 14th-century Fakhriyyah hospice and al-Tankiziyya school. In 1980, Israel officially annexed the city - a move declared "null and void" by a UN Security Council resolution. Excavations and drilling under and next to Muslim holy sites proceeded apace in search of the elusive First Temple, which has never been found - assuming it ever existed. Evictions of Palestinian Jerusalemites soon followed. Periodic curfews and collective punishment were imposed across the occupied territories. The Israelis also renamed the West Bank "Judea and Samaria" and altered the names of cities and streets to accord with their biblical fantasies. All this and much more preceded the current genocide, and drew either accolades or indifference from Israel's western supporters and funders. Enduring template It seems that support for Israel in the western mainstream increases in proportion to its cruelty towards its victims. The Nakba it perpetrated in 1948 and the apartheid system it imposed on those Palestinians it could not expel between 1948 and 1967 were hailed as epic achievements of "Jewish victims" over the people whose lands they had usurped and whose lives they have destroyed ever since. But if in the West today, it is deemed a moral crime to describe the Palestinian response to ongoing Israeli colonialism as resistance, the very same Ben-Gurion did not hesitate to call it just that in 1938. It was Israel's 'defensive' and near-divine capacity to annihilate its victims in 1967 that assured the West of its lofty civilisational prowess The Palestinian revolt, he explained, "is an active resistance by the Palestinians to what they regard as a usurpation of their homeland by the Jews - that's why they fight". He continued: "Behind the terrorists is a movement, which though primitive is not devoid of idealism and self-sacrifice... we are the aggressors and they defend themselves. The country is theirs because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view, we want to take away from them their country, while we are still outside." This aside, it was Israel's "defensive" and near-divine capacity to annihilate its victims in 1967 that assured the West of its lofty civilisational prowess. That war became the enduring template for Israel's so-called "preemptive" campaigns, wars that expand its colonial reach while allowing it to pose as the righteous victim. It is no surprise, then, that Israel's western supporters have invoked this legacy not only after its latest strikes on Iran, but throughout its genocidal campaign in Gaza and its wider aggression in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. In their view, Israel is not merely defending itself, but acting as a proxy for the West. Its current rampage is yet another striking demonstration of what western "victims" can and should do to their non-western victims. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
14-05-2025
- Politics
- First Post
History Today: When the State of Israel was formed 77 years ago
One of the most important developments in the history of West Asia, the proclamation of the State of Israel, took place on May 14, 1948. The declaration came hours before the British Mandate for Palestine officially came to an end. On this day in 1796, British physician Edward Jenner administered the first vaccination for smallpox read more The pronouncement of the State of Israel was made in close proximity to the official expiration of the British Mandate on May 15. File image/Wikimedia commons In a historic move on May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence from British rule under the Mandate for Palestine. Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the new country, following which Ben-Gurion assumed the role of Israel's first prime minister. If you are a history geek who loves to learn about important events from the past, Firstpost Explainers' ongoing series, History Today will be your one-stop destination to explore key events. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD On this day in 1796, the first smallpox vaccination was administered by British physician Edward Jenner. Here is all that took place on this day across the world. Israel declares statehood One of the most significant changes in West Asia took place on May 14, 1948, when Israel declared independence from British rule. Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel at the Tel Aviv Museum, thus establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years. The pronouncement was made in close proximity to the official expiration of the British Mandate on May 15. Drawing upon both scriptural narratives and contemporary historical arguments, the declaration referenced the enduring connection of the Jewish people to the land, the profound tragedy of the Holocaust and the aspirations for the establishment of a peaceful and democratic state. Furthermore, it pledged equal rights to all inhabitants, without regard to religion, race or gender. The United States, under President Truman, quickly recognised the newly formed State of Israel. However, this was immediately followed by a military intervention from neighbouring nations including Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon initiating the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. This conflict lasted over a year leading to significant deaths, displacement and entrenched regional tensions. The first smallpox vaccination administered One of the most important discoveries of the 1800s was the creation of smallpox vaccination. May 14, 1796, was a crucial day as the first smallpox vaccination was administered on this day. At that time, smallpox was a virulent disease-causing widespread mortality globally. British physician Edward Jenner carried out the revolutionary medical experiment and created the first vaccine for smallpox. His innovative method established the fundamental principles of modern immunology. Jenner coined the term 'vaccine' from Latin word 'vacca', meaning a cow. Representational image Jenner's concept was derived from observing milkmaids who commonly contracted the milder cowpox and seemed to be immune to smallpox. He theorised that exposure to cowpox could provide protection against the more severe virus. To experimentally validate this, Jenner extracted material from cowpox sores on the hand of a milkmaid Sarah Nelmes and introduced it into the arm of James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Phipps developed mild symptoms but quickly recovered. Several weeks later, Jenner exposed the boy to smallpox but he did not develop the disease. This experiment marked the first documented case of immunity through vaccination. Jenner published his findings in 1798, coining the term 'vaccine' from vacca, the Latin word for cow. Despite scepticism from some of his contemporaries, Jenner's technique spread rapidly. Governments across Europe and beyond began adopting vaccination programs. In the centuries that followed, vaccination would become a central tool in public health. This Day, That Year Skylab, the first US space station, was launched on this day in 1973. In 1643, four-year-old Louis XIV ascended the throne of France.
