MSNBC Reveals Facts on Israel's Weapons of Mass Destruction

Greetings,

Surprisingly, MSNBC has a very useful website showing
the details of Israel's WMD.  This is the first I've
seen of this sort.  Makes you wonder why they are
leeking this info now.  

Khaldoun


Published on Monday, April 21, 2003 by
CommonDreams.org 
 
MSNBC Reveals Facts on Israel's Weapons of Mass
Destruction 
 
by Ira Chernus
 
Most astounding web page of the week:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/wld/graphics/strategic_israel_dw.htm



Here is MSNBC, giving us more information on Israel's
weapons of mass destruction (WMD)than I've seen in any
left-wing or peace-activist news source. Here is the
mainstream U.S. media, that beast we love to hate,
giving us a story that gives away the store. 

It's a story we expect the elite media to hide,
because it is so embarrassing to U.S. policymakers.
How could anyone cheer for the carnage in Iraq, where
no WMD have yet been found, if they knew that Israel
is the only Middle Eastern nation with a proven WMD
arsenal? How could anyone approve of a U.S. policy
that kills where WMD don't seem to exist and turns a
blind eye where they obviously do? 

Far from hiding the story, though, MSNBC uses its
graphic skills to put all the details just a
mouse-click away. What's going on? 

Supporters of Israeli policy will give you an answer
in a single word: anti-semitism. These folks are
always amazing us with their charges of anti-Israel
bias in the U.S. media, which they insist proves
anti-semitism. It's silly, of course. If the media
were biased against Israel, the facts about Israeli
WMD would have been headline news every day during the
debate about the Iraq war. Those facts were headline
news in the Arab world. They were absolutely crucial,
because they undermined the Bush administration's
principal justification for war. But mainstream news
sources here paid very little attention. 

Even now, MSNBC is not making the information easy to
get. It is tucked away in an obscure corner of the
website. Try finding it from the home page, and if you
figure out how, let me know. (I found it only through
a direct link in an email I received.) When I searched
the site for "Dimona" (Israel 's best-known nuclear
weapons site), it came up blank. When I tried to
access the root directory, I was told that I was "not
authorized to view this page." 

Still, the information is there on the site, if you
know how to get it (and now you do). You have to
wonder why. Maybe some MSNBC staffers were really
interested in digging up facts, as good journalists
should. Perhaps it never occurred to them that there
was anything embarrassing here. 

After all, mainstream U.S. journalists are not
embarrassed to say that the U.S. has the world's
largest and most advanced stocks of WMD. No reason to
hide it, they assume, because our WMD are the good
kind. We are a democracy. We would never use our
weapons for aggressive or immoral purposes. We would
use them only when absolutely necessary for
self-defense. Most Americans assume that our WMD are
morally pure because the journalists who give them
their daily truth assume it. 

Most of those journalists assume the same about
Israel's WMD. Our mainstream media depict Israel as a
lone bastion of democracy surrounded by totalitarian
enemies. So its WMD must be as good as our own. If
there is any bias here, it is for, not against, Israel
and its policies. 

This still leaves me wondering, though. For decades,
Israel has been coyly half-hiding its WMD program.
That program was treated as a big secret. Journalists
who wrote about it risked attack by Israel's
supporters; they were hailed as brave heroes by
Israel's critics. 

Israel's watchdogs in the U.S. are relentless and
well-connected. If they thought this information on
the MSNBC website was harmful to Israel, I suspect the
information would disappear fast. In fact, the cynic
inside me says the information might be on that site
because the Israeli government wants it there. 

Look at the graphic from the viewpoint of a military
strategist in Damascus, or in Hamas headquarters in
Gaza. You would see strength so overwhelming, it would
be stupid even to dream of fighting against Israel,
much less to think about it in realistic terms. Look
at it from the viewpoint of a strategist in Istanbul
or New Delhi. You would see a very appealing potential
ally, one with far more firepower than you could even
hope to produce in the near future. Look at it from
the viewpoint of a strategist in Teheran or Islamabad.
Would you want Israel as your enemy or your friend? 

On the other hand, putting out the facts on Israel's
WMD may not be Israel's idea at all. It may come from
the nest of neo-conservative hawks in the highest
reaches of the Pentagon. They want all those capitals
throughout the Middle East and South Asia to get the
idea. The neo-cons are planning a new order in that
part of the world. They have announced quite openly
that their conquest of Iraq was only a first step
toward this new order. They plan to make Israel the
military cornerstone of the new order. 

Why should Middle East and South Asian leaders roll
over and accept the new neo-con order? Just take a
look at the MSNBC graphic. Incontrovertible military
facts on the ground speak louder than words. Need we
say more? 

Perhaps the information is tucked away in such a
hard-to-find corner of cyberspace because the general
public is "not authorized to view this page." Perhaps
it is meant to send a specific message to specific
people. Or perhaps I'm far too cynical. 

In any event, now you too know just how huge Israel's
WMD program really is. Anyone for international
inspectors? Or would you trust the U.S. and its
"coalition of the willing" to do the job? 

Ira Chernus is Professor of Religious Studies at the
University of Colorado at Boulder.
Chernus@colorado.edu


 


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