Calls for Olmert to resign after nuclear gaffe

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was today trying to fend off accusations of ineptitude and calls for his resignation after he accidentally acknowledged for the first time that Israel had nuclear weapons.

After decades in which Israel has stuck to a doctrine of nuclear ambiguity, Mr Olmert let slip during an interview in Germany that Israel did indeed have weapons of mass destruction. He told Germany's Sat.1 channel last night: "Iran, openly, explicitly and publicly, threatens to wipe Israel off the map. Can you say that this is the same level, when they are aspiring to have nuclear weapons, as America, France, Israel and Russia?"

<snip>

"Speaking in Berlin after a meeting today with Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, Mr Olmert attempted to backtrack. He insisted that Israel's doggedly held position of nuclear weapons ambiguity had not changed."

<snip>

"But his remarks did nothing to assuage criticism in Israel. Opposition leaders accused him of "irresponsible" bungling and said he should resign.

"This causes great harm to Israel. We are in the midst of a huge onslaught against Iran's attempts to make a nuclear bomb," former foreign minister Silvan Shalom, a member of the rightwing Likud party, said on Army Radio. "We always face the same question which our enemies ask: 'Why is Israel allowed to and not Iran?'"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1970616,00.html

[Tom Joad]

1. I ask again. Mordechai Vanunu served 18 years, much of it in

solitary confinement, for doing what Olmert did this week: Tell the truth about Israel's nuclear weapons.
Will Olmert be tried for the crime of telling the truth?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. the truth is a crime.

I can't tell if we learned it from the Israelis, or they from us.

[Poll_Blind]

2. After scanning hundreds of Ix-nay on the ukes-nay messages on...

...the Ha'aretz message boards, I think it's humorous that the U.S. and Israel will go right back to pretending that Israel doesn't have nuclear weapons. And Israel will continue to push for the Middle East to be a Nuclear Free Zone (even though it has nuclear weapons) and continue to state that it will not be the first one to introduce nuclear weapons into the region (even though it has had nuclear weapons for decades).

So, what's the difference between that and Iran deciding that it wants to play the "nuclear ambiguity" game, too?

PB

[Tom Joad]

3. Israel does not push for a nuclear free zone, it says that Iran or other

Arab or Muslim regimes cannot have nuclear weapons.
It is most of the rest of the world (meaning Not the US and Israel and a Pacific Island or two, but nearly everybody else) that call for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, including making sure Israel is nuclear-free. Indeed, most nations want a nuclear free world and real work to nuclear disarmament.

[Poll_Blind]

5. I should clarify: They push for an Arab nuclear-free-zone in the Middle East. n/t

PB

[sabbat hunter]

7. if you hear israels statement

they have said they would never be the first to use nuclear weapons is what they mean, not that they wont be the first to have them. a bit cryptically at times but htat is what they said.

[Poll_Blind]

8. Horsefeathers! n/t

PB

[Tom Joad]

4. Vanunu on Israel's admission

Mr Vanunu, who was released in 2004 after spending 18 years in prison, welcomed the prime minister's admission. "Obviously, I don't welcome the atomic bomb but this openness could lead at last to some realpolitik - and maybe to some real peace."

Mr Vanunu said he believed the admission was not accidental. "My idea is that it was said intentionally. For 20 years they tried to deny me and my story but the policy of cheating and lying didn't succeed. There is now a new defence secretary in the United States and there are also changes taking place in the Arab world, so I think that may have led to the change."

[oblivious]

9. I checked my dictionary and thesaurus and 'ambiguity' and 'lying' are not synonyms.