Israel: document “flawed and hypocritical”
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has criticized the Obama Administration for supporting the declaration by the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which singled out only Israel, calling upon it to sign the NPT. NPT Review Committee declarations are consensus documents, so had the U.S. not supported it, no declaration would have been issued. The 2010 NPT Review Committee declaration made no reference to Israel’s national security needs necessitating its nuclear deterrent and no reference to countries NPT signatories violating the NPT or engaged in nuclear proliferation like North Korea, Pakistan and Iran. Iran has is a party to the NPT and has been violating its provisions for years by working towards a nuclear weapons capacity.
Israel – along with India, North Korea and Pakistan – is not a signatory of the Treaty and is believed by some to possess nuclear weapons as a deterrent against assault from Arab powers. No major Arab-Israeli war has occurred since its hostile neighbors became aware of its alleged nuclear deterrent.
On previous occasions in 2000 and 2005, the United States refused to join proposed NPT Review Conference declarations because these singled out Israel, and no declaration was therefore possible. On this occasion, however, the Obama Administration shockingly approved the language of the declaration, which no other Administration ever approved. Israelis said that they were caught totally by surprise by the Obama Administration’s actions. Israel said they were promised back in May 2009 that the Obama Administration would not support such a declaration.
The declaration pressures Israel to sign the NPT and open its nuclear facilities to inspection; appoints a special UN envoy on nuclear weapons in the Middle East; and establishes an international conference to be convened in two years, designed to create a nuclear weapons-free Middle East. Israel’s hostile Arab neighbors have for years sought to deprive Israel of its nuclear deterrent by means of obtaining international support for a nuclear-weapons free Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying, “This resolution is deeply flawed and hypocritical … It singles out Israel, the Middle East’s only true democracy and the only country threatened with annihilation. Yet the terrorist regime in Iran, which is racing to develop nuclear weapons and openly threatens to wipe Israel off the map, is not even mentioned in the resolution” (E.B. Solomont, ‘US retreat can’t soften blow of Obama-backed NPT resolution,’ Jerusalem Post, May 31, 2010).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The Obama Administration deserves strong criticism for its failure to support its lone democratic Middle Eastern ally, Israel. Israel is threatened by regimes and groups seeking its destruction. Until and unless this situation changes, there can be no justification for the U.S. to endorse any proposal that encompasses Israel relinquishing its alleged nuclear deterrent.
“By doing this, the Obama Administration assists Israel’s enemies in building up diplomatic momentum for further pressuring Israel on this subject while at the same time diverting vital focus from the unacknowledged elephant in the room – a lawless Iranian regime seeking nuclear weapons and which declares that Israel should be wiped off the map.
“We are aware that, following the NPT Review Conference, the Obama Administration tried to distance itself from the declaration it had permitted to emerge, claiming it has ‘reservations’ about the proposed 2012 international conference, that NPT signatories would first have to fully comply with the NPT before a conference could be held, and so on – but none of this undoes the harm the Administration has done. International initiatives like this develop a life of their own. If the Obama Administration agreed to this rather than face displeasure from Arab states, will it really stand firm in the face of future Arab pressure when these regimes want progress in accordance with the declaration’s terms? Will it really prevent the convening of an international conference demanded by the Arab states? The U.S. National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones said the declaration’s failure to mention Iran is ‘deplorable.’ If so, why did the Obama Administration agree to it?
“Clearly, this is yet another example of the Obama Administration siding with and appeasing hostile Arab regimes at Israel’s expense. Again, the Obama Administration is unfortunately proving that ZOA’s concerns stated already in June 2009 following President Obama’s Cairo speech, where we said that this might mark the ‘beginning of a renunciation of America’s strategic alliance with Israel’ and that President Obama might ‘become the most hostile president to Israel ever’ have a solid basis.”