The Conflict Between Iran and Israel

          This week we focused on the conflicts in the Middle East, and how the interests of different countries play a role in how they react to the conflicts. One of  the biggest conflicts that we focused on was the turmoil rising between Iran and Israel. Part of our discussion involved the extent to which other countries and the United Nations look into the nuclear weapon manufacturing of other countries.

          Now, both Iran and Israel at this time aren't recognized as Nuclear Weapons States by the NPT, or Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. However, Israel is believed by many to have started their nuclear program in the 1950s and today is believed to have a stockpile of 75-400 warheads. In addition to this, there have been insiders that have told the world about the Israeli nuclear weapons program, such as Mordechi Vanunu, a former Israeli nuclear technician who opposed to the production of nuclear weapons and revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to British press. This brings me to the cartoon above, which shows Vanunu trying to get the attention of the USA, Europe, and the UN on the fully developed Israeli nukes. Yet, the countries are too busy focusing on the small, single Iranian nuke. Yet many believe that Israel needs this kind of defense, as they have been kicked out of and moved from their lands throughout history.
          This then brings me to the problem in Iran. Iran first started nuclear development in the 1950s as part of the Atoms for Peace program. However, after the Shah was overthrown, it would be stopped for a few years and then restarted with much less Western support. Today, Iran insists that the main priority in nuclear development in Iran is to develop nuclear power for the people of Iran. However, because Iran's possession of a nuclear weapon would effect us in a profound way economically and politically, we feel that we must look carefully into their nuclear developments to make sure there isn't a possibility of them obtaining a nuclear weapon.
          This brings me to the big issue which is: How do we expect countries to be fully compliant to the United Nations and other global forces when we set a double standard for different countries? Now I don't support either side because, quite frankly, I don't know enough about the full arguments of the two sides; however, it doesn't take much to see that a country, Iran, will get mad when their rival, Israel, is able to develop a stockpile of nuclear weapons without much being done about it. This being said, a competition to be the country with the most nuclear weapons will just make this situation worse, and could quite possibly be the next USA v. USSR Cold War or India-Pakistan Conflict.
          We have to find better ways to deal with these things, and it really has to start with how we treat countries with, without, and developing nuclear weapons. For starters, we can no longer just ignore the fact that more countries have nuclear weapons than those stated in the NPT and we have to  treat these countries the same way we would those in the treaty. In addition to this, we can't hold a double standard where countries that are unstable in relationships to us are subject to more scrutiny and criticism than those we have close ties to. We also have to hold countries we are allied with to the same standards as these countries. Though these are just the beginning steps, they are huge hurdles to overcome, as we have grown used to just worrying about our own interests and not caring about what countries that suit these interests do. In order to change, we must change ourselves, which is a daunting task that may not be possible.