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Should Israel be required to sign the NPT? [W:348]

Should Israel be required to sign the NPT


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MildSteel

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I saw a story that talked about how the U.S. government recently released classified documents on Israel's nuclear program. Since its obvious that Israel has a nuclear weapons program, should they be required to sign the NPT?
 
Definitely not. There is nothing in such an agreement for them to consider, and nothing in it adds anything to their security and defense.
 
Hell yes.. since the west almost "requires" countries like Iran and Pakistan to sign up, then why not Israel? After all Israel has actually sold nuclear tech to a hostile nation.. Iran and Pakistan has not..
 
Hell yes.. since the west almost "requires" countries like Iran and Pakistan to sign up, then why not Israel? After all Israel has actually sold nuclear tech to a hostile nation.. Iran and Pakistan has not..

I saw a story that talked about how the U.S. government recently released classified documents on Israel's nuclear program. Since its obvious that Israel has a nuclear weapons program, should they be required to sign the NPT?

Definitely not. There is nothing in such an agreement for them to consider, and nothing in it adds anything to their security and defense.

I have a question for all involved; If Israel were to come out and acknowledge their nuclear arsenal, would they be forced to disarm?
 
I have a question for all involved; If Israel were to come out and acknowledge their nuclear arsenal, would they be forced to disarm?

Not anymore than India has. For all the posturing and to the dismay of some there isn't that much angst about the Israeli nuclear weapons program even in the Middle East, at least among the relevant governments. Making the program overt would force countries to address an issue that everyone would rather ignore and sap attention from more serious and pressing issues.
 
Not anymore than India has. For all the posturing and to the dismay of some there isn't that much angst about the Israeli nuclear weapons program even in the Middle East, at least among the relevant governments. Making the program overt would force countries to address an issue that everyone would rather ignore and sap attention from more serious and pressing issues.

And by everyone being forced to "address an issue" do you mean they too would become nuclear themselves?
 
No and let's not pretend that Israel is the same as Iran.
 
I have a question for all involved; If Israel were to come out and acknowledge their nuclear arsenal, would they be forced to disarm?

They should be treated as all others. No one has been forced to disarm.
 
No, because the Jewish religion doesn't require that they exterminate all unbelievers, unlike some religions and the leaders of such trying to get ahold of nukes.
 
And by everyone being forced to "address an issue" do you mean they too would become nuclear themselves?

Probably not for a variety of reasons. But Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, etc would rather focus their foreign policy energies elsewhere (Iran, the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, Yemen, etc) than on something they've been at relative ease with for a long time like the Israeli nuclear weapons program. I'm not convinced any of those powers are that fearful of Israel's program and aside from errant comments and jabs they've done everything possible to avoid confronting the issue whereas they've poured an enormous amount of energy into the aforementioned issues.
 
Hell yes.. since the west almost "requires" countries like Iran and Pakistan to sign up, then why not Israel? After all Israel has actually sold nuclear tech to a hostile nation.. Iran and Pakistan has not..

Is this what you are talking about?

Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons | World news | The Guardian

Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons.

The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret.
 
No, because the Jewish religion doesn't require that they exterminate all unbelievers, unlike some religions and the leaders of such trying to get ahold of nukes.

But some have interpreted their religious texts to mean that they can use violence and kill to uproot people from their homes to form a Zionist state.
 
Of course they should.


So far, the vote is 2-5 against.

I see ignorance is alive and well on this site, on this subject.
 
"But some have interpreted their religious texts to mean that they can use violence and kill to uproot people from their homes to form a Zionist state."

Do you see that happening? Do you see Jews blowing themselves up taking mass amounts of lives with them? Forming a coalition like ISIS and killing thousands in the name of God? I haven't.
 
Yep and certain technologies were sold, just not the whole "hog". The end of aparthied fixed that problem.

I was not aware of that. Thanks for pointing that out.
 
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As long as the USA "sanctions" Iran for allegedNuke research, it presents itself as the maximum hypocrite for not insisting upon Israeli compliance with an International agreement expressly regarding Israel's nuclear weapons program. The USA should initiate teh same sanctions against Israel just to demonstrate that the sanctions are "just and fair" and not a naked political ploy discriminately aimed for covert purposes. Israel needs to comply.
 
"Required"? We have no standing to "require" any other country to do anything.

"Required" to get aid or be an ally? That, in my estimation, is absolutely foolhearty. Suggesting we treat Iran and Israel in exactly the same fashion ignores all other portions of context from a foreign policy aspect. This is akin to suggesting that you must treat an aquaintence you're indifferent to and one of your closest friends in exactly the same fashion if they say something insulting towards you...which is absolutely asinine and ridiculous poor diplomatic strategy. The reality is that we have extremely good relations with Israel and they're a valuable ally in a volatile portion of the world that we have significant economic interest in. The issue's regarding nuclear weapons is not one so great in their case that it is worth risking that relationship to "require" such a thing from them. Essentially, it's a very dumb hill to die on.

Additionally, IF we're going to try and "require" that of them for any kind of diplomatic interactions, sending any kind of context to the wind, then we would need to be doing the same with other nuclear states that are not signatories of the NPT such as India. Which would then be damaging relations with yet another allied nation.

Should we encourage them to sign it? Absolutely, I think it'd be a beneficial thing to have them sign it. Just like I think we should be attempting to encourage India to sign it. But I don't think we should get anywhere close to attempting to "require it" of them, as I simply see that as an incredibly stupid hill to die on given the entire context of our relationship with the country.
 
"But some have interpreted their religious texts to mean that they can use violence and kill to uproot people from their homes to form a Zionist state."

Do you see that happening? Do you see Jews blowing themselves up taking mass amounts of lives with them? Forming a coalition like ISIS and killing thousands in the name of God? I haven't.

Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira wrote a book that states

“There is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us, and in such a situation they may be harmed deliberately, and not only during combat with adults.”
 
Be required by whom? No other nation can dictate terms to Israel. If someone doesn't like what it does, to hell with them.

I hope the story that Israel is trying to make hydrogen bombs is true. The same number of weapons goes further, when each one is larger. It would take a half dozen of more 40-kiloton fission weapons to demolish Tehran completely, for example, while a single fusion bomb of a few megatons would do the same job. Pondering the end of Persian civilization for all time may tend to concentrate the minds of the jihadist curs who rule Iran.
 
You want to require signatures and force compliance, start with North Korea. Let's see how that works for you.
 
Required by who? How?
 
I saw a story that talked about how the U.S. government recently released classified documents on Israel's nuclear program. Since its obvious that Israel has a nuclear weapons program, should they be required to sign the NPT?

I would say that it would surprise me, if Israel only had a program and not weapons with delivery capability. But that is relatively common knowledge.

For me the question would seem more to be, what good would it would be to sign?
 
Hell yes.. since the west almost "requires" countries like Iran and Pakistan to sign up, then why not Israel? After all Israel has actually sold nuclear tech to a hostile nation.. Iran and Pakistan has not..

What would good would it be, if they signed? I do not see any advantage to anybody.
 
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