How concrete is Israel's threat to use nuclear weapons?
And why is the "Anti-Imperialist" Left (I use capital letters to differentiate from the merely anti-imperialist left) always looking for potential allies among "nearby enemies" of Israel?
I know that in the United States, conservative groups are always using the anti-semitism stick against any left force, but I can't help but think that the left does not do much to counter this effectively, especially when the left (or leftists, if you prefer Carrol) treats Israel as somehow worse than any other sub-imperialist capitalist state.
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Israel's "threat" to use nuclear weapons - if we're forced to place such matters on a probability scale - is more serious than Iran's inasmuch as Isreal actually possesses atomics and Iran does not. No doubt Israel is no more likely than, say, India, Pakistan or the United States to deploy its nuclear arsenal. By writing this I'm saying the chance is greater than zero but very far from a certainty. Your question seems to imply that Iran - once nuclear capable - would immediately leapfrog to the "very likely to deploy" end of the spectrum unlike these other ("stable", I suppose, is the term of art now) states.
Regarding the "Anti Imperialist Left's search for allies" among nearby enemies of Israel..."
People who engage in simple-minded hero worship of governments and non-state actors who oppose Israel are foolish and should not be engaged in debate or considered serious spokespersons for anti imperialist thought. The less said about these people (whoever they are, and some examples would have been nice for clarity's sake) the better.
Israel is not "worse" than other states, it is, quite simply, just as bad - no more, no less. If Egypt engages - as Egypt does - in internal repression Cairo should be condemned. The same is true of Tel Aviv. I would hope this would not be a contentious point.
Here is the thing to remember about this entire Iran nuke business...
Thus far, outside of the hyperventilating claims of Western governments and lazy media outlets, we have no real evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. A nuclear energy effort that could conceivably feed a high energy weapons program? Yes, but nothing more.
Also, there is no global non-proliferation program that makes a bit of sense when judged by its rhetoric (which claims the goal is a nuclear free world or at least, nuclear free zones and the denial of nuclear weapons to "rogue nations") - there is only the effort of nuclear armed nations, led, it appears by the United States, to prevent nations that are targeted for special attention for one geopolitical reason or another from acquiring nuclear capability for strategic reasons.
There is no serious moral or safety component to this effort.
In short, talk of keeping nuclear weapons "out of the hands of mullahs" sounds very convincing to both liberal and conservative ears but has very little to do with the current Washington crafted crisis.
.d.
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Chuck Norris doesn't actually write books, the words assemble themselves out of fear.