Shields Up!

I assume he is prepared for the incoming fire that is about to erupt, as the BBC reports on Jimmy Carter’s latest comments on the Middle East: Israel ‘has 150 nuclear weapons’

Ex-US President Jimmy Carter has said Israel has at least 150 atomic weapons in its arsenal.

The Israelis have never confirmed they have nuclear weapons, but this has been widely assumed since a scientist leaked details in the 1980s.

Mr Carter made his comments on Israel’s weapons at a press conference at the annual literary Hay Festival in Wales.

He also described Israeli treatment of Palestinians as “one of the greatest human rights crimes on earth”.

Mr Carter gave the figure for the Israeli nuclear arsenal in response to a question on US policy on a possible nuclear-armed Iran, arguing that any country newly armed with atomic weapons faced overwhelming odds.

“The US has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons; the Soviet Union (sic) has about the same; Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more,” he said.

“We have a phalanx of enormous capabilities, not only of weaponry but also of rockets to deliver every one of those missiles on a pinpoint accuracy target.”
…

During the press briefing, Mr Carter expressed his support for Israel as a country, but criticised its domestic and foreign policy.

“One of the greatest human rights crimes on earth is the starvation and imprisonment of 1.6m Palestinians,” he said.

The former US president cited statistics which he said showed the nutritional intake of some Palestinian children was below that of children in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as saying the European position on Israel could be best described as “supine”.

He will probably be surprised by the presence of a penguin behind the shield, as Badtux will probably be subjected to assorted grief for his comments on reality in the post, The real threat to Israel today.

Well, I’ve already installed the litter boxes so the cats can visit, because I have made no attempt to hide my displeasure with the Israeli government and its actions for decades. Yes, the Palestinians do bad things, but they don’t have the capacity to be worse than the Israelis. It is rather obvious that the Israeli overreactions haven’t made Israel safer or brought peace. When you go around killing innocent people, like children too young for kindergarten, all you accomplish is an increase in the number of people who hate you.

Jimmy Carter proved that there was another way of dealing with the issues, but Carter’s way requires real courage, not militaristic posturing.