MSNBC
Reveals Facts on Israel's
Weapons of Mass Destruction
By
Ira Chernus
Most astounding web page of the week: http://www.msnbc.com/news/wld/graphics/strategic_israel_dw.htm
Here is MSNBC,
giving us more information on Israel's weapons of mass destruction (WMD)than
I've seen in any left-wing or peace-activist news source. Here is the
mainstream U.S. media, that beast we love to hate, giving us a story
that gives away the store.
It's a story
we expect the elite media to hide, because it is so embarrassing to
U.S. policymakers. How could anyone cheer for the carnage in Iraq, where
no WMD have yet been found, if they knew that Israel is the only Middle
Eastern nation wit a proven WMD arsenal? How could anyone approve of
a U.S. policy that kills where WMD don't seem to exist and turns a blind
eye where they obviously do?
Far from hiding
the story, though, MSNBC uses its graphic skills to put all the details
just a mouse-click away. What's going on?
Supporters of
Israeli policy will give you an answer in a single word: anti-semitism.
These folks are always amazing us with their charges of anti-Israel
bias in the U.S. media, which they insist proves anti-semitism. It's
silly, of course. If the media were biased against Israel, the facts
about Israeli WMD would have been headline news every day during the
debate about the Iraq war. Those facts were headline news in the Arab
world. They were absolutely crucial, because they undermined the Bush
administration's principal justification for war. But mainstream news
sources here paid very little attention.
Even now, MSNBC
is not making the information easy to get. It is tucked away in an obscure
corner of the website. Try finding it from the home page, and if you
figure out how, let me know. (I found it only through a direct link
in an email I received.) When I searched the site for "Dimona"
(Israel 's best-known nuclear weapons site), it came up blank. When
I tried to access the root directory, I was told that I was "not
authorized to view this page."
Still, the information
is there on the site, if you know how to get it (and now you do). You
have to wonder why. Maybe some MSNBC staffers were really interested
in digging up facts, as good journalists should. Perhaps it never occurred
to them that there was anything embarrassing here.
After all, mainstream
U.S. journalists are not embarrassed to say that the U.S. has the world's
largest and most advanced stocks of WMD. No reason to hide it, they
assume, because our WMD are the good kind. We are a democracy. We would
never use our weapons for aggressive or immoral purposes. We would use
them only when absolutely necessary for self-defense. Most Americans
assume that our WMD are morally pure because the journalists who give
them their daily truth assume it.
Most of those
journalists assume the same about Israel's WMD. Our mainstream media
depict Israel as a lone bastion of democracy surrounded by totalitarian
enemies. So its WMD must be as good as our own. If there is any bias
here, it is for, not against, Israel and its policies.
This still leaves
me wondering, though. For decades, Israel has been coyly half-hiding
its WMD program. That program was treated as a big secret. Journalists
who wrote about it risked attack by Israel's supporters; they were hailed
as brave heroes by Israel's critics.
Israel's watchdogs
in the U.S. are relentless and well-connected. If they thought this
information on the MSNBC website was harmful to Israel, I suspect the
information would disappear fast. In fact, the cynic inside me says
the information might be on that site because the Israeli government
wants it there.
Look at the
graphic from the viewpoint of a military strategist in Damascus, or
in Hamas headquarters in Gaza. You would see strength so overwhelming,
it would be stupid even to dream of fighting against Israel, much less
to think about it in realistic terms. Look at it from the viewpoint
of a strategist in Istanbul or New Delhi. You would see a very appealing
potential ally, one with far more firepower than you could even hope
to produce in the near future. Look at it from the viewpoint of a strategist
in Teheran or Islamabad. Would you want Israel as your enemy or your
friend?
On the other
hand, putting out the facts on Israel's WMD may not be Israel's idea
at all. It may come from the nest of neo-conservative hawks in the highest
reaches of the Pentagon. They want all those capitals throughout the
Middle East and South Asia to get the idea. The neo-cons are planning
a new order in that part of the world. They have announced quite openly
that their conquest of Iraq was only a first step toward this new order.
They plan to make Israel the military cornerstone of the new order.
Why should Middle
East and South Asian leaders roll over and accept the new neo-con order?
Just take a look at the MSNBC graphic. Incontrovertible military facts
on the ground speak louder than words. Need we say more?
Perhaps the
information is tucked away in such a hard-to-find corner of cyberspace
because the general public is "not authorized to view this page."
Perhaps it is meant to send a specific message to specific people. Or
perhaps I'm far too cynical.
In any event,
now you too know just how huge Israel's WMD program really is. Anyone
for international inspectors? Or would you trust the U.S. and its "coalition
of the willing" to do the job?
Ira Chernus
is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
[email protected]