Foreign Policy

Some foreign policies are unfortunate.

Some foreign policies are utter blunders.

And some foreign policies are just plain silly.

Let's set aside value judgments about Israel possessing nuclear weapons for a moment. Anyone with any interest in the subject knows full well that Israel has them. They call their policy "nuclear amibguity" and refuse to confirm or deny that they possess nuclear weapons. You can find a rather detailed account of the Israeli nuclear weapons program here. Just for fun, let's put together some fascinating pieces of circumstantial evidence:

Four countries are not signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel¹.

An Israeli nuclear technician acknowledged the nuclear weapons program

The incoming U.S. Secretary of Defense has acknowledged that Israel has nuclear weapons

And, of course, the recent slip of the Prime Minister's tongue that inspired this post.

The point is, Israel's insistence that it has no nuclear weapons is just plain silly. Maybe they'll fool those who can't be bothered to care one way or the other (read: most Americans, at their own peril), but they're not fooling anyone else.


¹ North Korea had been a signatory but withdrew from the treaty in 2003.