Binyamin Netanyahu pulls out of Washington nuclear weapons summit

[Violet_Crumble]

Source: The Guardian

Relations between Israel and the US took another turn for the worsetoday after the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, cancelled a trip to Washington next week amid reports that Barack Obama's administration is seriously considering a Plan B for a Middle East peace settlement.

An Obama administration official said that the preference is still for talks between Israel and the Palestinians but admitted that if that failed, it will look at alternative options, including Obama setting out his own Middle East proposal for a comprehensive peace deal.

A group of senior foreign advisers, including former national security advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who give informal advice to the White House at regular meetings, recommended recently that if the attempts to get the Israeli-Palestinian talks under way continued to be stalled, the US should impose its own plan.

Netanyahu had been dithering over whether to attend a 47-nation summit in Washington next week to discuss nuclear weapons proliferation. His office announced in the middle of the week that he would be attending but on Thursday reversed this. His deputy, Dan Meridor, is to attend in his place.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/09/netanyahu-snubs-nuclear-weapons-summit

[BunkerHill24]

1. Hmmm! I wonder what he's so afraid of ?

[whosinpower]

2. He is afraid that Turkey and Egypt

Will bring up Israel's nuclear weapons program and ask why Israel has not signed onto the Nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

[BunkerHill24]

3. In that case, he's chicken shit. lol

[Aramchek]

4. he's afraid that rather than teaming up with Israel against Iran, Obama is allying with Russia

[Pirate Smile]

11. Obama's trying to get Russia and China to go along with sanctions against Iran which is what

Bibi SHOULD want.

[defendandprotect]

6. Not being able to use his nuclear weapons . . . btw, we store a lot of our nukes in Israel!!

[defendandprotect]

5. Love it!! Put right wing Israel on our "ignore" list -- no $$$, no weapons -- !!! Cheers--!!!

[Violet_Crumble]

7. Not sure why this was moved from LBN to GD...

but thought now it's in GD I'd give it a kick...

[NNN0LHI]

9. GD is like purgatory for temporary threads. Next stop is the basement

[Subdivisions]

12. This was moved from LBN? What, this doesn't qualify as news? The Guardian

isn't a worth LBN news source? What's the deal?

[marmar]

8. Bibi runs a rogue government.....

nt

[Poll_Blind]

10. Our doublespeak on the NPT is a millstone around our necks.

Sad, really. Thanks to an Israeli whistleblower, the world has known of Israel's nuclear weapons program for almost 30 years now. But they haven't signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the U.S. hasn't pressed the point. Just like the U.S. hasn't pressed the point about India not signing the NPT, either.

Reason: We're buddies!

This point is not missed by the rest of the world's governments or news organizations. The United States has a grotesque double standard when it comes to what our governments (Democratic and Republican, alike) claim to be one of the most important cornerstones of keeping a reasonably-orderly world: the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The United States openly disregards the Nuclear Arms Proliferation Treaty for favored nations (even those who admit nuclear weapons programs, like India) while sanctioning adversarial nations in the extreme, including the possibility of attack for nascent nuclear programs which haven't so much as produced nuclear power yet, like Iran.

I believe Obama may actually be trying to change things on this front but it is hard to say we are blameless in Israel's behavior: We have protected and encouraged this behavior for far too long.

PB