Israel should resist any Obama bid to rid the Middle East of all nuclear weapons
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 12:02AM 
WSJ piece says Obama administration is negotiating with Egypt to co-present a proposal to make the region an nukes-free zone at the UN's month-long nonproliferation conference that began on 4 May with Ahmadinejad's speech.
The goal? To prove the US isn't unduly forgiving re: Israel's known-but-unacknowledged nuclear arsenal.
Not the first time this tried: done also in 1995 review of non-proliferation treaty (NPT), but the non-binding designation meant nothing.
The zone is meant to include Israel and Turkey, as well as Iran and Arab states.
Israel, of course, supports a freeze on nuclear developments, just like the nuclear powers do WRT world.
According to the WSJ, the Egyptian proposal aims to put Israel's program under the "auspices" of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.
I see this going nowhere, and constituting a useless gesture on Obama's part. Then again, his nuclear policies have been full of such symbolism-equating-to-no-real-change.
The Economist piece points out that a lot of second-tier powers cannot be counted upon to fall in line behind the US anymore. Brazil, for example, renounced nuclear weapons years ago but still won't let IAEA inspectors view its enrichment sites. Like Turkey, Brazil has sought to insert itself in the West's dialogue with Iran as an intermediary. Then there was the US strong-arming the Nuclear Suppliers Group on its special deal with India.
Any rising power has to be left with the impression that, if you're a friend of the US, you can have nukes, and if you're not, you can't. Friendship, as we know, comes and goes, so why commit yourself to never being able to access such a hedge? The US can change its mind about your regime at any time.
To me, this is an attempt to reshape the entire global security structure simply because Iran's getting nukes and may trigger a couple more states to do the same (Turkey, Saudi Arabia). Since we won't backtrack for real on Israel and India--and shouldn't, we won't really get anywhere on Iran, thus logically Saudi Arabia and Turkey should be ready to arm up. Better to work these four powers (Iran, Israel, Saudis, Turkey) in their own region than all this showy effort to rewrite the global rule set.
