Former prime minister grilled in british documentary over nuclear bombs
�If somebody wants to kill you and you use a deception � it�s not immoral. If we wouldn�t have enemies we wouldn�t need deceptions�
Ramsay Short Daily Star staff
BEIRUT: Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres has denied any comparison between Israel and Iraq concerning weapons inspections in a television documentary aired nationwide on the UK�s BBC 2 channel Monday night.
�How can you compare it?� Peres said in Correspondent � Israel�s Secret Weapon, claiming that accusations of a double standard in the treatment of Iraq and Israel over inspections are unfounded.
�Iraq is a dictatorship. Saddam Hussein is a killer. He killed a hundred thousand Kurds with gas bombs. How can you compare that at all? Just because he calls himself a state, he�s not a state, he�s a mafia. He�s not a leader, he�s a killer. You cannot say it about us.�
Peres would not be drawn on the existence of an Israeli nuclear weapons program saying, �I don�t have to answer your questions, even. I don�t see any reason why.�
The former premier also supported Israel�s policy of �nuclear ambiguity� whereby the nation neither confirms nor denies claims that it has nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and positions itself outside international treaties, which would make it subject to inspection.
�If somebody wants to kill you and you use a deception to save your life, it�s not immoral. If we wouldn�t have enemies we wouldn�t need deceptions. We wouldn�t need deterrents,� he said.
The documentary had been scheduled to run at the peak Sunday night viewing time of 7.15pm, but was dropped at the last minute and replaced by a documentary on windmills, prompting over 1,000 complaints from angry viewers.
The BBC�s website said the show was put back to Monday at 11.30pm due to extended coverage of the Azores summit between US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
The documentary tells the story of Mordechai Vanunu, Israel�s nuclear whistle blower who, 16 years ago, was drugged, kidnapped and jailed for 18 years for treason and espionage after a secret trial in Israel because he fled the country and distributed photographs of Israel�s nuclear weapons factory at Dimona in the Negev Desert.
On the program his lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, said that �Vanunu was treated this way out of revenge, out of a way to deter others and because actually he is the person who broke the taboo of the secrecy in the Israeli society, that�s why he was treated in such a harsh way.�
In a recent closed hearing, Feldman claimed the Israeli prosecutor argued that if Vanunu were released, the Americans would probably leave Iraq alone and press for inspections of Israel�s nuclear weapons.
According to the program, Vanunu�s revelations led nuclear science experts to estimate that Israel has in the region of between 100 to 200 nuclear bombs that have not undergone an independent inspection.
Israel�s Secret Weapon also claimed the Israeli Army used an unidentified gas against Palestinians in Gaza in February 2001. A report in the Israeli Haaretz daily Friday said Israel was considering launching a protest against the film.
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, said via e-mail that there had been �a great deal of Israeli pressure to have this program canceled.�
�The pressure from the Israeli government has been intense not just about this program but generally about the BBC�s coverage of the Middle East,� he said.
The Israeli government has complained about the BBC�s Correspondent series in the past after it aired a film on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called The Accused.
�This almost seems to redress the balance after the BBC aired an outrageous program on the siege of Bethlehem seen almost totally through the eyes of the Israeli soldiers,� Doyle said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/19_03_03/art19.asp
