Nukes against the atom

London's Sunday Times today revealed that Israel has drawn up plans to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities with tactical nuclear weapons (The Times: Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran). Two Israeli air force squadrons based at Hatzerim and Tel Nof are training to bomb sites in Natanz, Isfahan and Arak. The ultimate hypocrisy: Israel using nuclear weapons to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

In the deranged minds of the Zionists, they believe that they are fighting to preserve the Jewish state and prevent a second Holocaust. The outcome will be the opposite. Even worse: Jewish targets all over the world will be targeted and no distinction will be made between Zionists and ultra-Orthodox nationalists on the one hand and Torah-abiding anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews on the other. Far from preventing a second Holocaust, they might ignite the fuse that could lead to widespread attacks against Jews, making the world far less safe for them than it is now.

If the Iranians would follow Bush's pre-emptive doctrine, the leaking of Israel's attack plan would justify a devastating Iranian 'shock and awe' strike against Tel Aviv and Dimona, Israel's atom bomb factory in the Negev desert. That would truly change the Middle East as we know it. So will an Israeli nuclear strike on Iran. Part of the Middle East is already in flames. Such an unprecedented war crime as using nuclear weapons for the first time since 1945, would unleash a fireball through the Middle East. Pro-Western regimes would be toppled and replaced with a fundamentalist caliphate. A Shiite arc from Lebanon to Iran would become a no-go zone for Westerners.

And finally, although Iran and Pakistan are rivals, trying to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program (there is no proof it is making the bomb), may prompt Pakistan to use its existing nuclear weapons.

The U.N. should try to stop the Zionists before it is too late.
(The Times: Focus: Mission Iran)

Side with the U.S. or Iran?

Chinese President Hu Jintao held talks in Beijing today with Secretary Ali Larijani of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. (Picture: shaking hands with State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan) It was a gesture of goodwill, less than a week before receiving Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. In December China supported a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran for not stopping its uranium enrichment program.

The message from Hu to Larijani: give a serious response to the U.N. and return to negotiations to solve the problem. Larijani told the press that tactical differences between China and Iran over sanctions would not endanger both countries' strategic relationship.

The fact remains that on the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, by voting for the sanctions resolution, China has chosen the side of the U.S. against Iran. In the times of Mao and Deng it would certainly have sided with a Third World country. China is a bit too eager to become a 'responsible stakeholder'. What looks responsible from Washington, doesn't look responsible from Teheran.

There is no proof that Iran is building the bomb and the country has the right to develop its peaceful program for nuclear energy use. It deserves the support of China.

The Sun’s fuel

An agreement was signed today at the Elysee Palace in Paris by representatives of more than 30 countries, including those of the U.S., the E.U., China, Russia, India, Japan and South Korea, to build an experimental nuclear fusion reactor at Cadarache, close to Marseille.

Scientists will try to duplicate the work of the Sun on Earth. If successful, within 30 years or so, the process could provide clean and limitless energy, making the burning of oil and gas almost superfluous. Nuclear fusion releases energy 10 million times greater than the burning of fossil fuel. Now that’s something that will reshape the Middle East. On the other hand, by then all the oil in the world might already have been used up.

The promises of nuclear fusion are great but so are the challenges. Ways will have to be found to heat gas to temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius.

The Greens are skeptical that it will work and would like to spend the money on proven technologies. But it’s better to think long term and try out new technologies and then evaluate whether they are feasible. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will initially cost €10 billion. That’s indeed a lot of money, but it’s better to spend it on new technologies than to throw it down the drain in the criminal and futile occupation and so-called ‘reconstruction’ of Iraq.

An important step has been taken today and China is taking part in the experiment. Let’s hope it will work out. It will at least stop the fight over oil reserves…