Fletcher Features
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Talks Iran, Settlements
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor told a Fletcher crowd that a nuclearized Iran could mean the collapse of the longstanding Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and a "complete change of world order."
Meridor, a member of the conservative Likud Party who now serves in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke at the ASEAN auditorium Oct. 15 as part of Fletcher’s Charles Francis Adams Lecture Series.
Discussing U.S. President Barack Obama’s new emphasis on engaging with Iran, Meridor stressed his view that Iran must face consequences if talks fail.
"If the talks don’t get us there, there will be a need for a show of resolve," Meridor said.
Meridor said that a strong United States is "crucial" to Israel.
"The American role here is critical. I don’t think America is weak, but this is what Iran says to countries around it," he said.
Iran is uniquely dangerous, he said, because the state had a well-educated populace and a strong science program before the 1979 revolution, which ushered in a government from the "Middle Ages."
"It’s a very strange combination," Meridor said.
If Iran gets a nuclear bomb, Meridor said, that could lead to the collapse of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty , leading to a "mushrooming" number of nuclear weapons.
"The responsible adults will not be able to interfere if everybody gets nuclear weapons," he said.
Asked by an audience member if Israel itself had violated the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Meridor alluded to the fact that most analysts believe Israel does have nuclear weapons but declined to confirm that suspicion, saying "right or wrong, I don’t know." Meridor is Israel’s minister of atomic energy.
But Meridor noted that Israel has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Claiming that some countries had signed the treaty and pursued nuclear weapons nonetheless, Meridor said of Israel: "we’re not violating it."
Meridor also sharply criticized the report of the United Nations-created Goldstone commission, which found that both Israel and Palestinian militant groups committed actions tantamount to war crimes during the Gaza conflict.
Professor of International Negotiation and Conflict Studies Nadim Rouhana asked Meridor why Israel didn’t cooperate with the Goldstone commission.
Meridor replied that the Goldstone panel was biased from the start, saying that at least one of the panel’s members publicly stated her conclusion that Israel had committed war crimes before the panel got underway.
"We did, I think, whatever we could," Meridor said. "I think it was unfair and I think it was damaging."
Reflecting on the centuries-long evolution of the rules of war against targeting civilians, Meridor noted that even in modern memory such rules haven’t always been followed. In World War II, Germany targeted civilians, he said, as did other nations.
"Somebody told me even nuclear bombs were dropped on civilians," Meridor said.
He described Israel’s challenge from militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah as "new paradigm of war that we don’t have a good answer to." Both groups, he said, deliberately shoot rockets from populated areas, so that Israel is faced with the choices of either not responding or hitting civilians.
"They want to chain our hands," he said. He added: "This is war and this is why it’s so tough."
Meridor repeatedly asked audience members to imagine how the United States would act if a bordering nation like Mexico, hosted to militant groups that sent thousands of rockets into U.S. territory. He also offered to swap neighbors.
"I’ll give you the Syrians, you give me the Canadians, we’ll do that," Meridor said. "Even the Mexicans!"
Lauren Dorgan, F10