Israel has US backing for its deterrent weapons, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an oblique reference to his country's secret nuclear arms.
He also claimed US support for key elements of Israel's policy toward the Palestinians.
In Gaza before daybreak yesterday, meanwhile, Israeli troops moved to the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, a town near the northern edge of the territory, residents said. Israeli forces have held neighboring Beit Hanoun for a month, trying to prevent militants from firing rockets at Israeli towns just outside Gaza.
Despite the ongoing operation, Palestinian militants yesterday fired two Qassam rockets from the northern Gaza Strip into Israel but caused no injuries, the army said.
Speaking at a political party gathering in Tel Aviv on Thursday, Sharon said the US backs Israel in keeping control of main West Bank settlements, drawing secure borders that include parts of the West Bank in Israel and banning Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes in Israel.
Hinting at nuclear weapons, Sharon said the US recognizes that "Israel faces an existential threat, and it must be able to defend itself by itself by preserving its deterrent capability."
iran
Sharon noted that Iran is under US pressure to stop its nuclear weapons program, and Libya took steps to halt its nuclear arms development, but "we have received here a clear American position that says in other words that Israel must not be touched when it comes to its deterrent capability."
Israel has never admitted possessing nuclear weapons, maintaining a policy of ambiguity. However, based on pictures and information given to the Sunday Times in 1987 by whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, experts have concluded that Israel has perhaps hundreds of nuclear bombs.
Sharon said the US backs "Israel's right to defend itself by itself against threats at any place and to preserve Israel's deterrent power against all threats."
In Washington, a State Department official would say only that the US supports Israel's right of self-defense.
us reluctance
Critics of Israeli and US policy have questioned why the US has pressed Iraq, Iran, Libya and North Korea to stop developing nuclear weapons, when Israel faces no similar pressure. Most of the international community -- led by Arab states -- has pushed Israel to reveal its nuclear capabilities, despite the US reluctance to do push Israel on the issue.
In his address to party activists, Sharon defended his "unilateral disengagement" plan, including evacuation of Israeli settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip. The party voted overwhelmingly against the plan on April 2.
Sharon said the plan "is the most important for Israel at this time. It would be irresponsible for me to back away from it now."
He said that with the plan, he gained US support for the main elements of Israeli policy.
"The US position is that the large settlement blocs would remain under Israeli control, and the rest of the West Bank would be open to negotiations," he said.
no return
Also, he said, the US backs the Israeli position that "there will be no return of any [Palestinian] refugees to the state of Israel. We have never got that before in 56 years of Israel's existence."
Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and Gaza for a state, demanding that all 150 Jewish settlements there be dismantled.
Also, Palestinians insist on the "right of return" of refugees from the 1948-49 war and their descendants -- about 4 million people all together -- to their original homes in Israel. Israel rejects that claim as a ploy to undermine the Jewish character of their state.
missile strike
In violence in Gaza on Thursday, an Israeli missile strike on a Palestinian car killed two militants and sparked calls for revenge.
One of the dead was Amr Abu Suta, a militant leader whom Israel accused of involvement in the 1992 killing of three Israeli soldiers in a Jewish settlement in Gaza.
The two were commanders of the Ahmed Abu Reish Brigade -- a breakaway from Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. The group took responsibility for a wave of kidnappings in Gaza last week.
Israel's strike was part of a long-standing policy of "targeted killings" of militants. Israel says the practice is necessary to fight terrorism, but Palestinians and human rights groups say it amounts to extra-judicial executions.
A funeral for the two slain militants drew 5,000 people in Gaza, among them a masked man with a Kalashnikov rifle and four hand grenades around his belt.
"God willing, Sharon and his soldiers will pay a heavy price for this crime. Our retaliation is coming soon," he declared.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS