Prime Minister Olmert (mistakenly) outs Israel as a nuclear power

If there were still some reservoir of doubt in the international community about the fact that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, it would probably constitute a shrewd geo-political strategy for its leaders to cultivate that doubt. But since this fact was an open secret even before Israeli nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu confirmed it in 1986, it seems positively asinine for them to remain coy about it.

Therefore, I am dumfounded by the national furor that erupted in Israel yesterday after it was reported that – during an interview with a German TV station on Monday – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert let it slip that Israel is a bona fide member of the nuclear club. Here’s what Olmert said that has them damning him as a loose-lip traitor:

But, if Olmert be damned, Israelis should cite his launching that ill-fated war against Hezbollah last summer (in a bungled attempt to reclaim Israeli soldiers being held hostage) as his capital offense.

Because condemning him for this slip of the tongue smacks of a patently fatuous pretext to punish him for all of his other political sins. Especially since none of these politically indignant critics is suggesting that – like Vanunu – Olmert be tried, convicted and imprisoned (18 years) for treason.

NOTE: Meanwhile, as Israel is busy debating whether or not ’tis treason to reveal its nuclear weapons as an established fact, Iran is hosting an international conference to promulgate denials of the Holocaust as an historical fact. And, just to ensure the credibility of its communiqué, Iran invited the world’s most notorious Holocaust deniers, including David Duke, the former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and even a few self-hating Jews, to be key contributors….