Israeli Nuclear Hypocrisy and the Propaganda Around Iran

 

Iran's former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif pointed out in speeches and interviews that Israel has been claiming since the 1990s — as early as 1992 — that Iran is just “weeks” or “days away” from developing a nuclear weapon. These warnings have continued for over 30 years, and yet, Iran has still not built a nuclear weapon. Despite this, Israeli and Western officials repeatedly use this narrative to justify aggressive foreign policy, sanctions, and military threats. As Zarif argued, this fear-mongering has served as a political tool — one that distracts from Israel’s own regional actions, including its devastating campaigns in Gaza.

What’s especially striking is the hypocrisy. Israel itself has a secret nuclear weapons program, long shielded from international scrutiny. The existence of this program was first exposed in 1986 by Mordechai Vanunu, a former Israeli nuclear technician, who leaked photos and information about Israel’s nuclear facility in Dimona to the British press. After the story broke, Mossad agents lured him from London to Rome, where he was kidnapped, drugged, and secretly brought back to Israel. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison, 11 of which he spent in solitary confinement. Vanunu's treatment exposed the lengths Israel would go to keep its nuclear arsenal off the global radar.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-nuclear-weapons-photos-show-work-at-secretive-facility-in-dimona/

https://www.juancole.com/2022/11/israels-nuclear-greatest.html

Unlike Iran, Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and refuses to confirm or deny the existence of its arsenal — a policy known as “nuclear ambiguity.” Yet Israel remains one of the only nuclear powers in the Middle East, and ironically, one of the most vocal in warning that others (like Iran) must not obtain the same capability.

This double standard isn’t just about weapons — it’s about power. Nuclear-armed states are much harder to invade, destabilize, or coerce. That’s part of the reason countries like Iraq and Libya, which lacked nuclear deterrents, were easily overthrown. Israel's real fear isn't just Iran’s bomb — it's that a nuclear-capable Iran would change the regional balance of power, preventing unilateral actions like the annexation of the Golan Heights, the occupation of Palestinian territories, or its frequent airstrikes in Syria.

                                                                    

So when you hear repeated claims that Iran is always on the verge of nuclear armament — while children die under bombs in Gaza — it's worth asking: Who’s really the threat, and who controls the narrative?