Source: The Washington Quarterly

Global Zero: An Israeli Vision of Realistic IdealiTrying to portray the Israeli outlook on a nuclear-free world presents a formidable challenge. The issue is not merely the inability to access the inner thoughts of the government, considering that no official statements on the issue are available. More fundamentally, the challenge is to validly portray a national view on an issue that has not really captured the attention of the Israeli government, let alone yielded a coherent policy formulation on it. It is, however, feasible to reflect on some factors that may explain why the renewed international interest in a nuclear-weapons-free world has thus far failed to register in Israel.

To this end, it is useful to pull together some of the basic tenets that underlie the core Israeli outlook on disarmament and, from them, infer some propositions that would probably factor in any Israeli consideration of arms control and disarmament initiatives, including Global Zero. The ultimate result is, nevertheless, bound to be both tentative as well as very personal and should be treated as such. Ultimately, the key questions are: what are Israel's views on a nuclear-weapons-free world? And what role, if any, would it be likely to play in the Global Zero campaign presently underway?