Israel: the REAL Mad Dog of the Middle East

          Change we can believe in? You bet. Just a few months after taking office, Barack Obama sold 55 of these to Israel, something that even George W. refused to do (at least at first). Apparently the idea is for Israel to unleash them on Iran to destroy nuclear research and production facilities. The International Atomic Energy Agency (the same that correctly concluded that Iraq had no WMDs before the invasion) continues to verify that Iran has not diverted any nuclear material towards military purposes, although it says that it cannot confirm the absence of such activity. (Read the IAEA's report here.) Iran, like Iraq before it, has got a difficult task ahead of them if they have to provide evidence of absence. Can I prove that I'm not a child molester? I wouldn't know where to start.
          Meanwhile, Iran has called for a nuclear-free Middle East, and appears to be in compliance with the broad principles of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a treaty that Israel has always refused to sign. In fact, Israel is the ONLY nation in the Middle East that hasn't signed (or acceded to) the NPT, and one of only four in the world that remain outside its purview (India and Pakistan are the others; North Korea withdrew in 2003). Here's a pretty stark graphical representation (green is for "we agree not to proliferate nuclear weapons"):

          Israel's nuclear weapons program is almost half a century old; they've had The Bomb since the time of the Six-Day War back in 1967. Israel refuses to admit that it has any nuclear program whatsoever; estimates of its arsenal range from as little as 60 to more than 400 thermonuclear devices, deliverable by aircraft, submarine, ICBMs, or in the form of "suitcase nukes." In 2009, the IAEA called on Israel to join the international community in fighting non-proliferation by signing on to the NPT; Israel's response was to "deplore" the idea (read the article at antiwar.com).
          Moreover, Israel has defied United Nations resolutions for decades. Notably, there's Resolution 242 (1967), which called for Israel to withdraw from the lebensraum it seized from Egypt, Syria, and Jordan (it still holds all of its seizures but the Sinai). And then there's Resolution 497 (1981), which reads in pertinent part:

[T]he Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect.

          Since then, Israel has hid behind its "special" friend in the Security Council (that would be US) to avoid scores more such resolutions, to provide cover for its widely substantiated crimes against humanity, and just this week to prevent the international community from recognizing Palestine as an independent and sovereign country.

          So tell me, which is the real rogue nation?

          Why is our President selling bunker-buster bombs to Israel so they can take out Iranian nuclear capabilities, and not the other way around?