Britain's dirty secret - New Statesman's title

The New Statesman. ^ | 13 Mary, 2006 | Meirion Jones

[tjwmason]

Britain's dirty secret Meirion Jones
13th March 2006

Exculsive - Secret papers show how Britain helped Israel make the A-bomb in the 1960s, supplying tons of vital chemicals including plutonium and uranium. And it looks as though Harold Wilson and his ministers knew nothing about it. By Meirion Jones

Mirage jets swoop from the sky to destroy the Egyptian air force before breakfast; tanks race across the desert to the Suez Canal; Moshe Dayan, the defence minister, poses with eyepatch after the Jerusalem brigade has fought its way into the Old City. These are the heroic images of the Six Day War and they defined Israeli daring: here was a people who, it seemed, risked everything on a throw of the dice. Years later the world discovered that there was an insurance policy.

They had a secret weapon - two, to be precise.

[tjwmason]

It looks like the Israelis received significant assistance from the U.K. towards their nuclear weapons programme.

Interesting....

[tomahawk]

Britain's badge of honor, not a dirty secret.

[bill1952]

England's proud heritage of firmly standing behind democracy.

Dirty secret? That would be the New Statesman.

Pure trash.

[Eli Reifman]

From the New Statesman article They had a secret weapon - two, to be precise. In the weeks before Israel took on the Arab world in June 1967 it put together a pair of crude nuclear bombs, just in case things didn't go as planned. Making them required not only Israeli ingenuity but also plenty of help from abroad. It has been known for some time that the French helped build Israel's reactor and reprocessing plant at Dimona, but over the past year our research team at BBC Newsnight has unearthed something no less astonishing and much closer to home - top-secret files which show how Britain helped Israel get the atomic bomb. And in Harold Macmillan's time we supplied the heavy water that allowed Israel to start up its own plutonium production facility at Dimona - heavy water that British intelligence estimated would enable Israel to make "six nuclear weapons a year". Israel paid the top price - £1m - to avoid having to give guarantees that the material would not be used to make nuclear weapons, but the papers leave no doubt that Britain knew all along that Israel wanted the heavy water "to produce plutonium". Kelly discovered that a charade was played out, with British and Israeli delegations sitting in adjacent rooms while Noratom ferried contracts between them to maintain the fiction that Britain had not done the deal with Israel. There was another problem: the Americans. There was no US-Israeli alliance in those days and Washington was determined to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation. If Britain told the Americans about the Israeli deal they would stop it. Donald Cape decided on discretion: "I would rather not tell the Americans." When Newsnight told Robert McNamara - John F Kennedy's defence secretary - about this he was amazed... Seems we have an awful lot to be grateful to the Brits for. They truly are real friends of Israel.

[dennisw]

Anyone who wants the full story - freepmail me and I'll send it

[Hannah Senesh]

This is the kind of total contempt for Israel that is so much a part of the social and political landscape in the UK. Notice how they try even to take away Israel's kudos for the Six Day War. "They're not really brave or smart," these British Jew-haters are saying, "it's just that they had nukes to back them up."

I've grown to despise the nation in which I was born and raised. How can it be otherwise when I'm surrounded by such hatred for the Jewish people and the Jewish state? Boycotts of Israel, Nazi war criminals protected, regular demonisation of Israel on the BBC, physical attacks on Jews at a record rate, threatened arrests of Israeli generals, open hatred and incitement in important newspapers, London with an openly anti-Semitic mayor - the list is endless.

Britain's real dirty little secret? That Jews are no longer either comfortable or safe in the UK.

And the hatred of Israel is nearly matched by the hatred of the United States. Your closest ally? In your dreams.

[strategofr]

"Britain's badge of honor, not a dirty secret."

Got that right!

[strategofr]

"I've grown to despise the nation in which I was born and raised."

As an American Jew, I can only hope there are more positives in Great Britain then you can now see. I won't deny the reality of the negatives which you obviously observed for yourself (in which I am not unaware of).

Somehow, Britain has stood the next United States in Iraq war. However the Iraq war turns out, this act of Britain's has heartened, and will continue to hearten, American conservatives.

As you know, we have few friends in the world. Great Britain has made a bigger sacrifice to support us in this war than anyone else. We appreciate it tremendously; I understand that the personal political beliefs of John Major were crucial contributors to what happened, but the result is still the same.

There's no doubt that in addition to the British soldiers who have been killed and wounded, the Britons killed and wounded in the subway terror were subject to retaliation against Britain for this action in support of the America.

These are my feelings for what they're worth. I respect yours and realize that what I think may not have an impact on you.

[Hannah Senesh]

"Somehow, Britain has stood the next United States in Iraq war. However the Iraq war turns out, this act of Britain's has heartened, and will continue to hearten, American conservatives."

It's a very odd situation. The government, or at least Blair, has stood with the U.S, but there is a level of real contempt and hatred out there for America. In the same way the hatred of Israel in the UK goes way beyond Sharon or Likud or even the occupation of the disuputed territories, the intense dislike of the U.S. goes far beyond Bush or the war in Iraq. It's everywhere: on TV, the newspapers, even on the street. On the other hand people patently love much of America, or at least its more obvious cultural aspects. But, then again, there has always been this very odd bifurcation in attitudes all over the world. Thus, the Latin American will talk about the dirty Yankee on one hand and yet yearn to live in America and acquire everything America has to offer.

There is something much more than the old prejudices though. Americans are seen as incredibly greedy, self-centred, uncultured, badly educated, naive, absurdly religious, materialistic and even thuggish. One only has to look at the obvious superiority of the U.S. university system or her prowess in business, research, medicine etc. to see how obviously barmy these prejudices really are, but that's the nature of prejudice I suppose.

My own feeling is that America is now hated in a very similar way to how Europeans have always despised Jews. Many, many people get a real pleasure out of attacks on American both real and verbal, and I'm sure that even if a nuclear attack hit America there would be many who would say that she deserved it. And if New York were hit, they would, for obvious reasons, be in seventh heaven - two birds with one stone, so to speak.

[NZerFromHK]

"Americans are seen as incredibly greedy, self-centred, uncultured, badly educated, naive, absurdly religious, materialistic and even thuggish."

I always find it funny that these same British or Europeans turn around and say the US is imperialistic. By defintion, imperialism can only be done from advanced societies to more primitive ones. (Or it may be that my understanding of imperialism is so 19th century-ish) You can be uncultured and be imperialistic because you won't even have advanced militaries to conquer other people! And oddly enough, they seem to have no regrets to the colonial empires their own ancestors helped built or run.

The same people will then characterise the CIA as being the mosr Machevillian lot, but then forget these are the very same Americans they denounce as naive.

[tet68]

My own feeling is that America is now hated in a very similar way to how Europeans have always despised Jews.

Makes one proud to be an American.

[strategofr]

"One only has to look at the obvious superiority of the U.S. university system..."

Sorry, in a sense to hear a British person say this. Not long ago, British universities were still superior to American, isn't this so?

I am aware of what you are talking about and it is indeed global. I have my own view of this, though so far, as near as I can tell, ion the only person who thinks this way.

I believe the origin of these thoughts is the worldwide organized hard left (WOHL). I see this as a conglomeration of nongovernmental organizations and agents of influence throughout the world---controlled by Russia. Obviously, this organization started out as International Communism. And most people can see that Russia is no longer Communist, nor is the Left, strictly speaking, Communist and its orientation.


However, Russia is currently ruled by the KGB, in my opinion.



KGB rules Russia. From an article in the Wall Street Journal, page 1, Wednesday, February 23, 2005:

"Mr. Putin him self served more than 15 years in the KGB and later headed its successor, the FSB [actually, the KGB split onto 2 organizations, the SVR (international, like the CIA) and the FSB (national, like the FBI).] Since taking over the Kremlin in 2000, he has presided over an unprecedented influx of ex-KGB men into the upper echelons of power---men whose formative years were spent learning how to undermine the West's interests.

Prominent among the ex-KGB officials who now pace the Kremlin's corridors are Defense minister Sergei Ivanov, Interior Minister Rahid Nurgaliev, and FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev, as well as the heads of Russia's arms-export, defense-procurement, and drug-enforcement agencies. A close Putin aide and former KGB man, Victor Ivano, serves on the board of flagship airline OAO Aeroflot. A favorite parlor game in Russia is to divine which other senior officials and businessmen have suspicious gaps in their resume that suggest a past with the intelligence services."


I believe the KGB still holds the reins of the WOHL. It is this organization which is created the point of view you reference---a worldwide point of view consistent within itself from country to country---but disconnected from reality.

[Hannah Senesh]

"Not long ago, British universities were still superior to American, isn't this so?"

Not in living memory.

[strategofr]

""Not long ago, British universities were still superior to American, isn't this so?"

Not in living memory."

Ah, well.

[NZerFromHK]

I think British universities may have more prestigious reputations - courtesy of the Empire and early post-Empire days when the best among the best of the 1.2 billion inhabitants of the British Empire/Commonwealth, study at Oxbridge, King's College at the London University, or London School of Economics. But it is probably not more than just a legacy reputation by now and academically they aren't particularly superior to US universities.

[Hannah Senesh]

"Makes one proud to be an American."

Thank you. And it makes me proud that Jews have become so accepted and so successful in the only country in the entire world outside of Israel that is really worth a damn.

[Hannah Senesh]

Academic Ranking of World Universities carried out at Shanghai Jiao Tong University - 2005

http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm

[SJackson]

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Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking the keyword or topic Israel.

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[ToryHeartland]

Not long ago, British universities were still superior to American, isn't this so?

Hard to say, the systems are not strictly comparable; maybe in some subjects this might have been so, not sure how you measure it.

British universities have never had the kind of resources available in the US. Having said that, until recent years, a far smaller percentage of Brits than Americans went to university , with one good effect: smaller classes of more dedicated students. In my dealings with American students over here (London), I do feel there is a higher percentage of students who don't really know why they are in highter education and seem more preoccupied with the social life of being a student. But it's foolish to generalise, of course. No one could deny that the US is pre-eminent in the world for top-class universities and education, IMHO.

[strategofr]

" Hard to say, the systems are not strictly comparable; maybe in some subjects this might have been so, not sure how you measure it."

OK

"British universities have never had the kind of resources available in the US."


I think we can safely assume an American edge in science, for that reason.

"Having said that, until recent years, a far smaller percentage of Brits than Americans went to university , with one good effect: smaller classes of more dedicated students. In my dealings with American students over here (London), I do feel there is a higher percentage of students who don't really know why they are in highter education and seem more preoccupied with the social life of being a student. But it's foolish to generalise, of course."


In this case, your generalization is backed up by practically everything printed on the subject of university students in the United States in the past 10 years. I think you can safely up your confidence level on that score.

"No one could deny that the US is pre-eminent in the world for top-class universities and education, IMHO."

Again, as a conglomerate evaluation, this is probably true. We generally do business better than anybody in the world so we probably have the best business schools. There are a number of areas like that.

On the other hand, in terms of a classic Liberal Arts education, Britain may still be better. one question would be if British universities have managed to defend themselves from the Left on this score in any way. In America the capitulation of Liberal Arts to the left is very close to 100%.