Israel is widely assumed to have had nuclear weapons capacity for over four decades.Saudi Arabia may consider acquiring nuclear weapons to match regional rivals Israel and Iran, its former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said on Monday.
"Our efforts and those of the world have failed to convince Israel to abandon its weapons of mass destruction, as well as Iran... therefore it is our duty towards our nation and people to consider all possible options, including the possession of these weapons," Faisal told a security forum in Riyadh.
"A (nuclear) disaster befalling one of us would affect us all," said Faisal.
Israel is widely held to possess hundreds of nuclear missiles, which it neither confirms nor denies, while the West accuses Iran of seeking an atomic bomb, a charge the Islamic republic rejects.
Riyadh, which has repeatedly voiced fears about the nuclear threat posed by Shiite-dominated Iran and denounced Israel's atomic capacity, has stepped up efforts to develop its own nuclear power for "peaceful use."
Yet Saudi Arabia never made any indications of interest in acquiring nuclear capabilities until Iran started its own nuclear program.
If Saudi Arabia was ever really frightened that the warmongering Zionists would shoot atom bombs at Riyadh, why wouldn't they have started their nuclear program in the 1970s?
This is how Orwell's doublethink is working in the Arab and anti-Israel world, today.
Every intelligent person, like Prince Turki, knows that Israel is a rational player with morality and an instinct for self preservation. Every intelligent person also knows that the current Iranian leadership is irrational, unpredictable and more interested in macho posturing than in the well-being of its people, and that they are endangering the entire world with their reckless pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
But no one is allowed to actually say it as it is.
So all we see and read are pro-forma denunciations of Israel, the pre-requisite to any other statement. The media, in this case AFP, dutifully reports the doublespeak without blinking an eye or noting the obvious counter-proof I mentioned above.
Turki is not worried about Israel at all. All his fears are towards Iran. But he must lie to maintain his standing in the viciously anti-Israel universe he inhabits.
This relatively small news story combines with thousands of others with similarly irrational slams against Israel, as every Arab, Muslim and far-leftist is required by their own peculiar mindset to frame everything in terms of "Zionist aggression." Even though they know that it is nonsense, it is hardwired in their collective psyches.
Millions of readers see stories like this and believe that a rational, ethical Israel is worse than an unstable Islamist regime who actively wants to start a new world war to bring the messianic Mahdi closer to Earth. They also see many, many similarly illogical stories blaming Israel for every ill without even unbiased reporters caring enough (or even smart enough) to point out the obvious.
Generations of such news consumers are not exposed to the fact that they are being fed lies and naively believe wholeheartedly the lies they have been fed since they started to watch TV. They become the next generation of reporters and pundits, without even the ability to look at Israel fairly - and without even the language to do so.
It all ends up being a tsunami of lies and hate, an area so dark that candles here and there cannot make a dent in the deepening blackness of falsehood.