Israel assassinates scientists, engineers and technicians and bombs nuclear facilities because it wants to be the only country with any expertise in this area. Atomic knowledge is power. These Jewish Israelis are the disciples of Thrasymachus, not Abraham or Moses.

By MOGAMAT REDERWAAN CRAAYENSTEIN

Israel says that the Iranian nuclear programme poses an existential threat to Israel, and it will never allow its enemies to make progress in nuclear matters. If one were to assume that, concerning Iran, they are correct, then let us examine the evidence.

Israel has been eliminating Arab and Muslim atomic scientists, engineers and technicians since the 1950s.

We see how worried the world is about the possibility of the Ukrainian nuclear power station being damaged in the Ukraine-Russia War. Israel is the only country that has bombed not one, not two, but three nuclear power stations between 1981 and 2025.

It is hard to believe that Israel fears that its neighbours with nuclear weapons pose a threat to its existence. The evidence supports the assumption that Israel does not want any other Middle Eastern country to develop nuclear power capability, whether it be for civilian or weapons development purposes. The evidence provided is that Israel poses an existential threat to all Middle Eastern countries. Israel is an Apartheid state that treats its Palestinian Israeli citizens as second-class and enemies of the state, is sovereign between the river and the sea and puts Israeli Jews under civilian rule and Palestinians, in the occupied territories, under military rule. When it comes to nuclear knowledge, it alone can have access. One even sees that the Israeli Iron Dome protects Jewish Israelis but not Palestinian Israelis. There are bomb shelters all over the Jewish cities and villages, and not one bomb shelter in an Arab-majority town or village. That is nuclear Apartheid.

Israel assassinates scientists, engineers and technicians and bombs nuclear facilities because it wants to be the only country with any expertise in this area. Atomic knowledge is power. These Jewish Israelis are the disciples of Thrasymachus, not Abraham or Moses.

The evidence for this viewpoint is presented below.

• August 5, 1952: Sameera Moussa, PhD in atomic radiation in the 1940s, was in a car that plunged down the cliffs of the Pacific Coast. She was a mere 35-years-old. She had completed postdoctoral research in the United States and was returning to Egypt to take up an academic post at the University of Cairo.
• August 8, 1967: Samir Naguib, an assistant professor at the University of Detroit, decided to return to Egypt. He was working with nuclear scientists and physicists. He dies in a hit-and-run accident.
• January 27, 1975: Nabil al-Kallini, an Egyptian nuclear scientist, received a phone call. He had discovered the higher energy efficiency of uranium compared to oil and gas. He left his apartment and was never seen or heard of again.
• May 17, 1979: Menachem Begin wrote to Margaret Thatcher expressing his concerns about Pakistan’s nuclear programme.
• June 1980, 13: Yahya El-Meshad, Egyptian-born head of the Iraqi nuclear programme, was in France to test fuel for the Iraqi nuclear reactor. He was found dead, physically mutilated, in his hotel.
• In July and August 1980, two more Iraqi nuclear scientists died under mysterious circumstances, most likely poisoned.
• June 7, 1981: In Operation Opera, Israeli jets bomb the Osirak Iraqi nuclear reactor, south-east of Baghdad. France was building it. Israel claimed that the enriched uranium could help Saddam Hussein build an atomic Bomb. This was the first time that a nuclear reactor was bombed anywhere in the world. For seven years before, Israel had tried to persuade countries not to assist Iraq with nuclear technology, even for civilian purposes. Menachim Begin was the Prime Minister at the time. Ever since then, Pakistan has feared that India might do an Osirak attack on its nuclear facilities.
• July 14, 1989: Said Bedair, an Egyptian microwave scientist, fell to his death in Alexandria, Egypt. Just a month earlier, he had left his research position at a university in West Germany. His research could be used for satellite technology and missile guidance systems. The cause of death registered as asphyxiation, with slit wrists and fall.
• September 6, 2007: Israeli jets bombed a near-complete nuclear reactor north-east of Damascus. The attack was called Operation Out of the Box. Benjamin Netanyahu was the Prime Minister. Israel only admitted to striking the reactor in 2018 because the attack on Osirak had led to widespread condemnation. At the same time, Netanyahu warned Iran that Israel would never allow its enemies to acquire nuclear weapons.

Concerning Iran, Israel has been killing Iranian nuclear scientists and senior defence force personnel. It runs a sophisticated spy network inside Iran. The book, Spies against Armageddon, makes for interesting reading on how Israeli spies can operate effectively abroad, including within Iran. The identity of the Iranian spies is noteworthy.

The scientists at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists believe that when a country decides to kill nuclear scientists or bomb nuclear facilities, it can at best delay, but not stop, a nuclear programme. The aim is beyond the elimination of scientists or the destruction of buildings. It is also psychological warfare. The objective is to deter others from helping to get the programme back on track. Israel wants to stop Russian, North Korean and Chinese experts from working in the Iranian nuclear programme.

Iran has learnt from Iraq and Syria. Their facilities are spread out, and many of them are deep underground. It also involves hundreds of highly qualified people. Given the physical layout of nuclear facilities, it makes for spectacular TV and social media to see explosions at nuclear facilities. But it is ultimately useless in stopping a nuclear programme. Killing a few nuclear scientists is also catastrophic for the families of the individuals concerned, but it is ineffective because people can replace those who are killed. Nuclear programmes are not linear and static. The relative importance of individuals changes over time. Scientists, engineers and technicians play complementary roles. At different stages of the programme, the scientists and the engineers ebb and flow in importance. However, the most important people at almost every stage are the technicians who operate the programme.

When Israel assassinates nuclear scientists and engineers who have made significant contributions in the past or currently, then it is of limited use to stop the programme. What matters is where the programme is heading, and which personnel will be necessary in the future. It is not certain that Israeli nuclear pyrotechnics address this dilemma.

The attacks on the nuclear facilities and the killings of engineers and scientists have a significant influence on verification and safeguarding under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Important players in the Iranian establishment are now quite suspicious of the IAEA, the nuclear watchdog of the NPT and the UN. Iranians suspect that the IAEA has been less than careful about securing the privacy and safety of information about nuclear facilities and personnel. In the future, Iran might justifiably be less transparent about its nuclear programme. Israel and its allies would accuse Iran of not being cooperative with the IAEA, and Iran, of course, could say that it is merely being cautious. One could hardly be open to being stung by the same atomic bee twice. It might even result in Iran suspending its cooperation with the IAEA.

It is also not clear whether Iran could come to a negotiated settlement with the USA on its nuclear programme, given the ways in which the President celebrated the spectacular early successes of the Israeli air force. It appears that the nuclear negotiations with the USA have been war by another means. What they cannot get at the negotiating table, they try to get with bombing facilities and killing atomic experts. Within Iran, there might not be an immediate political will to negotiate until people are buried and damaged facilities are rebuilt.

The leading advocates of the NPT, including the USA, France, the UK, and Germany, have endorsed Israel’s exception to the NPT. At least they are consistent – even if they are wrong – that in almost everything related to Israel, they provide diplomatic, economic and military cover for Israeli illegal conduct. They know that Israel bombed the Iraqi and Syrian reactors and said nothing. They also knew in advance of the Israeli attack on Iran on June 13, 2025. On everything that relates to Israel-Palestine, they are unreliable for a just solution.

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A word of caution might be in place. These attacks by Israel on nuclear power stations in Muslim-majority countries have lowered the tolerance limits of the global north for the use of weapons involving atomic elements. Do not be surprised if the Israelis do use tactical nuclear weapons on the Palestinians as preparation for a new attack on Iran after this one has failed. The Doomsday Clock, as set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, is currently at 89 seconds to midnight. The dial must move.

Without Western support, Israel cannot do anything. In the global South, we are merely bystanders. We are not powerless because we can say that what Israel is doing is wrong. We can demonstrate, hold a small meeting to teach, discuss, debate and pray if we are so inclined. The attacks on Iran are not a show of Israeli strength. Netanyahu has planned to attack Iran since the 1980s. He has scored pyrotechnically spectacular successes. Thrasymachus is not correct. Might is not right.  As in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, he has failed. For he and the Israeli public do not know how this attack on Iran will all end. Netanyahu started the war. He needs America to devise an exit plan. As always, without the USA, UK, and EU, Israel cannot do anything.

We must work for a society between the river and the sea (Netanyahu’s political architecture), where there is justice for all, irrespective of differences in class, gender, ethnicity, religion, and national origin. We must keep track of the humanity of the Israeli Jews even as they have lost sight of the humanity of people in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran. It is not only about their humanity but also our own. We must remain committed to the norm that their victims do not do to the Israeli Jews what the latter do to their Arab and Iranian victims.

Security cannot be built on the fragile foundation of ‘the most beautiful weapons in the history of the world’. To be human is to live with an openness to other people. We can only be human when we recognise that the other person, irrespective of how different that person might be, has the same rights to love and compassion, justice and dignity. This might not sound as pyrotechnic as a sonic boom from an Israeli F-15, F-16, or F-35. However, it is more potent because it is the sound of one human heart searching for another.

In South Africa, in the 1980s, bombs were going off every day. Some were placed by anti-Apartheid activists. Others were set off by South African intelligence operatives and their collaborators from our communities. That was not an easy time. Many have forgotten. It was unsettling. What Israel is doing to all its neighbours is on another scale of horror. Sophisticated weapons and instilling fear did not save Apartheid South Africa. These cannot save Apartheid Israel either.

I read somewhere that in the case of a nuclear war, in 72 minutes, 60% of the human race will be wiped out. That means the war will start and then be over, in just about an hour. Five billion people would be dead. This is just a ‘fun fact’, if nuclear annihilation could ever be fun or a computer game.

See you in a free Palestine where we shall all pray, some in the mosque, some in the church and some at the Wall. Others will stand with awe in their hearts for it would be ineffable to them. These are the threads by which we make the world a beautiful place. And we say this whilst standing on a heap of rubble. There are people buried underneath. We owe it to them to find beauty in the face of ugliness, love in the face of War. Keep up the pressure, continue to bear witness in meetings and marches for peace. Forever remember who calls for peace and who supports war. There will be some who support every dreadful thing that Israel does, and tomorrow, they want to be your friend and ally. Do not turn interfaith relations radioactive, ever.