Freier:
Yes, well, the, I should
perhaps add that... what I've mentioned with respect to Britain, of course, it's, it's true with
respect to... all the other countries of Europe also, even those who have no nuclear weapons,
are of course happy to take shelter under the American protection. Now... if I look at this,
then I do, as an Israeli, I notice a few things. One is, I notice that... the Non-Proliferation
Treaty really has very little to do with the sense of security which these countries have. They
have it not because they have signed the NPT, but they have it because they have their
alliances, and there are plenty of nuclear weapons in those alliances. Secondly, I notice
that... the non-proliferation regime, in particular, the admitted . limited reliability
of...internation-, of the inspection, of the international atomic energy agency, really doesn't
bother anyone, particularly... because the you know the international atomic energy agency...
they can inspect, but they have, you have to... the inspected country has to agree to the
supervisor, they have agreed to the time of the inspection, they agree, have to agree, to the
installation being inspected... and the director-general of the atomic, international atomic
agency in fact said that... even if you signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, this by itself is
no guarantee, it's no guarantee at all as to the future intentions a country might have. And I'm
not quoting him, but what presumably he meant was also that many countries who signed the NPT
just in order to obtain the necessary technologies, and one day opt out of NPT when they feel
they can do so, if they want to make nuclear arms. Now... coming back to Israel, on the other
hand, must take NPT very seriously. First of all, with respect to other countries... the
Israelis do not believe that Iraq, which signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, really meant that
it adopted the spirit of the Non-Proliferation Treaty... there's a good way of obtaining
whatever you wanted to obtain, and resort to arms.... Not only Israel believed that; I think
ever so many people I've spoken to shared the same opinion without saying so, because the Iraqi
nuclear program could not otherwise be explained. The Libyans, if I may mention them, they
shopped openly around for bombs, and when they were not sue-, unsuccessful, in finding them on
the market, they settled for a more arduous route of signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty — not
buying bombs, but at least being able to get nuclear technology in the installations. I do not
think that their change of stance was really a change of intent. So if we look at countries
which are vowed to the destruction of Israel, and we are being told they have signed the
Non-Proliferation Treaty, we say, "Well, it really doesn't matter to you whether they take their
commitment seriously or not, but it very much matters to us." And secondly, however the Israelis
do not... do not contemplate a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, any arms race in the Middle
East might find Israel eventually the loser. So the Israelis have given this matter thought...
and... they've come to the conclusion that...