# What about Isreal's WMDs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-isreals-wmds/171623>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 28, 2003, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-isreals-wmds/171623 "2003-04-28T07:25:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![RandySpears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/858c86/32.png) [@RandySpears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandySpears)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-isreals-wmds/171623/61 "2003-04-29T01:48:32Z")

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Marc:

Past behaviour is an indication of future behaviour, agreed. But that does not mean that all past behaviour is necessarily pertinent for speculation on any future behaviour. I argued something to that effect. But you did not reply to that relevant part of my post (that would be the part you excluded from the quote).

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**Author:** ![RandySpears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/858c86/32.png) [@RandySpears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandySpears)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-isreals-wmds/171623/62 "2003-04-29T02:38:25Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> As far as you know. It appears that someone is passing the stuff out. ([http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28358509.htm](http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28358509.htm))

**Finagle:** Veeeery much a preliminary. Useless for discussion as of yet.

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**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2003, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-about-isreals-wmds/171623/63 "2003-04-29T18:25:31Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by MGibson \*  
> I don’t think the US government really considers Israel’s WMDs to be potentially unstabalizing. I find it more likely that Syria would be willing to use their WMDs. Unless attitudes in the mid-east change on all sides I don’t see how Israel could ever get rid of their WMDs. I wouldn’t trust Syria to get rid of them all and I’d expect them to use them directly or indirectly at Israel if there were no threat of nuclear retaliation.  
> Marc

Assuming, for the sake of argument, that this is true, is it really relevant to Bush’s foreign policy _if it’s not used as justification_? The administration is currently attempting to reason (at least publicly) that WMDs are ipso facto a problem. I’m sure _every_ government has its own internal reasoning for its military campaigns which may or may not be logical, but they don’t necessarily reveal that to the world.

Bush is telling Syria to disarm. I don’t think he would dare publicly say that he ONLY wants Syria to disarm because he thinks they’re a bunch of hotheads who are more likely to use WMDs than Isreal, because then he’d have even more of a PR nightmare than he already does. Instead he just _isn’t mentioning_ Isreal’s WMDs at all, and feigning an even-handed policy towards the issue.

I see hypocrisy in offering a quasi-moral justification to the world that masks the administration’s true internal reasoning. Isn’t the rest of the world going to think we are demanding that Syria disarm simply because we like Isreal better? And again, won’t the U.S. take a big hit on its credibility?

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