Israeli National Security by Charles D. Freilich;

Author:Charles D. Freilich;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: OUP Premium
Published: 2018-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Nonproliferation and Regional Arms Control Policy

Israel is threatened by WMD more than any other state in the region and thus has a great interest in international agreements and regimes designed to prevent their proliferation. Indeed, Israel views regional WMD disarmament as a “coveted end-state” and is formally committed to an ultimate Middle Eastern WMD-free zone in a variety of policy statements.65 On the other hand, arms control agreements have repeatedly failed to prevent states in the Middle East from developing WMD programs, even though they were signatories to them, and Israel believes that they have simply proven irrelevant to regional realities to date and for the foreseeable future. Israel’s attitudes toward nonproliferation and regional arms control agreements have, therefore, been mixed.66

Israel has not signed the NPT, even while expressing strong support for it and global efforts to prevent the proliferation of WMD generally.67 Israel has also not signed the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). It has signed, but not ratified, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Israel observes the terms of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which bans the export and import of certain types of ballistic missiles, but has not been accepted as a member state due to its refusal to sign the NPT.68

Israel seeks to counterbalance this problematic stance and to demonstrate its support for international nonproliferation norms and regimes in those cases where it believes that it can do so without undermining its national security. To this end, it has long taken an active role in the IAEA and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, including the establishment of three seismic monitoring stations in its territory, as part of the treaty’s global monitoring system. Israel has harmonized its nuclear export control legislation and regulations with the guidelines adopted by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a voluntary grouping now numbering 48 states, which refrains from sales of civilian nuclear materials and technologies to countries that pose proliferation risks. It also adheres to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and to the IAEA’s safety standards. Israel signed the CWC even though Egypt and Syria rebuffed its demand that they do so as a precondition for Israel’s signature. In 2013–2014 Israel played an active role in the informal talks designed to prepare an international conference on a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone, despite deep reservations regarding the wisdom of the initiative.69

Israel has sought to further bolster its nonproliferation credentials by pursuing an agreement with the NSG, under which it would be recognized as “a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology.” The Israeli proposal draws on the exemption granted to India, which agreed to place its civil nuclear facilities (but not military ones) under international supervision and which was allowed to procure nuclear materials and technologies in exchange. If agreement is reached, Israel would become eligible for sales of civilian nuclear materials and technologies from NSG members and, for all practical purposes, nearly a recognized nuclear power, even though it is not an NPT signatory.

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