The Syria strike: Toldja it was nukes

More evidence is piling up that Israel destroyed a nascent nuclear reactor in the Syrian desert.

Israel’s air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports.

The description of the target addresses one of the central mysteries surrounding the Sept. 6 attack, and suggests that Israel carried out the raid to demonstrate its determination to snuff out even a nascent nuclear project in a neighboring state.

That would explain why the North Koreans were so pissed off, and why Syria, which signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has yet to follow through with threats to bring the wrath of the UN down around Israel’s ears. It also explains why the Arab and Muslim world is pretty much silent in the aftermath of an Israeli violation of one of “the Arab Nation’s” own countries. (And may I point out yet again the myth of “The Arab Nation,” which pretends that the myriad Arab countries of the Middle East are in actuality one nation, with one thought process. Yes, you may laugh out loud at that pretense.)

And lastly, it explains the absolute news blackout by the Israelis.

Well, no, it doesn’t. That’s the part of the story that I don’t understand. And this part of the story doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, either:

Even though it has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Syria would not have been obligated to declare the existence of a reactor during the early phases of construction. It would have also had the legal right to complete construction of the reactor, as long as its purpose was to generate electricity.

In his only public comment on the raid, Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, acknowledged this month that Israeli jets dropped bombs on a building that he said was “related to the military” but which he insisted was “not used.”

Then why the silence from Syria, if they are legally allowed to start building a reactor for electricity?

A senior Israeli official, while declining to speak about the specific nature of the target, said the strike was intended to “re-establish the credibility of our deterrent power,” signaling that Israel meant to send a message to the Syrians that even the potential for a nuclear weapons program would not be permitted. But several American officials said the strike may also have been intended by Israel as a signal to Iran and its nuclear aspirations.

Gee, ya think? We’ve already speculated that Iran can’t be happy that the IAF managed to penetrate the very same Russian anti-aircraft defenses that Iran has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to use around Iran’s nuclear plants.

So about that radio silence from Israel: I wonder if it’s at the behest of the Bush Administration. Or perhaps it’s a way to keep the major details from leaking out. Iran obviously wants to know how Israel defeated the Russian technology. By keeping a lid on the entire incident, that information doesn’t slip out. Of course they’ll get all the information Syria can give them, but hey—the Syrians suck at technology. Israel is the most technologically advanced nation in the Middle East, and one of the top tech nations in the world. Syria can’t even manage to keep its chemical weapons from blowing up and killing its own people, along with a healthy helping of Iranian engineers. (Still mighty glad about that. Would-be mass murderers deserved what they got.)

This is yet another complete slap in the face of the Walt-Mearsheimer “realist” point of view—the one that says Israel and America’s interests don’t coincide. You can bet your last dollar that Israel is sharing the intel about the raid on Syria with the U.S., because Iran’s nuclear plants may be next in line, and the jets doing the bombing may well have USAF painted on them. If the U.S. does go after the Iranian nukes, our pilots’ lives may be safer thanks to Israel.

Not that we’d ever hear about things like that from the W-M crowd. They’re too busy cherry-picking facts that make their theory work, and ignoring the inconvenient ones that rebut it, like the Israeli raid on the Syrian nuke site. That may prove to be just as important to American interests as the Israelis taking out the Iraqi Osirak reactor in the 1980s.

I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for Walt & Mearsheimer to recognize it, though.