Michael Piper and Final Judgment

[Magda Hassan]

I also think you underestimate the Arab position and over estimate the Israeli position at the time. Yes, their nuclear programme was not anything like that in Israel. But it was a threat of an arms race in the region. There was much pressure to keep the Arabs on side or to at least keep them from the Soviet sphere of influence which was very appealing to some nations. The Atoms for Peace programme was used as a political tool to keep countries with in the US sphere. Arab nationalism and socialism were very wide spread in the area at the time. It was also just after the Suez Crisis and before the 6 day war so Israel didn't have all that mythology around it yet. It was just some pissant country on the Mediterranean Sea where some Jews went to live after the war surrounded by Arabs. Albeit with the fairly good and resourceful brains trust but more chutzpah than substance.

The Arabs didn't have a nuclear program. None. Zero.

Kennedy knew this. If one had existed, I'm sure he would have exerted great pressure on them to desist.

The rest is all very interesting but not relevant to what is being discussed here is it?

They were certainly exploring the options. And they didn't have to be loaded with nuclear bombs to be a power in the region. A unified Arab world would have sufficed. And besides, if they had sided with the Soviets, as a few of them did, they had all of their arsenal on their side. Checkmate.

You over state the Israeli case and understate the Arabs. This is Nasser's time after all. And they got rid of the French in Algeria.