Israel is a political entity created in 1948 in the predominately Muslim Middle East. Its Prime Minister since 2009 has been Likud Zionist, Binyamin Netanyahu; born in 1949 and now a lame-duck politician the subject of investigation on allegations of bribery and corruption.
Fast-forward to 2018, and the state of Israel is now estimated to have secretly built a covert arsenal of between 200 and 400 nuclear weapons, all of which are undeclared Weapons of Mass Destruction and all uninspected by the IAEA agency of the UN.
And, dangerously for Europe, the Israeli state is also armed and funded by a US Congress that is covertly controlled by AIPAC, Netanyahu’s powerful political lobby in Washington, to the tune of billions of dollars’ worth of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning and F-16 multirole stealth fighter jets, strike helicopters, bunker-busting bombs, missiles, rockets, drones, guns, mines, electronic surveillance systems and other military equipment.
As if this was not threat enough to Europe and the world, Netanyahu’s lawyers were able to play upon German national guilt by persuading Chancellor Angela Merkel to take the unilateral decision to supply Israel’s navy with a fleet of German-subsidised, Dolphin-class submarines built by a Thyssen Krupp shipyard, which were subsequently retrofitted by the Israelis with nuclear cruise missiles, having a range of over 1500kms. (The distance from, say, off-shore Marseilles in the Mediterranean to Potsdamer Platz in Berlin City Centre).
That extraordinary decision has given the Israeli state a strategic second strike capability and has irrevocably changed the balance of power in Europe. It was taken without consent of the EU Parliament and has now been alleged that the deal between Netanyahu and Merkel was possibly corrupt with substantial sums allegedly having being paid to intermediaries of one or other party.
That nuclear-armed, submarine fleet is now assumed to be secretly patrolling both the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf and arguably poses the greatest threat to Europe since WW2: the factual position being that nuclear-armed, Israeli submarine-launched, cruise missiles (SLCMs) could reach and conceivably wipe-out a great swathe of EU member states, other than possibly those in the Baltic or Scandinavia, leaving Europe virtually defenceless against such a surprise attack.
It is a dangerously untenable position and both Netanyahu and Merkel are directly responsible. Both should be voted out of office and urgent arrangements put in place to defend the continental Europe against this potential Middle East threat to EU (and British) security. This situation could very well crystallise if, or when, there is the expected Israeli attack upon Lebanon and a new war against a nationalist Hezbollah defence movement that enjoys strong popular support from a majority of the civilian population. Such an attack, which is widely forecast, could spill over into Europe within a matter of weeks, or days.
In the interim period, for the Conservative government of Theresa May to continue to trade with and arm allegedly corrupt, overseas politicians, is little different from Merkel supplying state-subsidised submarines to a Middle East nuclear power that could very quickly become a potential enemy. It is a game fraught with future danger.
