Topic: Emerging Nuclear States and the Global Nuclear Framework
Country: Israel
Delegate Name: Ryan Mersol-Barg
School: Roeper School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Israel position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
Greetings esteemed delegates. The great State of Israel delights in the opportunity to collaborate with you all, and looks forward to a productive session. While traditionally a nation greatly disrespected by the United Nations, Israel sees the pressing issues of our current global community as imperative to solve, and calls upon all nations to set aside petty differences so that a more peaceful and equitable world can be realized for all of our children.
For any country that wishes to maintain its sovereignty and the freedoms of its people, security must be a top priority. Israel has been consistently and existentially threatened since its inception, and we are fully aware of this reality. The proliferation and potential use of nuclear weapons has been at the forefront of Israeli security concerns for decades, and recent events have been less than reassuring. Iran, who currently sponsors terrorists against the state of Israel (1), was weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon in 2015, and is now certain to have a weapon in the near future due to the shortsighted JCPOA, otherwise known as the Iran Deal. Syria, who has been historically aggressive against Israel and sponsors terrorists as well (2), has also been dangerously close to a nuclear weapon in the past decade (3).
What must be understood is that these erratic warmonger states cannot be trusted to just limit themselves to nuclear power. Iran used nuclear power as a guise to hide their nuclear weapon program for years, which was eventually proved by a United Nations investigation (4). Going forward, we cannot afford to be blind.
This does not only pose a threat to the state of Israel, but this threatens international security as a whole. These authoritarian regimes have shown their instability and hostile intent time and time again, and allowing nuclear development in unfit states would lead to one of two outcomes:
1.The hostile state will either use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against its adversaries. Since Israel has been under near constant attack from many of the barbaric nations in question, there is no doubt that Israel would be a target if this outcome occurs.
2.The hostile state, after collapse, will leave its nuclear stockpile to a potentially even more hostile entity. For instance, if Syria had a nuclear weapons stockpile currently, various groups would be within striking range of acquiring that stockpile. These essentially unknown and potentially radical entities would then threaten millions of lives and world peace. The Arab Spring has proved that brutal, authoritarian regimes are anything but stable.
This is an issue that must be considered on the international stage rather than by independent nations. Israel cannot confirm, deny, nor discuss the presence of a nuclear program in Israel, but what Israel can state, with the conviction of its founding, is that peace is our priority. As soon as Israel can be absolutely certain that those who threaten it can never have nuclear weapons, the international community can be assured that Israel will reconsider the NPT and engage more fully on a national level in this issue. However, until the security of the Jewish people is assured against those who are hungry for war, the great State of Israel is forced to maintain a state of nuclear opacity.
We must consider all of this as we decide how to deal with emerging nuclear states. What we decide here will define the concept of national security for generations, and Israel urges the delegates of this committee to value human life and peace over the interests of malicious and dangerous states.
References:
1.http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-is-top-global-state-sponsor-of-terrorism-state-department-says/
2.http://www.cfr.org/syria/state-sponsor-syria/p9368
3.https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2009/02/28/the-attack-on-syrias-al-kibar-nuclear-facility
4.http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/20/world/middleeast/Iran-nuclear-timeline.html?_r=0#/#time243_7271
