Power Surrendered
For Peace?
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Jerusalem (JTA) — Prime Min-
ister Shimon Peres drew wide-
spread criticism from opposition
leaders after he said that Israel
would give up its nuclear capa-
bility in exchange for regional
peace.
In remarks to Israeli newspa-
per editors in Tel Aviv, Mr. Peres
said that Israel would be willing
to "give up the atom" if it were
able to achieve peace with its
Arab neighbors.
"Give me peace, we will give
up the nuclear capability. That's
the whole story," he said.
Mr. Peres refused to say
whether he was referring specif-
ically to Israeli nuclear weapons
— the existence of which Israeli
officials have refused to confirm
or deny.
But he added that Israel want-
ed to keep its neighbors guessing
whether it had nuclear weapons,
saying that this in itself served
as a deterrent.
"As long as the suspicion itself
can serve as a deterrent weapon,
let them suspect," he said.
Opposition leaders, along with
some media commentators, crit-
icized Mr. Peres for what they
said was careless talk, and for go-
ing too far to appease the Arabs.
The Likud Party issued a
statement saying, "The ease with
which Peres volunteers to dis-
mantle Israel's nuclear potential
is additional testimony to his il-
lusion of a new Middle East in
which this government is im-
prisoned."
Knesset member Rehavam
Ze'evi, of the far-right Moledet
Party, lashed out at Mr. Peres
for endangering national secu-
rity in the face of what he said
were ongoing nuclear develop-
ment programs in Iraq, Iran and
Libya.
Egyptian-Israeli tension over
the nuclear issue reemerged
when Foreign Minister Ehud
Barak visited Cairo to meet with
Egyptian officials.
During a news conference,
Mr. Barak and Egyptian For-
eign Minister Amre Moussa
openly sparred over the issue.
Mr. Barak, who was in Egypt
for discussions about the re-
sumption of peace negotiations
with Syria, said that Israel's po-
tential nuclear arsenal was not
relevant to current develop-
ments in the region.
Mr. Moussa, in turn, said the
issue was crucial to the future
of the Middle East.
Mr. Moussa threatened that
Egypt would boycott multilat-
eral talks on regional disarma-
ment and security if Israel's
nuclear program was not in-
cluded in the agenda, Israel
Television reported.
The matter came up despite
an agreement reached earlier
this year between Egypt and Is-
rael to put the issue aside for at
least a year.
Egypt has in the past protest-
ed Israel's refusal to sign the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty.
Court Bars
Interrogation Force
Jerusalem (JTA) — Israel's High
Court of Justice has temporarily
barred agents with the country's
domestic security service from
using physical force when inter-
rogating a Palestinian suspect.
The temporary injunction was
issued by the court in response
to a petition submitted by Abed
Al-Balbisi, a resident of the Gaza
Strip who is a suspected activist
with the fundamentalist Islam-
ic Jihad movement.
The court ordered the state
representative to explain within
seven days why using physical
force against Al-Balbisi was nec-
essary.
The Israeli government previ-
ously gave the security service
special permission to use mod-
erate physical force when inter-
rogating suspected Islamic
militants.
The interrogation methods
were justified as a necessary part
of Israel's ongoing battle against
terrorists.
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