ABSTRACT
The ending of nuclear weapons will place emphasis on "conventional" capabilities. Every state's leaders will try to envisage the dangers this will pose. The declared nuclear states either have large armies or—Britain and France—are allied with the United States. All would experience relative deprivation, relative, that is, to the prior position conveyed by the phrase "a nuclear power." Israel's nuclear program stems directly from its leaders' conviction that Israel "requires" nuclear weapons. The conventional public argument is that only nuclear weapons assure the existence of Israel. There are many Israelis who recognize that right-wing policies are a dead end, contradicting the premises on which Israel was established, and endangering both the Israeli state and its peoples. Israeli policies of settlement, hegemony, and repression are backed by nuclear weapons, as Israel could threaten any force that might insist on Palestinian rights.
