The only country in the middle east with nuclear weapons?

[usregimechange]

Israel. Are they destabilizing the middle east? Yep, but no more than Hamas.

I do have to give kuddos to Obama for leading on reducing nukes world wide.

[PFunk]

1. It wont be for long. Iran will have the bomb no matter what Isreal and the US says about it.

And other ME nations will follow afterward (some say the saudi's already has the bomb). Eventually MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) WILL come to the middle east.

[usregimechange]

3. Nukes are the single greatest threat to humanity on the planet, they must be removed from the face

of the planet.

[redstate_democrat]

6. These folks ain't giving up their nukes. No way.

But I applaud President Obama for trying to reduce the number.

[Thrill]

4. I doubt it. If they are close. Israel will bomb their ass.

At least the facility where its built

[usregimechange]

5. They have done it before.

[FarLeftRage]

8. Actually that was Iraq

Israel sent jet fighters to bomb the Iraqi facility that French and German engineers were working on...

[usregimechange]

9. Before as in bombing countries to prevent nukes from becoming operational

[FarLeftRage]

11. Okay...

Gotcha now.

[PFunk]

7. then they will just build it again or continue the research in another area outside of their reach

Either way Iran WILL have the bomb. And Isreal WILL have to deal with it.

[sandnsea]

18. No they won't

And where is your mention of Israel who is the trigger to the ME nuke race to begin with.

[Thrill]

2. .

[Art_from_Ark]

10. Is Pakistan not considered "Middle East"?

[RepublicanElephant]

12. sw asia. nt

[usregimechange]

13. Depends, see here:

[PFunk]

14. Good point (should have thought of that)

IMO Pakistan should be considered part of the ME. However since the US needs their support in the supposed "War on Terror" Isreal can't overtly say that they are enemies. Thus they are off-limits (at least for now).

[Hippo_Tron]

20. Politically Pakistan is part of the Middle East as far as I'm concerned

[On the Road]

15. The Question Was Deliberately Phrased

to prompt Obama to answer Israel. He either didn't get the drift (which I doubt) or deliberately punted.

I guess you could argue it wasn't the right time, wouldn't have made any difference in the grand scheme of things, or some other excuse, but it *was* depressing to hear him evade that part of the answer.

[usregimechange]

17. I agree. But I loved the other 95% of what he had to say

[sandnsea]

16. I liked that he didn't completely deny it

Which indicates to me that he knew what Helen meant and gave a signal that he would like to see them get rid of their nukes along with the rest of the world.

[rvablue]

19. What is truly sad about that question is

Obama knows it. A few presidents have known it. Congress knows it. Hell, everyone on DU knows it.

And no one is willing to state it publicly.

Why?.....

That is the reason that Ms. Thomas asked the question.

[bridgit]

21. I......disagree, I say she was angling back round to Israel's behavior in the region...

toward Gaza in particular without naming Israel, which she knew would generate push-back from several points on the compass; while offering other peculiar regional behaviors her absolution by referring to them as "so called" so that yes...

Many do know the answers to Ms. Thomas' sometimes ethereal Q's specific to the region

[Thothmes]

22. When was the last time Israel lobbed nukes into Gaza.