AUSTRALIA AND ISRAEL - AN ONGOING UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIP

Israel's connections to many countries around the world are suspect to say the least, and the longer the connections exist the worse the outcomes will be in the end.

One of these strange connections is over the nuclear capacity of Israel. Long before the Vanunu incident in the 1980s when Vanunu went to the UK to reveal to the Guardian newspaper the extent of Israel's nuclear capabilities, Israel denied it had nuclear weapons or had developed any nuclear weapons capabilities.

Yet in 1979 when there was an identifiable nuclear explosion in the South Atlantic somewhere south of South Africa, there was conclusive evidence to provide the news that Israel and South Africa had colluded to build and explode a nuclear device. Apartheid South Africa had the uranium and the ability to make enriched uranium which is required for nuclear bombs, and Israel had the technological ability to manufacture and test such devices.

By the time Mordechai Vanunu left Israel, came to Australia, converted from Judaism to Christianity, and then left to go to the UK to reveal all to the Guardian and/or the New Statesman papers, the world had already understood that there was another nuclear power in the world, and this time in the middle of the Middle East.

The article in the Fairfax media during the week of 14 April 2014 discussing how much the Australian government knew and when they knew about the nuclear capabilities of Israel makes interesting but hardly revealing information.