Dimona: Israel’s Achilles heel

TEHRAN,July 28(MNA)--The Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev desert, which was once considered to be the guarantor of lasting security for Israel, has now become the Zionist regime’s Achilles heel. Dimona was constructed in 1962 by France and the United States, when David Ben-Gurion was the prime minister of Israel, as a facility for manufacturing nuclear weapons. Since its construction, the nuclear site has produced 1,400 tons of uranium, some of which is then turned into plutonium to produce nuclear weapons. Mordechai Vanunu, a technician at Dimona who fled to Europe in 1986 and exposed Israel’s secret nuclear activities, revealed that Israel dumps 30 tons of nuclear waste into the Mediterranean annually. One kilogram of plutonium produced in Dimona produces 11 liters of isocyanides, and this is why nuclear experts regard Dimona as the most dangerous nuclear plant in the world. In a report in 1999, the London-based defense magazine Jane’s Intelligence Review warned about the possibility of leaks of radioactivity from Dimona. The magazine published a satellite photo, of the plant and said that because it is old, it releases a considerable amount of isocyanides annually, which cause cancer. Jane’s said an accident at Dimona would cause a humanitarian catastrophe from occupied Palestine to Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Cyprus. This is the reason why the Zionist regime does not allow anyone to get within ten kilometers of the facility and does not allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit the site. Now, the nuclear plant has become a nightmare for settlers in occupied Palestine because Hamas can easily target it with missiles. The ability to target Dimona is a card in the hands of Hamas, and if the Israeli army intensifies its military assault on Gaza, Hamas may fire missiles at Dimona. In August 2013, when the U.S. was threatening to launch missile strikes against Syria, Damascus threatened to target Dimona with long range missiles in response. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem telephoned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, telling him, “Damascus against the Dimona nuclear plant.” Kerry relayed this warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and also asked the U.S. to refrain from attacking Syria. Now both Syria and the Palestinian resistance movements have adopted the policy of ‘balance of fear’ toward Israel. Hamas is well aware that Dimona is the Achilles heel of Israel, and that it can target the plant at its own discretion. Thus, if Hamas feels that Israel is bent on destroying Palestine, without any doubt it will launch missiles at Dimona. By firing at Dimona, Hamas would be playing with fire, which could affect 18 million people in occupied Palestine and neighboring countries, with Israel being the biggest loser. (By Hassan Hanizadeh)