Strategic Assessment

The question of Israel’s nuclear program is likely to become an issue in any negotiations with Iran. This essay analyzes the relevance of two competing nuclear norms vis-א-vis the Iranian challenge and Israel’s presumed nuclear capability: equality and self-defense. The challenge for Israel is that the equality principle in and of itself is normatively attractive and appears to require no further justification. Yet a close look at Middle East politics reveals that exclusive focus on the equality norm is insufficient for the very real world of Middle East politics, where political agendas, threats and threat perceptions, and security challenges are what really determine the nature of debates on the nuclear issue.