Israel has always argued that the Iranian nuclear program is an existential threat to the Jewish state.
After bombing three Iranian nuclear sites in June last year, Tel Aviv and Washington are once again amassing an unprecedented force in the Middle East to create pressure on Tehran to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
The US force mobilization in the Middle East is the largest in the region since the 2003 Iraq War. President Trump has already threatened that if talks fail with Iran, “bad things will happen.”
According to many defense pundits, given the unprecedented force mobilization in the region, the next round of US and Israeli bombings on Iran looks almost certain.
However, as the world awaits the countdown to another war in the Middle East, Israel may have already set its sights on its next target: Pakistan.
Pakistan is not only the world’s only Muslim country to have nuclear weapons, but it has also frequently described its nuclear bomb as an ‘Islamic Bomb’.
Furthermore, Islamabad has a horrendous nuclear proliferation record, having leaked nuclear technology to a host of countries, including Iran, Libya, and North Korea.
Additionally, Pakistan is widely recognized as an irresponsible nuclear power, being the only nuclear-powered country in the world that routinely threatens the use of atomic weapons against its adversaries.
Pakistan’s well-documented state support for various terror networks, its precarious economic situation, and Islamabad’s recent mutual security agreement with Saudi Arabia, potentially extending its nuclear umbrella to the Saudi Kingdom, add further layers of complexity to its nuclear arsenal.
The emerging talks of an Islamic NATO, spearheaded by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, and protected by Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, make Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal a volatile Molotov cocktail.
Tel Aviv has no doubts that such an Islamic NATO will be primarily targeted against Israel and will present an “existential threat” to the Jewish country, a threat as dangerous as Iran’s nuclear program.
Incidentally, Israel has always recognized the dangers to its existence emanating from Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, and in the 1980s, Tel Aviv even hatched a plan with New Delhi to bomb Pakistan’s nuclear program.
Israel Sets Its Sights On Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett recently said that a new axis was emerging in the region, which included Turkey, Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood, and nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Addressing the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, Naftali Bennett said that this alliance is fueling hostility against Israel.
Bennett warned at the conference that Turkey is becoming a new threat to Israel.
“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a dangerous adversary who is trying to encircle Israel. We must not turn a blind eye again,” the former Israeli prime minister said.
Bringing attention to the Pakistani nuclear weapons, Bennett said, “The current government is once again sleeping. The dangers of radicalism are growing on our borders. An axis of the Muslim Brotherhood, supported by Pakistani nuclear weapons, is being led by Turkey.”
“We must work together in various ways against the Iranian threat and the Turkish hostility. Turkey is the new Iran.”
In September last year, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a ‘Strategic Agreement on Mutual Defense‘ to enhance cooperation in defense and security matters.
While the brief statement issued by the two countries did not explicitly mention the nuclear bomb, the agreement states, “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both.”
This was widely interpreted as Pakistan, the world’s only Muslim-majority nuclear power, extending its nuclear umbrella to Saudi Arabia.
When asked whether Pakistan would be obliged to provide the kingdom with a nuclear umbrella, a senior Saudi official told Reuters, “This is a comprehensive defensive agreement that encompasses all military means.”
Some defense experts went as far as to describe the Mutual Defense Agreement between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as a “proliferation time bomb”.
Furthermore, in January this year, Pakistan’s Minister of State for Defense Production, Raza Hayat Haraj, confirmed that a draft defense agreement had been prepared after a year of negotiations between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.
Later, reports emerged that Qatar was also considering joining this alliance, described as an “Islamic NATO.”
Bennett’s comments suggest that he considers this prospective alliance as targeted against Israel.
He also expressed apprehension that this alliance could lead to nuclear proliferation.
While Pakistan maintains that its nuclear weapons are primarily targeted against India, Islamabad has often marketed its nukes as an ‘Islamic Bomb’ and has leaked nuclear secrets to various countries, including Iran and Libya.
Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons A Threat To Israel?
Israel has good reasons to be doubly cautious, given Islamabad’s horrendous record in nuclear proliferation, its track record as an irresponsible nuclear power, and Pakistan’s state support for terrorism.
Pakistan’s history of nuclear proliferation is well documented. Abdul Qadeer Khan, also known as the architect of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, orchestrated a global black-market network, smuggling centrifuges, blueprints, and expertise to Iran (starting 1989), North Korea (1990s, in missile swaps), Libya (1997 onward), and possibly Syria.
Khan operated through Dubai middlemen and firms in over 20 countries. CIA Director George Tenet described him as “as dangerous as Osama bin Laden.”
The scandal erupted in 2003 when U.S.-British intelligence intercepted the BBC China ship carrying Malaysian-made centrifuges to Libya, exposing the ring.
Subsequently, under immense US pressure, Khan was arrested. In a televised confession, Khan admitted the transfers but claimed they were personal, not state-sanctioned.
However, experts are unanimous that Khan could not have operated a multi-national nuclear proliferation ring without any state support.
In fact, Pakistan is single-handedly responsible for nuclear weapons with North Korea, for the ongoing Iranian nuclear program, and for the aborted Libyan nuclear program.
Furthermore, Pakistan has been an extremely irresponsible nuclear power. It has frequently described its bomb as “Islamic Bomb,” injecting the dangerous religious aspect into nuclear threats.
Noted British professor Malcolm M Craig writes in his paper ‘The “Islamic Bomb”: Perceptions of Middle Eastern Nuclear Proliferation, 1979–1989,’ that the idea first emerged from the lips of Pakistani leaders Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Muhammad Zia ul-Haq in the late 1970s. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto served as Pakistan’s Prime Minister, and Zia ul-Haq was Pakistan’s longest-serving military dictator.
However, the idea did not gain much popularity until the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Incidentally, the idea of an ‘Islamic Bomb’ has always caused great unease in Israel.
On May 17, 1979, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin wrote a short letter to newly installed British leader Margaret Thatcher, warning her of the dangers of ignoring the threat of an ‘Islamic Bomb.’
The letter warned of the awful consequences of a Pakistani nuclear weapon in the hands of Muammar Gaddafi.
Although the letter was rejected as ‘sensationalist,’ in retrospect, many of Begin’s fears did come true.
Abdul Qadeer Khan confessed in 2004 to supplying nuclear technology to Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and the Islamist regime in Iran.
There is good reason to believe that Pakistan could again supply nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia or Turkey in exchange for loans.
Last year, during the Iran-Israel War, the IRGC Commander, Major General Mohsen Rezaei, said that if Israel uses nukes against Iran, then Pakistan will attack Israel with its nuclear weapons.
“Pakistan has told us that if Israel uses nuclear missiles, we will also attack it with nuclear weapons,” Major General Rezaei said during an interview on Iranian state television.
He said Pakistan had vowed to “stand behind Iran” and called for Muslim unity against Israel after attacks on Iran. “We may reach a point where we take major actions that will destabilize the entire region.”
Pakistan’s state support for terrorism adds another risk. Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda have tried to get their hands on the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.
In 2001, bin Laden met Bashiruddin Mahmood, a rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist and Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN) leader, to discuss the transfer of nuclear technology to al-Qaeda.
Bashiruddin Mahmood was later sanctioned by the US and UN. Incidentally, Mahmood’s son is a high-ranking official in the Pakistan Army.
There are legitimate concerns about terror sympathizers in the Pakistani establishment, who can help terrorists with a nuclear bomb.
It is because of this troubled history of Pakistani nukes that Israel has always considered Pakistani nuclear weapons a threat to its existence.
Notably, in the 1980s, Israel made a secret plan with India to bomb Pakistani nuclear sites.
Israel offered India a plan to bomb Pakistan’s fast-developing nuclear site at Kahuta.
The proposed operation would have mirrored Israel’s 1981 strike on Iraq’s Osirak reactor.
India was on board; a plan was drawn up, aircraft were prepared, but in the end, India pulled back.
Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, in their book ‘Deception: Pakistan, the US, and the Global Weapons Conspiracy,’ write about this joint India-Israeli plan to bomb Pakistani nuclear sites.
The plan involved Israeli F-16s and F-15s flying into Indian airspace. They would refuel at Jamnagar and Udhampur, while Indian Jaguar deep-strike aircraft would assist the mission.
However, at the last moment, Indian PM Indira Gandhi pulled back.
Had those strikes materialized, there would have been no Iranian nuclear program. Israel was right to always consider Pakistani nuclear weapons a threat to its existence.
