Bibi turns tail and runs over nukes

President Barack Obama has a nuclear terrorism summit planned. Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu was going to attend personally, but instead will send a mid-level deputy after hearing several Muslim nations were going to raise questions about Israel's nuclear arsenal.

Haaretz reported that Egypt and Turkey were planning to demand that Israel sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel has never officially acknowledged it possesses nuclear weapons; the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty prevents nondeclared nuclear powers from acquiring atomic arms.

Some Muslim countries have complained of a double standard in international pressure on Iran to dismantle its nuclear program while Israel is able to maintain its reported nuclear arsenal.

Is Israel a nuclear terrorist state? No. But, what would happen if someone like Avigdor Lieberman became premier? At least Bibi is sending someone, rather than totally withdrawing his country.

That said, the refusal to sign the NPT has always left Israel open to the accusation of nuclear terrorism, especially since questions about Israel's help in apartheid-era South Africa developing its nuclear program remain unanswered.