d and convicted of revealing sensitive military information.

Last Wednesday Israel finally released Vanunu after 18 years imprisonment. He cannot, however, leave Israel for a year. The government does not want him to reveal still more information about Israel's nuclear capabilities.

On the website of one Israeli newspaper, Vanunu wrote: "Dimona's nuclear reactor must be removed from the desert and destroyed because it has become a threat to the region. I am neither a spy nor a traitor; I only wanted to let the world know what was really happening at Dimona."

In 1957 Ben Gurion asked for France's help to build a nuclear reactor in the village of Dimona. The reactor was soon operational and by 1965, Israel was ready to build its first nuclear bomb. Dimona has now been operational for 39 years and represents a threat to the Middle East, including Israel itself. Intervention by the Nuclear Energy Commission has become imperative, not least in order to assess the extent of the reactor's safety and its operational capabilities which could lead to another disaster along the lines of Chernobyl. Israel continues on the path of defiance as the sole possessor of nuclear weapons in the region. It is time to discuss the idea of making the Middle East a nuclear-weapon-free zone as well as being free of WMD. This will bring safety and security to all countries of the region especially since many Israelis also support the idea.

Israel has gone through a period of extensive discussions over its nuclear choices and in 1966, more than 20 scientists and professors from the Hebrew University demanded that limits be set to nuclear power in the region. They warned that possession of nuclear weapons by any Arab country would result in the annihilation of Israel, even if Israel had the same weapon. A single Arab strike would destroy Israel completely while a single strike by Israel against Egypt, for example, would not destroy the country because of its dense population and geographic extent.

There have been two converging internal trends in Israel, one demanding a nuclear-free zone and another calling for nuclear choice. In June 1966, 55 Israeli professors issued a statement entitled, 'The Committee for Nuclear Disarmament of the Arab-Israeli Region." They asked the Israeli government to take the initiative to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. What they wanted, however, is not what has happened.

Today in light of demands for a new Middle East - isn't it important that the region be free from nuclear weapons and WMD? That it be safe from unexpected nuclear catastrophes such as the explosion of the Dimona reactor or nuclear leakage?

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