The Daily Liar

A man spent 11 years in solitary confinement for telling the truth about Israeli nuclear weapons. You've probably never heard his name. That's the point. 🧵

The rules-based international order applies everywhere except where it doesn't.

The country with no treaty and no inspections is the regional nuclear power. The country with the treaty and the inspections is the nuclear threat. One program is documented. One is assumed. Guess which one is being debated as a justification for war.

Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It maintains an estimated 90–400 nuclear warheads. It has never submitted to a single IAEA inspection. This is not contested. It is simply not discussed.

The rule is apparently: rules-based order, unless the order inconveniences the rule-maker.

The country underwriting the aid calls itself the defender of a rules-based international order. The minister receiving that aid just called for absorbing three countries' land by force. Neither government has paused to acknowledge the contradiction.

Bezalel Smotrich is Israel's Finance Minister. Not a fringe blogger. A cabinet minister with budget authority over the West Bank, where he also oversees civilian administration for settlements.

The rules-based international order works exactly as advertised — for the countries that wrote the rules.

The country with no treaty faces no consequences. The country with the treaty faces economic strangulation. The uninspected state is described as the stabilizing force. The inspected state is described as the existential threat.

Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It maintains an estimated 90–400 nuclear warheads. It has never submitted to a single IAEA inspection. This is not disputed. It is simply not discussed.

Mohammed Wishah will not be available for comment.

The country writing the press freedom report funds the military that killed the journalist. The law requiring aid conditions has not been enforced. The report will be published again next year.

The United States gives Israel roughly $3.8 billion in military aid annually. That aid is contingent, by U.S. law, on the recipient not restricting the flow of humanitarian assistance. That law is called the Leahy Law.