“When they asked him that question, the answer should have been: ‘Hit the nuclear first and worry about the rest later,’” said former President Donald Trump Friday regarding President Joe Biden’s recent statements on conflict between Israel and Iran.
This Wednesday, Biden said he would not support Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, according to a Reuters report.
“That’s the stuff you want to hit, right?” said Trump, the current GOP nominee for president. “I said: ‘I think he’s got that one wrong, isn’t that what you’re supposed to hit?’”
As we reach the first anniversary of a large-scale terrorist attack by the Palestinian group Hamas that killed 1,200 people in Israel, tensions in the Middle East are increasing. War still rages in Gaza, where Israel has been criticized for the loss of civilian life as it works to defeat Hamas.
After months fighting Hezbollah, Israel also recently conducted attacks in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by the Lebanese terrorist group exploded. These explosions caused several deaths, including the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
“Hezbollah, since its establishment, has defined itself in opposition to Israel. Its main objectives have been to drive Israel out of Lebanon and, ultimately, to destroy the state of Israel,” explained the Center for Strategic and International Studies in a Friday analysis of the current Middle East conflict.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are financed and supported by Iran. This Tuesday, Iran itself fired 180 missiles at Israel, though that attack has been described as “ineffective.” Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran would pay for the attack, and Israel conducted new airstrikes on Lebanon Saturday, CNN reported.
According to an Al Jazeera report citing Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 41,788 people, including nearly 16,500 children, have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war. More than 96,794 people have been injured and more than 10,000 were missing as of Oct. 3. In Lebanon, the death toll is also rising.
So, what do nuclear weapons have to do with all of this?
Well, Israel is believed to have around 90 nuclear weapons, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. That means it is the only nation in the Middle East with a nuclear arsenal. However, Iran also has a nuclear program focused on providing nuclear energy, and ICAN said its recent nuclear activities indicate it might be able to develop a nuclear weapon.
“Several Israeli politicians from the governing coalition, including a junior cabinet minister, have talked about using nuclear weapons in the current war in Gaza,” said ICAN this April. “Although these comments have been disowned by the Israeli Prime Minister, these threats are dangerous and irresponsible, as they further inflame tensions, and are banned under the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”
ICAN noted that Israel’s allies – including the U.S., as well as Britain and France – have urged the country not to escalate conflict with Iran.
According to ICAN, today’s nuclear weapons are more powerful than the bombs that killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima, Japan, and 74,000 people in Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II. Detonation of a single nuclear weapon in a populated area is expected to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians and cause radioactive fallout that would contaminate large areas, possibly including the country that used the weapon (especially in the Middle East, where targets are close). Ionizing radiation from nuclear weapons can cause death or severe illness and can have long-term health consequences, including cancer and genetic damage that can be passed down to future generations.
“They do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants and their use would kill, injure and maim civilians in huge numbers,” said ICAN of nuclear weapons. “This means their use would almost certainly constitute a war crime under the existing laws of war.”
During his Friday appearance in Fayetteville, N.C., Trump also noted that: “It’s the biggest risk we have – nuclear weapons, the power of nuclear weapons.”
Globally, the risk of nuclear war is higher than it’s been since the Cold War, said ICAN. Apart from war in the Middle East, tension on the Korean Peninsula and the Russian invasion of Ukraine pose nuclear war threats. Just last month, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin hinted at possible nuclear war.
“It is proposed that aggression against Russia by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state, be considered as their joint attack on the Russian Federation,” he said.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2024, the U.S. and other allies from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have been supporting Ukraine with military aid and funding. Putin’s comments came as the U.S. and U.K. discussed the possibility of allowing Ukraine to use Western missiles in Russia.
Compared to Israel’s 90 estimated nuclear weapons, the U.S. and Russia are the world’s largest nuclear powers and each has more than 5,000 nuclear weapons in its arsenal, though Russia has slightly more, according to the Federation of American Scientists. Around five years ago, a simulation by researchers at Princeton’s Science and Global Security program estimated that there would be 91.5 million immediate casualties, including 34.1 million fatalities, if the U.S. and Russia went to war with their nuclear weapons.
“I hated to build the nuclear, but I got to know first hand the power of that stuff,” Trump said Friday. “And I’ll tell you what, we have to be totally prepared, we have to be absolutely prepared.”