The Pure

road of disclosing classified information, he was feeling strangely calm. It was as if he had been carrying inside him a Gordian knot of secrets, which now was starting to unravel. He felt lighter, intoxicated almost. He drained his glass and poured himself another.
    ‘We were going over the old debate about whether nuclear weapons are a force for good or evil,’ he continued. ‘On the one hand they have the capacity to kill billions. On the other, they are the ultimate deterrent against war. The world has never known such peace as it has since the dawn of the nuclear age.’
    ‘So?’
    ‘Avner’s not interested in that stuff. He’s just in the game for the money, the sex, the excitement. But me – I’m different. It means something to me, you know? So I started talking about politics. I was disillusioned. The Office knew I wasn’t toeing the line, and they’d overlooked me for promotion. I was angry. We drank a bottle of Scotch and I got carried away. I talked about how Israel is isolating the international community for the sake of protecting a handful of illegal settlers. How Israel puts the Arabs in a pressure cooker, cooks them until they explode, then punishes them mercilessly. How with every act of brutality we create an enemy for ourselves, and then force ourselves into a position where our only option is more brutality. How for more than half a century we’ve been dominating an entire people, expelling them, starving them, disrupting their lives on every level, taking away their freedom. How it’s a perpetual cycle. And how difficult it was to be part of that.’
    ‘You were brave,’ said Liberty, swirling the wine gently in her glass. ‘We have a lot in common, you know.’
    Uzi didn’t hear her. He paused, took a breath, drank wine. ‘For most people, none of this would be controversial. But in the Office, such views are seen as treason.’
    ‘Was that all you said?’
    ‘No. That was bad enough, but it wasn’t what really caused the damage.’ He got to his feet again and crossed over to the window. ‘You don’t understand what it means to oppress people. Families. What it does to you as a young soldier, at the age of eighteen . . . To see the nation we’ve become.’
    ‘So what did they hear you say?’ said Liberty gently.
    He sat down, feeling more awkward this time. ‘I said . . . I speculated that the conflict stems from the power imbalance. That’s what allows Israel to throw its weight around. I said that what Israel needs is an existential threat. Something real, something serious. If we weren’t the only regional power to have nuclear weapons it would make us think twice before continuing this oppression. We would go to war less readily. Our neighbours would have less reason to retaliate. Over time it could open the door to peace.’
    ‘You mean Iran?’
    ‘Yes, Iran. Or Syria. Though there’s not much chance of that after we bombed their facilities in 2007.’
    ‘You realise this is crazy, don’t you?’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘For Iran, nuclear weapons would be more than a deterrent. They’d try and wipe you off the face of the earth. And the USA would be next.’
    ‘Typical American answer,’ Uzi retorted, sitting back in an explosion of energy. ‘Typical ignorance. You haven’t worked in Iran, I take it?’
    ‘I haven’t. Afghanistan, but not Iran.’
    ‘If you had, you wouldn’t have such a simplistic view of the country. Persia is a proud and ancient civilisation. For centuries they were a dominant force in the world, at the forefront of science, mathematics and culture. Their leader is nothing but a figurehead, a public face. He’s not really pulling the strings. They wouldn’t instigate a nuclear holocaust any more than we would.’
    ‘But . . .’
    ‘If they launched a nuclear attack they would bring instant death and destruction on themselves, and they know it. Not even the Iranian leadership would be that stupid. However fanatical they are, they cannot erase their instinct for self-preservation. They want a nuclear weapon because they want a deterrent. They want to be respected by the West. They want to give the Muslim world back its dignity. They want to stand up to the bullies, the USA and Israel. They want to give us a reason to stop and think next time we’re about to launch a drone, or invade a weakling nation, or meddle in Iranian internal affairs. That’s what I told Avner and that’s what the Office heard. I even gave it a name: the