A case in point is Europe, as are the treaties of Tlatelolco and Rarotonga in the nuclear context. It should be noted in this regard that Iraq presented no military threat to any country outside this region. Weapons of mass destruction are, in the view of the Government of Israel, all those weapons that can kill civilians indiscriminately. Superior quantities of conventional weapons are as much a part of this category as are weapons traditionally classified as weapons of mass destruction. Given Israel's situation, it is obvious that arms control need include all these types of weapons.
Confidence is the basis for any agreement.
And unlike technical dispositions, confidence can only be built over time. The Helsinki Accords took many years to mature, and recent upheavals in Europe illustrate how cautious one need be. In order to reassure Israel, confidence-building measures are a most essential beginning to any credible peace process. Israel, for its part, has never employed such measures and undertakes never to resort to them in the future. The recurrent wars in the Middle East, as well as most of the present problems in the region, need not have arisen if these simple modes of conduct had been accepted and observed.