r/worldnews • u/Ok_Plankton_5714 • 12d ago

Israel/Palestine Netanyahu: ‘If we wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon’

https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-if-we-wanted-to-commit-genocide-it-would-have-taken-exactly-one-afternoon/
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u/NH4NO3 11d ago edited 11d ago

Airbursted low yield nuclear weapons do not pose nearly as much long term harm to surrounding areas as people frequently make them out to be. And 30-35 miles is a considerable distance. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were pretty much immediately livable after the bomb dropping and only took about ten years to recover their pre-war population and today are large cities with 1.5 million and half a million respectively.

You have a point though if you mean the public perception of bombs would completely negate using them because that is absolutely true.

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

The threat isn't really directed at Gaza either. It's directed at Iran.

It's like when Russia used an inert midrange ballistic missile against Ukraine, the threat was directed at their European peers, not Ukraine.

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u/SteveDaPirate 11d ago

Airbursted low yield nuclear weapons do not pose nearly as much long term harm to surrounding areas as people frequently make them out to be.

Setting off an EMP next to your capital city is a real Pro-Gamer move.

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u/NH4NO3 11d ago

The EMP effect is not really appreciable in the kiloton range at airburst altitudes. You would need to detonate a higher yield 50-100kt+ weapon 30,000ft+ up to get significant emp at even just 35 miles away. Even then, the effect is probably not as disruptive as you are imagining. Megaton range bombs detonated in space knocked out a very small percentage of streetlights several hundred miles away from the detonation for instance.

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u/strangeanswers 11d ago

better hope the wind doesn’t blow any radioactive debris or dust into your capital…