How Israel Got The Bomb

Everyone knows Israel has nuclear weapons notwithstanding that Israel has never admitted it has the bomb.

Israel has never signed any nuclear non-proliferation treaties nor has it submitted to international inspections.

So how exactly did Israel get the bomb?

Yesterday I received an article from Politico Magazine entitled :How Israel hid it’s nuclear weapons program: An exclusive look at recently declassified documents shows how Israel blocked U.S. efforts to uncover it’s secret nuclear reactor”.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/israel-nuclear-weapons-117014.html?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email#.VS_tntJVikr

The article is authored by Avner Cohen and William Burr.

Cohen is a Professor of Non-proliferation Studies at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.and the author of “Israel and the Bomb”.

http://www.amazon.com/Israel-Bomb-Avner-Cohen/dp/0231104839

William Burr is a Senior Analyst at the National Security Archive, George Washington University and edits it’s special web page “The Nuclear Vault”.

http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/

The article details how Israel, with the collaboration of France and Norway deliberately deceived the United States with evasive, implausible and deceitful statements concerning the ultimate use of the Dimona nuclear facility (“It’s a textile factory”) and Israel’s quest to acquire nuclear weapons. The lies began in the Eisenhower administration and continued through the administrations of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.

France in the 1950’s was still recovering from the war. It suffered further humiliations in Algeria, Vietnam and during the Suez crisis.  Charles de Gaulle was determined that France acquire an independent nuclear capability, the Force de Frappe.  His goal was to avoid American dominance in defense policy. Meanwhile the U.S. and the Soviet Union were both pressuring nations into non-proliferation.

France, in a secret deal with Israel, agreed to sell it’s bomb making capability, viewing it as an act of political independence and an economic boon. Norway, with an excess supply of heavy water, supplied the same to the Israelis in secret.

The article is worth the read particularly in light of recent Iranian negotiations with the U.S. and Netanyahu’s efforts to derail any agreement.

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http://www.ctbto.org/nuclear-testing/the-effects-of-nuclear-testing/frances-nuclear-testing-programme/