Robert Gates breaks silence on Israeli nukes

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Israelis piqued by Gates nuclear "confirmation"

07 Dec 2006 13:55:55 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Robert Gates, the incoming U.S. secretary of defense, won plaudits in Washington this week for his candour on the Iraq war.

Some Israelis were less pleased, however, to hear Gates mention with equal frankness what U.S. administrations have long avoided saying in public -- that the Jewish state has the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.

To be fair, it was pretty oblique.

During his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Gates mentioned why Iran might be seeking the means to build an atomic bomb: "They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf," he said.

The remark led Israeli news bulletins. State-run radio suggested Gates may have breached a U.S. "don't ask, don't tell" policy that dates back to the late 1960s.

"It's quite unprecedented," a retired Israeli diplomat told Reuters on Thursday when asked about Gates's testimony. "I can only assume he has yet to get to grips with the understandings that exist between us and the Americans."

According to recently declassifed documents cited by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists magazine, under President Richard Nixon the United States knew Israel had developed nuclear weapons but opted against pressing its ally to come clean on the capability and accept international regulation.

Israel neither confirms nor denies having the bomb as part of a "strategic ambiguity" policy that it says fends off numerically superior enemies while avoiding an arms race.

This sanctioned reticence is a major irritant for Arabs and Iran, which see a double-standard in U.S. policy in the region.

U.S. AID

By not declaring itself to be nuclear armed, Israel also skirts a U.S. ban on funding countries that proliferate weapons of mass destruction. It can thus enjoy more than $2 billion in annual military and other aid from Washington.

Though Gates was appointed as part of a move by U.S. President George W. Bush to revitalise prospects for Iraq and a wider peace in the Middle East, no one has yet gone as far as to propose openly that Washington review Israel's open secret.

"I am not aware of any change in U.S. policy on discussing Israel and its nuclear capability," said Stewart Tuttle, spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv.

Shimon Peres, who helped found Israel's main atomic reactor in the 1950s, officially for civilian use, and is now senior deputy to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, sounded similarly unperturbed.

"This announcement makes no fundamental difference," he told Israel Radio. "

"Whether or not Israel has nuclear weapons, the fact is that Israel is the only country threatened with destruction ... Israel is not threatening any country. Weapons do not fire themselves, people fire them."

He was apparently referring to arch-foe Iran, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the elimination of the "Zionist regime" but denied his country seeks nuclear arms.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L07899735.htm

[Artegal 1]

Wasn't there a story about a Scientist that was going to or had revealed that Israel has Nukes that then was subsequently silenced by unknown but presumably Israeli agents? I can't remember the story it was in the past decade.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Wasn't there a story about a Scientist that was going to or had revealed that Israel has Nukes that then was subsequently silenced by unknown but presumably Israeli agents? I can't remember the story it was in the past decade.

His name is Mordechai Vanunu. He was born in Morocco to a Jewish family and emigrated to Israel as a child. From 1976 to 1985, he was a technician at Israel's secret nuclear facility near Dimona. He reportedly became increasingly concerned with the implications of the program. When he was laid off from his job in 1985, he did some travelling, eventually arriving in Australia where he began to attend an Anglican Church.

Vanunu spilled the beans to the British media in 1986, and gave them photographs to prove his story. Subsequently, a female Mossad agent lured him from Britain to Rome, where he was abducted and taken to Israel, tried in secret, and convicted of treason.

Vanunu served 18 years in prison, 11 of it in solitary confinement. He was finally released in 2004. He has converted to Christianity, been baptized under the name of John Crossman, and has expressed his wish to leave Israel and emigrate to America. However, Israel refuses to allow him to leave the country, and has placed extensive restrictions on his movement and speech.

It's a disturbing story, on many levels. More at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu