Israel’s Nuclear Adventure…

Nuclear activities of Israel which began towards the end of the 1940s gathered pace with the founding of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission by Ernst David Bergmann, known as the “father of Israel’s nuclear power”. The first country to support Israel on nuclear technology was France. The French government set up under Guy Mollet in January 1955, implemented their decision to take a tougher stance on Nasser and other Arab leaders supportive of the Algerian War of Independence through developing closer ties with Israel which they saw as the enemy of Arabs. From this point onwards, relations between France and Israel improved in every field. In September 1957, France and Israel struck a deal on nuclear cooperation and nuclear reactor construction. An important point which needs to be underlined is that France had included nuclear technology as part of its war programme at the time. It did not hesitate to share the technology with Israel. With the aid it received from France, Israel set up the Dimona Nuclear Reactor near the city of Beersheba in Nejef. The reactor began active operation in 1962. Although Israel claimed that the reactor was a factory processing “manganese” or “textiles”, the fact that the region was held under intense security was an indication that there was something different at work.

In fact, Israel had a more difficult problem to resolve than the means of acquiring nuclear technology, namely the procurement and enrichment of uranium. To this end Israeli companies based in France and Britain managed to provide 200 tonnes of uranium oxides into Israel in 1968 through cooperation they secured with West Germany. Undoubtedly, other countries aided Israel in this secret procurement. It was known that American companies acted as intermediaries in hundreds of kilograms of enriched uranium being transported to Israel throughout the 50s and the 60s. Indeed, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had presented the Us Congress with reports of these secret deliveries.

From 1973 onwards, Israel gave impetus to its nuclear activities “based on secrecy”. In this period, Israel cooperated with France, Britain, Federal Germany and the USA, as well as South Africa in developing its nuclear programme. In 1979 Israel and South Africa carried out a joint nuclear test on Prince Edward’s Island south of Cape of Good Hope. This nuclear test passed down into history as the high point of cooperation between Israel and South Africa.

It was estimated that the number of nuclear weapons acquired by Israel until the mid 1980s was around 20. However, the confessions of Mordechai Vanunu, a technician employed at the Dimona Nuclear Reactor, overturned the beliefs of the world public opinion overnight. In 1986, Vanunu who had leftist views and defended the rights of the Palestinian people, turned over hundreds of secret documents and photographs he had to the “London Sunday Times” newspaper. These documents revealed the secret that Israel had more than 200 advanced thermo-nuclear bombs in its possession. In the light of this information, it became apparent that enough plutonium was being produced at the Dimona Reactor to produce between 10 to 20 nuclear bombs per annum.

Since then, Israel has not stopped working on its nuclear programme. Production continued. At the moment it is estimated that Israel has 500 nuclear weapons which are functional and has surpassed Britain, known as the 5th Nuclear Power in the world.

The Allure of Nuclear Power…

Before ending this article, it may be beneficial to relate one more point. Why do states want to acquire nuclear arms? Why is it that nuclear weapons are so tempting for them? At this point the priority in international relations afforded by nuclear capacity comes to the fore. To exemplify, states in possession of nuclear arms think that they have pre-empted actual and possible threats from their enemies. This may be defined as “non-conventional pressure” on another state. For this overriding reason, Israel has sought and acquired nuclear technology from the time of its founding.