Have U.S. Soldiers Been Deployed To 'Secure And Protect' Israel's Nuclear Facilities?

© Photo : Planet Labs  

Sputnik: US Troops Dispatched to Secure Israel's Top Secret Nuclear Facilities: Report 

 US officials have vacillated between denying the presence of American boots on the ground in Israel, and admitting that small numbers of commandos have been deployed to help search for hostages and advise their Israeli counterparts. 

US troops have reportedly been dispatched to help secure Israel’s highly sensitive nuclear facilities, including the top secret site at Dimona – the alleged birthplace of the Israeli’s suspected nuclear arsenal. 

Sources speaking to an independent online Arabic-language newspaper indicated that the US told a Lebanese intelligence intermediary that American troops “would not participate” in field operations in the Gaza Strip “under any circumstances,” but rather be deployed to “secure and protect” two Israeli research reactors, the Negev Nuclear Research Center near the city of Dimona, and a second facility in the desert near the locality of Yavne in central Israel. 

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WNU Editor: I doubt that Israel would permit US soldiers to be stationed at their top secret nuclear facilities. But the Iranians and their Lebanese allies are convinced that this is what has happened .... US Takes Control of Israeli Nuclear Plants: Exclusive (Tasnim News Agency).

By A 152-5 Vote The UN General Assembly Passes Resolution Telling Israel To Get Rid Of Its Nuclear Arsenal

PRIME MINISTER Yair Lapid addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, last week. (photo credit: Mike Segar/Reuters) 

Jerusalem Post: Israel must get rid of its nuclear weapons, UNGA majority decides 

Israel never admitted to possess nuclear weapons, but nevertheless, the UNGA resolution was aimed at Israel, not Iran.

Israel must dispose of all its nuclear weapons and place its nuclear sites under the International Atomic Energy Agency’s purview, the United Nations General Assembly’s First Committee stated in an initial 152-5 vote. 

The five nations that opposed Friday’s resolution on the “risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East” were: Canada, Israel, Micronesia, Palau and the United States. Another 24 countries abstained, including European Union members.  

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WNU Editor: The 5 nations that voted against this resolution were .... Canada, Israel, Micronesia, Palau and the United States.

Trump-Era Administration Order Allowed Release Of High-Resolution Satellite Imagery Of Israeli Nuclear Facility Possible

A satellite photo from Planet Labs Inc. shows construction at the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near the city of Dimona, Monday. Credit: AP 

Haaretz: Trump Administration Order Allowed Release of High-resolution Satellite Imagery of Israeli Nuclear Facility 

A change to resolution limits of satellite imagery of Israel and the Palestinian territories, under a 1997 regulation enacted to protect Israel's security interests, means more images of Israeli sites may be expected soon. 

High-resolution satellite imagery showing construction of a new compound at Israel’s nuclear reactor in Dimona published on Thursday was released by virtue a U.S. administrative order that went into effect in July during Former President Donald Trump's tenure and which allowed American companies to sell much clearer and higher resolution images of Israel and the Palestinian territories than they could before. 

A 1997 U.S. regulation, known as the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment, named for the two senators who sponsored it, limits commercial satellite imaging systems licensed by the federal government to providing imagery of Israel that is “no more detailed or precise than satellite imagery of Israel that is available from commercial sources.” Intended to protect Israel’s security facilities, the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment applies specifically to Israel alone and is the reason why for years, satellite maps of Israel in Google Earth had been much lower than in most other countries. 

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Update: Trump-Era Order Made Capturing Detailed Satellite Photos of Israel's New Nuclear Facility Possible (Sputnik) 

WNU Editor: Mu gut tells me that the Israeli government is pushing the Biden administration to reinstate resolution limits of satellite imagery of Israel and the Palestinian territories for security reasons.

Israel's Nuclear Weapons Is What Make's It A Superpower

Dimona nuclear reactor circa 1960s. National Security Archive/Flash 90

Daniel R. DePetris, National Interest: The Unspoken Reason Israel Is a Military Superpower: Nuclear Weapons

All we know.

In the early 1950s, Israel was not a powerhouse in the Middle East as it is now. Newly established in 1948 and surrounded by hostile Arab states that would wage war on Israel on numerous occasions until the mid-1970s, Ben-Gurion was concerned that his people would eventually fail to keep up in a conventional arms race with their Arab enemies. Israel, he argued, needed an insurance policy in order to survive in a neighborhood filled with adversaries.

The Iranian nuclear nonproliferation agreement has been the top foreign policy issue throughout Washington for the past two months. Approving or disapproving the deal was the first order of business for the U.S. Congress until the very last day of congressional action under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (September 17). Hours of debate have been conducted on the floors of the House and Senate, both chambers have held roll call votes, and Senate Democrats bonded together to filibuster a motion of disapproval — a resolution that would have prevented President Obama from providing the Iranians sanctions relief.

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WNU Editor: Israel's nuclear weapons program is really no longer a secret .... U.S. Government Reveals Israel's Nuclear Program And Secrets (March 26, 2015).

Where Has Israel Hide Its Arsenal Of Nuclear Weapons?

Reuters

Sebastien Roblin, National Interest: Israel Could Have As Many As 300 Nuclear Weapons. And This Is Where They Hide Many of Them.

Many could be underwater.

A closer avenue for attack would lie in the Persian Gulf, but this would involve transiting the submarines through the Suez Canal (controlled by Egypt), around Africa (impractically far for the Dolphin-class), or stationing some at the naval base at Eilat, which faces the Gulf of Aqaba on the southern tip of Israel and is surrounded by Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. In short, deploying Israeli submarines to Iran’s southern flank would require some degree of cooperation and logistical support from other Middle Eastern states that might not be forthcoming in a crisis scenario.

Israel has never officially admitted to possessing nuclear weapons.

Unofficially, Tel Aviv wants everyone to know it has them, and doesn’t hesitate to make thinly-veiled references to its willingness to use them if confronted by an existential threat. Estimates on the size of Tel Aviv’s nuclear stockpile range from 80 to 300 nuclear weapons, the latter number exceeding China’s arsenal.

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WNU Editor: Where these weapons are hidden is probably Israel's most important military secret. Israel is also not hesitant to warn foes on the consequences if war does break out .... Israel threatens to use nuclear weapons to ‘wipe out’ its enemies (Middle East Monitor), while at the same time hardening its own nuclear sites from possible threats .... Israel says it’s reinforcing its nuclear sites because of Iranian threats (Times of Israel).

Israel Fortifies Nuclear Reactors Against Hezbollah-Iran Missile Strikes

Israel nuclear reactor in Dimona. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Newsweek: Israel Readies Nuclear Reactors for a Hezbollah or Iranian Missile Strike

Israel says it has had to beef up protection for two of its nuclear reactors, as they are missile targets for Iran and Hezbollah.

The Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) said that the Dimona and Nahal Sorek reactors are the preferred targets for any attack by Iran or Hezbollah. Although it said it was unlikely to endanger Israelis, such an attack would be a huge propaganda coup for Tehran or Hezbollah, Haaretz reported.

Field simulations and exercises have been carried out recently where facilities were evacuated. There were also drills dealing with the aftermath of an attack, such as how to stop radioactive material from spreading, the paper added.

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More News On Israel Fortifying Nuclear Reactors Against Hezbollah-Iran Missile Strikes

Israel Boosting Defense of Nuclear Reactors Fearing Iranian Missile Attack -- Haaretz
Israel said to brace nuclear reactors for Iranian, Hezbollah missile attacks -- 24 News
Israel said to fortify nuclear reactors against Iranian missile strikes -- Times Of Israel
Israel said to fortify nuclear reactors against missile strikes -- World Israeli News
Israel Holds Iran Missile Strike Simulations at its Nuclear Reactors – Reports -- Sputnik

Who Paid To Develop And Build Israel's Nuclear Bomb?

View of the Israeli nuclear facility in the Negev Dest outside Dimona on August 6, 2000. Jim Hollander/Reuters

Zachary Keck, National Post: The American Who Paid for Israel's Nuclear Bomb

Although Israel doesn’t officially acknowledge it, it is well understood that the country possesses a nuclear weapon arsenal (although the exact number of warheads are in dispute). It is similarly well understood that the United States opposed Israel’s nuclear weapons program during the John F. Kennedy and, to a lesser extent, Lyndon B. Johnson administrations. One part of the history that is less well known is that much of the funding for Israel’s nuclear weapons program came from private Americans in an effort that was spearheaded by, Abraham Feinberg, a prominent American who served as an unofficial advisor to both President Kennedy and President Johnson.

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WNU Editor: There are growing concerns now that Israel's nuclear reactor is becoming a safety risk .... Israel's 54-year-old nuclear reactor a safety risk (Al Jazeera)

Report: Israel Had A Plan To Use Nuclear Weapons During The Six Day War

Smoke rising from targets hit by Israeli artillery at the Suez Canal during the Six Day War. (Han Micha/Government Press Office)

New York Times: ‘Last Secret’ of 1967 War: Israel’s Doomsday Plan for Nuclear Display


On the eve of the Arab-Israeli war, 50 years ago this week, Israeli officials raced to assemble an atomic device and developed a plan to detonate it atop a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula as a warning to Egyptian and other Arab forces, according to an interview with a key organizer of the effort that will be published Monday.

The secret contingency plan, called a “doomsday operation” by Itzhak Yaakov, the retired brigadier general who described it in the interview, would have been invoked if Israel feared it was going to lose the 1967 conflict. The demonstration blast, Israeli officials believed, would intimidate Egypt and surrounding Arab states — Syria, Iraq and Jordan — into backing off.

Israel won the war so quickly that the atomic device was never moved to Sinai. But Mr. Yaakov’s account, which sheds new light on a clash that shaped the contours of the modern Middle East conflict, reveals Israel’s early consideration of how it might use its nuclear arsenal to preserve itself.

“It’s the last secret of the 1967 war,” said Avner Cohen, a leading scholar of Israel’s nuclear history who conducted many interviews with the retired general.

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Update: Israel’s Secret Plan to Nuke the Egyptian Desert (Politico Magazine)

WNU Editor: The Israelis are denying these reports .... Israeli researcher refutes NYT report that Israel had nuclear bomb in '67 (YNet News)

Does Israel Need Nuclear Weapons?

Robert Farley, National Interest: The Worst-Kept Military Secret Ever: Israel Has Nuclear Weapons (But Does It Need Them?)

This isn’t to say that Israel was wrong to embark on a nuclear program, or that it should unilaterally give up its nukes now. The political developments of the 1970s and 1980s, including the defanging of Egypt, the cauldron of the Iran-Iraq conflict, and the end of the Cold War, were difficult to foresee from the vantage point of the mid-1960s. Perhaps most importantly, the ironclad relationship between Israel and the United States did not exist when the Israelis established their program. Given the decision, taken in the late 1940s, to try to make Israel the epicenter of Jewish global life, nuclear aspirations to defend that epicenter hardly seem unreasonable.

Since the early 1970s, Israel has informally maintained a nuclear deterrent. In order to prevent the activation of a variety of legal instruments that would disrupt Israeli relations with the United States and Europe, Israel has not acknowledged the program. It remains, however, the worst-kept secret in international politics.

But a country always has options. What if Israel had never developed these nukes? What impact would a different decision have had on Israel’s security, and on regional politics more broadly?

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WNU Editor: I can understand why the Israeli leadership wanted nuclear weapons decades ago. They were always under constant threat, and there was no guarantee that they could stop an invasion from the Arab states .... hence a deterrent was necessary. Flash forward to today .... much of the Middle East is now in a state of war and conflict .... and who knows what will arise when all of these conflicts have finally ended. A shattered Middle East more focused on peace and rebuilding .... or something far more dangerous and threatening. In the worst case scenario .... maybe a nuclear arsenal and the deterrence that it gives will become a necessary evil.

Colin Powell Leaked Emails: Israel Has '200 Nukes All Pointed At Iran'

Daily Mail: Israel has '200 nukes all pointed at Iran', former US secretary of state Colin Powell says in leaked private email that has Washington on edge

* The detail is the latest revelation to emerge from a cache of leaked communications
* The former US secretary of state revealed the information in an email he sent to a colleague last year
* Israel has a policy of nuclear ambiguity and has never talked openly about the type or size of its weapons
* The email was being sent to business partner and democratic donor Jeffrey Leeds regarding Israeli PM Netanyahu’s speech to Congress

In a private email exchange last year leaked this week by hackers, former Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed Israel's nuclear weapons capability with a friend, saying the country has 200 warheads.

Though Israel is widely believed to have developed nukes decades ago, it has never declared itself to be a nuclear state. The existence of its weapons program is considered classified information by both the Israeli and U.S. governments.

Powell, a retired Army general who has served as White House national security adviser and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Associated Press on Friday through a spokeswoman he was referring to public estimates of Israel's nukes.

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More News On Colin Powell's Leaked Emails Revealing Taht Israel Has '200 Nukes All Pointed At Iran'

Powell Acknowledges Israeli Nukes -- LobeLog
Colin Powell leaked emails: Israel has '200 nukes all pointed at Iran', former US secretary of state says -- The Independent
Colin Powell Says Israel Has 200 Nukes In Leaked Email -- Newsweek
In leaked emails, Colin Powell says Israel has 200 nukes -- The Times of Israel
Colin Powell admits existence of Israeli nukes, but State Dept stays silent -- RT
Powell's leaked emails: Israel has 200 nukes -- Press TV
Israel, US mum on Powell's assessment that Israel has 200 nukes -- The Times of Israel/AP
Does Israel really have 200 nuclear weapons, or was Colin Powell exaggerating? -- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Report: Israel Has 115 Nuclear Warheads And Some 660 kg Of Plutonium

The Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona (Screen capture: YouTube, via Channel 10)

YNet News: Report: Israel has 115 nuclear warheads, 660kg of plutonium

Institute For Science and International Security report claims Israel has 'wide range of delivery vehicles for its nuclear weapons,' including nuclear-capable cruise missiles.

A report by the Institute For Science and International Security (ISIS) released last week claims Israel has 115 nuclear warheads and some 660 kg of plutonium.

Israel has never confirmed or denied having nuclear weapons under a policy of ambiguity aimed at deterring longtime Arab and Muslim adversaries.

The report, written by institute founder David Albright, is based largely on information leaked by Mordechai Vanunu in 1986, as well as intelligence reports, media reports and other research.

In his report, Albright reviews Israel's alleged nuclear activities at the Dimona nuclear reactor which started, he claims, shortly before the 1967 Six-Day War.

More News On Israel's Nuclear Weapons Stockpile

Israel has 115 nuclear weapons, says US think tank -- Times of Israel
Israel has 115 nuclear warheads, US research center says -- i24
Study estimates Israel's nuclear weapon count stands at 115 -- Jerusalem Post
Israel Has 115 Nuclear Warheads, U.S. Research Institute Says -- Haaretz

WNU Editor: Hat tip to RRH for this link.

Report: Israel Conducted 20 'Dirty Bomb' Nuclear Tests

The Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona (Screen capture: YouTube, via Channel 10)

Haaretz: Haaretz exclusive: Israel tested 'dirty-bomb cleanup' in the desert

Series of tests in conjunction with four-year project at Dimona nuclear reactor measured damage and other implications of detonation of radiological weapon by hostile forces.

Israel recently carried out a series of tests in the desert in conjunction with a four-year project at the Dimona nuclear reactor to measure the damage and other implications of the detonation of a so-called “dirty” radiological bomb by hostile forces. Such a bomb uses conventional explosives in addition to radioactive material.

Most of the detonations were carried out in the desert and one was performed at a closed facility. The research concluded that high-level radiation was measured at the center of the explosions, with a low level of dispersal of radiation by particles carried by the wind. Sources at the reactor said this doesn’t pose a substantial danger beyond the psychological effect.

More News On Reports That Israel Conducted 20 'Dirty Bomb' Nuclear Tests in The Negev Desert

Report: Israel built, exploded 'dirty bombs' in nuclear test -- AP
Israeli tests find ‘dirty bombs’ pose no substantial danger -- Times of Israel
Israel, fearing attack, tests effects of 'dirty bomb' -- i24 News
Report: Israel Recently Tested 'Dirty Bombs' -- Arutz Sheva
Israel tests 'dirty bombs' in desert -- Big News Network
Israel tests ‘dirty’ bombs in Negev desert -- Middle East Eye
Israel Tests Dirty Bombs to Study Effects of Hypothetical Attack -- Sputnik
Israel tests ‘dirty' bombs in fear of enemy attacks – report -- RT

Israel Fears That The Obama Administration Will Not Put An End To U.S. Policy Of Hiding Israel's Nuclear 'Secrets'

Dimona nuclear reactor circa 1960s. National Security Archive/Flash 90

Eli Lake, Bloomberg: Israel Fears Obama Will Stop Hiding Its Nuclear 'Secret'

The Israeli government is worried the Obama administration will allow a U.N. conference this week to adopt a resolution that could compel Israel to acknowledge its nuclear arsenal.

At issue is a proposal at the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference that would empower the U.N. secretary general to organize a conference to pursue a Middle East free of nukes and other weapons of mass destruction.

Israel is one of three nuclear states (along with Pakistan and India) that have not signed the treaty. But unlike Pakistan and India, Israel has never formally acknowledged that it has nuclear weapons.

WNU Editor: Sorry Mr. Lake .... but the White House has already blown their cover .... U.S. Government Reveals Israel's Nuclear Program And Secrets.

Iran Accuses Israel Of Having 400 Nuclear Weapons

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (Reuters / Mike Segar)

YNet News: Iran's Zarif: Netanyahu is sitting on 400 nuclear warheads

During visit to New York, Iranian Foreign Minister takes aim at PM's criticism on Iran deal, says it's 'laughable' he 'has become everyone's non-proliferation guru'.

WASHINGTON – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday took aim at criticism leveled by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the international community's framework deal with Iran, calling it "ironic but laughable".

"Netanyahu has become everyone's non-proliferation guru. He is sitting on 400 nuclear warheads," the foreign minister said.

Netanyahu has been a fierce critic of the attempt to reach a deal with Iran over its nuclear program and who went as far as addressing Congress over the issue, to Obama's displeasure. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Speaking at an event in New York on Wednesday, Zarif said his country and world powers will meet Thursday to start bringing together the elements of a draft on a comprehensive nuclear deal, with meetings starting Monday in Europe to finalize all its elements.

Update: Iran insists Israel ‘give up the bomb’ as Tehran seeks nuclear-free Middle East -- RT

WNU editor: 400 nuclear weapons !?!?!?! Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sounds very confident with his number.

A Look At How Israel Kept Its Nuclear Weapons Program Secret

Lead image by Courtesy of National Security Archives.

Avner Cohen and William Burr, Politico: How Israel Hid Its Secret Nuclear Weapons Program

An exclusive look inside newly declassified documents shows how Israel blocked U.S. efforts to uncover its secret nuclear reactor.

For decades, the world has known that the massive Israeli facility near Dimona, in the Negev Desert, was the key to its secret nuclear project. Yet, for decades, the world—and Israel—knew that Israel had once misleadingly referred to it as a “textile factory.” Until now, though, we’ve never known how that myth began—and how quickly the United States saw through it. The answers, as it turns out, are part of a fascinating tale that played out in the closing weeks of the Eisenhower administration—a story that begins with the father of Secretary of State John Kerry and a familiar charge that the U.S. intelligence community failed to “connect the dots.”

WNU Editor: I would disagree on how well they kept their nuclear program secret. Everyone had suspicions going back decades, and when Mordechai Vanunu .... an Israeli nuclear technician who revealed the program in the 1980s .... the jig was up. The only thing that we do not know for sure today (at least publicly) are the exact numbers and kiloton-age of Israel's weapons.

U.S. Government Reveals Israel's Nuclear Program And Secrets

Dimona nuclear reactor circa 1960s. National Security Archive/Flash 90

Michael Karpin, Jewish Daily Forward: Revealing Israel's Nuclear Secrets

The Pentagon Declassifies a Surprising 1987 Report

In early February, the Pentagon declassified a 386-page report from 1987, exposing for the first time ever the actual depth of top-secret military cooperation between the United States and Israel — including, amazingly, information about Israel’s unacknowledged nuclear program.

In view of the caustic tension that has increased lately between Washington and Jerusalem, the timing of the publication’s declassification, after a long legal process, might raise a few eyebrows. I have some knowledge about the build-up process of Israel’s nuclear capacity and after reading the report in question I must express my astonishment: I have never seen an official American document disclosing such extensive revelation on subjects that until now were regarded by both administrations as unspeakable secrets.

WNU Editor: The world's media is focused on the Germanwings jet disaster and the war in Yemen .... but this news report on Israel's nuclear program is incredibly explosive, and unprecedented.

More News On The Pentagon Declassifying Israel's Nuclear Program

US Declassifies Document Revealing Israel's Nuclear Program -- Arutz Sheva
Obama administration releases top-secret doc revealing Israel's nuclear program -- Examiner
What the Pentagon Recently Did Regarding Israel Is So ‘Strange’ One Outlet Is Wondering If It’s ‘Revenge’ -- The Blaze

Update: This revelation will now all but guarantee a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.  If Israel has nukes .... why not us .... I can see that argument and position coming from Iran right now.

The Pentagon Confirms For The First Time That Israel Has Nuclear Weapons

Israel’s Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona. Red circle indicates plutonium separation facility for nuclear weapons production. Google Earth/Digital Globe photo. At top—Israeli air force photo

William Greidner, The Nation: It’s Official: The Pentagon Finally Admitted That Israel Has Nuclear Weapons, Too

While the Washington press corps obsessed over Hillary Clinton’s e-mails at the State Department, reporters were missing a far more important story about government secrets. After five decades of pretending otherwise, the Pentagon has reluctantly confirmed that Israel does indeed possess nuclear bombs, as well as awesome weapons technology similar to America’s.

Early last month the Department of Defense released a secret report done in 1987 by the Pentagon-funded Institute for Defense Analysis that essentially confirms the existence of Israel’s nukes. DOD was responding to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by Grant Smith, an investigative reporter and author who heads the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy. Smith said he thinks this is the first time the US government has ever provided official recognition of the long-standing reality.

WNU Editor: This is actually not the first admission from the Pentagon on Israel's nuclear stockpile. Robert Beckhusen at "War Is Boring" posted a good analysis last year .... When the Pentagon Feared Israel's Nukes.

What Israeli Nukes?

Israel’s Worst-Kept Secret -- Douglas Birch and R. Jeffrey Smith, Defense One/The Atlantic

Israel has a substantial arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Former CIA Director Robert Gates said so during his 2006 Senate confirmation hearings for secretary of defense, when he noted—while serving as a university president—that Iran is surrounded by “powers with nuclear weapons,” including “the Israelis to the west.” Former President Jimmy Carter said so in 2008 and again this year, in interviews and speeches in which he pegged the number of Israel’s nuclear warheads at 150 to around 300.

But due to a quirk of federal secrecy rules, such remarks generally cannot be made even now by those who work for the U.S. government and hold active security clearances. In fact, U.S. officials, even those on Capitol Hill, are routinely admonished not to mention the existence of an Israeli nuclear arsenal and occasionally punished when they do so.

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Update: This is interesting .... When the Pentagon Feared Israel's Nukes (Robert Beckhusen, Real Clear Defense/War is Boring)

My Comment: Yup ... when it comes to Israeli nukes this has (and is) the official U.S. policy .... see video here.

Would Israel Use Nuclear Weapons First?

The Real Nuclear Option -- Micah Zenko, Foreign Policy

Why Israel might nuke Iran to prevent Tehran from going nuclear. Seriously.

This weekend's interim Joint Plan of Action between the P5+1 countries and Iran over its nuclear program was met with skepticism and hostility from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet. The divergence of the Israeli leadership's perception of the nuclear agreement from that of its close U.S. ally is understandable and expected given the differing threat perceptions the two countries hold over a prospective Iranian bomb. Subsequently, these officials emphasized three points in their public reactions: the agreement is, in Netanyahu's words, a "historic mistake" that makes the world a "much more dangerous place"; Israel is not obligated to accept its terms; and Israel retains the right to attack -- as Netanyahu's spokesperson termed it -- "the Iranian military nuclear program," with all of Israel's military capabilities.

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My Comment: I do not see such a military-nuclear-option on the table .... certainly not in today's environment. And even in the long term the prospect of Israel using nuclear weapons in a preemptive manner .... I have trouble seeing such an event happening. But .... if WMDs are used against Israel .... in that case everything will then become possible, and if I was living in a major Arab/Iranian city, my priority would be to get out as soon as possible.

Report: Israel Has 80 Nuclear Weapons

View of the Israeli nuclear facility in the Negev Dest outside Dimona (Reuters)

Israel Has 80 Nuclear Warheads, Can Make 115 To 190 More, Report Says -- L.A. Times

JERUSALEM-- Israel has 80 nuclear warheads and the potential to double that number, according to a new report by U.S. experts.

In the Global Nuclear Weapons Inventories, recently published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, proliferation experts Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris write that Israel stopped production of nuclear warheads in 2004.

But the country has enough fissile material for an additional 115 to 190 warheads, according to the report, meaning it could as much as double its arsenal.

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More News On Israel's Nuclear Weapons Stockpile

Israel Thought to Possess 80 Nuclear Weapons: Experts -- Global Security Newswire
Israel has 80 nuclear warheads, report says -- Times of Israel
Report: Israel has 80 Nuclear Warheads; Production Frozen -- Arutz Sheva
Report: Israel halted nuclear warheads production in 2004 -- YNet News
Israel alleged to have 'fissile material sufficient for 115-190 warheads' -- Israel Hayom
Israel has 80 nukes, can about triple inventory – report -- RT
Israel has 80 nuclear warheads and enough material to make atleast 190 more -- Global Dispatch
Intelligence reports claim that Israel has 80 nuclear warheads -- Middle East Monitor

WNU Editor: The report from Thh Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is here.