Israel’s 60 years of nuclear proliferation
By Jerry Mazza
May 13, 2008, 00:19
Perhaps it began before 1948, when Israel and Palestine were partitioned
by the UN into two
separate but equal states. Perhaps the nuclear notion occurred to David
Ben-Gurion and friends
in 1945, as they observed two atomic bombs dropped by the US on the Empire
of Japan (mostly
civilian populations) to end WW II. In fact, the nuclear solution brought
about an immediate
surrender.
In 1948, many highly-skilled Jewish scientists who came to Palestine
during the 1930s and
1940s, in particular Dr. Ernst David Bergman, who became the director of
the Israeli Atomic
Energy Commission and founder of his new nation’s efforts to develop
nuclear weapons, joined in
sup****t of Ben-Gurion. Those scientists scoured the Negev Desert for
uranium deposits on orders
from the Israeli Ministry of Defense. By 1950, low-grade deposits near
Beersheba and Sidon were
found, and their discoverers worked on a low power system of heavy water
production.
After all, Israel, having created itself as a Jewish island in a sea of
angry Arabs, must have
been impressed by the US bombs. Here was a way for David to slay Goliath,
a nuclear slingshot,
so powerful that it dared any new Holocaust seekers to attempt another.
That nuclear stone,
properly aimed, powered and fired, would neutralize the would-be attackers
in their own
Holocaust, if necessary Thus began the tyranny of the rogue nuclear power
while the Goliaths of
America and Russia were nuclear arming themselves to the teeth.
In fact, as US Army Lt. Col. Warner D. Farr, retired, tells us of this in
his must-read 27-page
history of Israel’s Nuclear Weapons -- The Third Temple’s Holy of Holies,
“As payment for
Israeli participation in the Suez Crisis of 1956, France provided nuclear
expertise and
constructed a reactor complex for Israel at Dimona (Beersheba) capable of
large-scale plutonium
production and reprocessing. The United States discovered the facility in
1958 and it was a
subject of continual discussions between American presidents and Israeli
prime ministers.” A
bit of war guilt for the Nazi and Vichy governments was mixed in as well.
As Farr re****ts, “Israel used delay and deception to at first keep the
United States at bay,
and later used the nuclear option as a bargaining chip for a consistent
American conventional
arms supply. After French disengagement in the early 1960s, Israel
progressed on its own,
including through several covert operations, to project completion. Before
the 1967 Six-Day
War, they felt their nuclear facility threatened and re****tedly assembled
several nuclear
devices. By the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel had a number of sophisticated
nuclear bombs,
deployed them, and considered using them. The Arabs may have limited their
war aims because of
their knowledge of the Israeli Nuclear weapons. . . ." And so it goes.
With one of the world’s largest nuclear facilities, the actual reactor
nested in a deeply set
basement, not available for “nuclear opacity,” Israel was on its way to
becoming one of the
world’s larger nuclear powers and skirting observation. Israel leader****p
must have breathed a
sigh of relief at this Pandora’s Box gifted them, as if from heaven. Dr.
Bergmann in fact
continued to work closely with the newly created Weizman Institute of
Science from 1949 on. In
fact, they would contribute to France’s development of nuclear weapons, as
well, to help it
catch up with the US, USSR, UK, and Canada.
Of course, by 1958, the Dimona plant, alternately called a manganese
and/or textile plant, was
photographed by US U-2 spy planes and identified as a likely site of a
reactor complex. The
French, swarming like ants about the complex, were hard to hide as well in
Beersheba, so much
so that Charles DeGaulle, France’s president, wanted a promise from Israel
not to make nuclear
weapons, and to announce the “project” to the world. Before Israel did
that, they were
preempted by the US State Department announcing the secret plant. Even the
NY Times announced
on December 21, 1960 that Ben-Gurion was building a 24-megawatt reactor
“for peaceful
purposes.” Sure it was.
This led to a strain in relations between the two nations, with
inspections beginning in 1962
until 1969. In fact, the US inspectors only saw the buildings above
ground, not the many levels
underground. The above ground areas had simulated control rooms. Access to
the underground
plutonium reprocessing plant was kept so secret that elevator entrances to
it were actually
bricked over, a highly conscious deception that would cause a country like
Iran today a great
deal of flak, to say the least. In fact, Ben-Gurion continued to talk
about peaceful uses of
the plant as it sunk deeper into making nuclear weapons. This as Israel
dodged the 50’s and
60’s NATO and US nuclear umbrella.
The French continued to partner, hand in hand, sharing even nuclear tests
and data, the French
re****tedly re****pping reprocessed plutonium back to Israel as payback for
scientific assistance.
1963-1973, project completion
Cutting through this bizarre web (all of which you should read in Farr’s
article), the French
continued work with Israel at Dimona, the sole purpose being to use the
underground processing
plant for one use, and one use only, nuclear weapons. In fact, for
accidentally passing into
Dimona’s airspace, Israel shot down one of its own Mirage fighters during
the Six-Day War and a
Libyan airliner in 1973, with 104 passengers on board, when it strayed
over the Sinai. Extra
heavy water to run the reactor at a higher rate was provided not only by
France, but Norway,
while the US provided the uranium for “Operation Plumbat.”
After the '67 war, France cut off uranium supplies to Israel; supplies had
come from former
French colonies, Gabon, the infamous Niger (as in yellowcake), and the
Central African
Republic. Small quantities of uranium came from Israel’s Negev phosphate
mines, while it bought
quantities from Argentina and South Africa. The West Germans had a front
company for high seas
transfer, which delivered 200 tons of yellowcake, delivered by the
smugglers in 560 sealed oil
drums labeled “Plumbat,” which means lead. How clever. The complicity of
these nations remained
underground as well, so as not anger the Soviets and Arabs. MOSSAD info on
former Nazi then
German officials helped with motivation.
The first extraction of plutonium, under Prime Minister Levi Eshkol,
occurred in 1965.
Unfortunately by that time, the Egyptian Air Force had overflown Dimona
and most probably
recognized the presence of a nuclear reactor. Additionally, 50 American
HAWK anti-aircraft
missiles half-ringed the plant. Yet Israel consider Egyptian overflights
of May 16, 1967, as
possible pre-strike reconnaissance, one source listing the flights as trip
wires that drove
Israel to war. Unfortunately, if one has powerful weapons the impulse is
to use or threaten to
use them, even if cause needs to be fabricated. Fortunately, Nasser vetoed
an Egyptian military
plan to attack Dimona at the start of any war. Israel put together two
nuclear bombs and 10
days later went to war. The nuclear option was being played out.
And so it went, through the 60s. Lyndon Johnson was more willing than John
Kennedy to look the
other way, even as Israel pressed him for A-4E Skyhawks first and F-4E
Phantoms later, with an
agreement not to use them to deliver nuclear weapons. Sure. The F-4s were
delivered on
September 5, 1969, with their nuclear capable hardware intact. So it goes.
Israel and the world
dig themselves deeper into a nuclear hole. See the Farr article for
complete details. The next
section, from 1974-1999, is called Bringing the Bomb up the Basement
Stairs, that is into
artillery pieces to fire nuclear shells.
By 1976, even the CIA believed that the Israelis were using plutonium from
Dimona and had 10 to
20 nuclear weapons available. In 1985, whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu
re****ted the number of
nuclear fission bombs at 200 or more, with boosted devices, neutron bombs,
F-16 deliverable
warheads and Jericho warheads. “The Vanunu photos show a sophistication
that inferred to the
requirement for testing,” comments Farr.
Indian Ocean tests?
On September 22, 1979, a bright familiar flash in the south Indian Ocean
was seen by an
American satellite. It was believed to be a South Africa-Israel joint
nuclear test. It was, as
Farr re****ts, “according to some, the third test of a neutron bomb. The
first two were hidden
in clouds to fool the satellite and the third was an accident -- the
weather cleared.” Though
experts differ on these tests, other writers re****t that scientists at Los
Alamos National
Laboratory believed it to have been a nuclear explosion. This as a
presidential panel decided
otherwise.
Controversy over possible nuclear testing continues until this day. In
June 1998, Farr re****ts,
“a Member of the Knesset accused the government of an underground test
near Eilat on May 28,
1998. Egyptian ‘nuclear experts’ have made similar charges. The Israeli
government hotly denied
the claims.”
In addition, the Israelis have been interested in American nuclear weapons
development data,
especially from US intelligence. Farr tells us, “American-born Israeli spy
Jonathan Pollard
obtained satellite-imaging data of the Soviet Union, allowing Israel to
target accurately
Soviet Cities [after discovering they, Israel, were on a Soviet target
list]. This showed
Israel’s intention to use its nuclear arsenal as a deterrent political
lever, or retaliatory
capability against the Soviet Union itself.
“Israel also used American satellite imagery to plan the 7 June 1981
attack on the Tammuz-1
reactor at Osiraq, Iraq. This daring attack, carried out by eight F-16’s
accompanied by six
F-15’s punched a hole in the concrete reactor dome before the reactor
began operation (and just
days before an Israeli election) . . . The blasts shred the reactor and
blew out the dome
foundations, causing it to collapse on the rubble. This was the first
attack on a nuclear
reactor [Itals mine].” So Israel, US, Russia, France, et al, where do we
go from here?
Perhaps to Gordon Thomas, re****ting at Globe Intel in his article, Mossad
and the Russian Mafia
Plutonium Connection, 11/21/03. Here is a sample. You can read the rest .
. .
<>“Scientists at the European Trans-Uranium Institute at Karlsruhe in
Germany, tracking the
movements of all fissionable material from the former Soviet Union's
nuclear arsenal, have
raised suspicions that Mossad has purchased some of the material to
allegedly stop it falling
into the hands of Islamic and other terror groups.
“But there is also the real possibility that Israel has gone into the
nuclear black market to
buy fissionable material to bolster its own huge nuclear arsenal. Israel
already has one of the
world's largest arsenals -- more than capable of decimating all its Arab
neighbors. Its 200
nuclear bombs and missiles are stockpiled in the Negev desert.
“The suspicion that Israel has also started to buy material stolen from
the former Soviet Union
surfaced a year ago when a quantity of Uranium-235 was found in the Paris
apartment of three
criminals known to broker arms deals with terror groups like al-Qaeda. . .
."
So, now we have a Wild East situation, with Israel purchasing nuclear
material supposedly to
stop it from falling into the hands of Al-Qaeda. It would seem said
material is no safer in
Israel’s hands than in those of the fictional Al-Qaeda, a CIA brand name
for terror, originally
created, funded, and armed to fight the Russians in 1979 in Afghanistan.
Its name was used
again in 2001 to describe the patsies for 9/11, those 19 Muslim characters
whose presence on
the four ill-fated airliners has never been fully validated. This brings
us full circle to
Israel’s own participation in 9/11, a story for another day, but a very
real story.
Bottom line
I have not written this article to condemn Israel on its 60th anniversary
as a quasi-legal
state, quasi to question the UN’s legitimacy to create it, and quasi for
Israel’s subsequent
actions to ingest and destroy the Palestinians. My aim is to point out
Israel’s own hypocrisy
regarding Iran’s possible possession of nuclear capability not just for
peacetime power. Beyond
the Cold War, it is Israel that has historically been edging us into a
worldwide nuclear
conflagration; and doing so since 2001 with the hegemonic boobs presently
running the USA and
sup****ting Israel’s misguided efforts with billions of dollars of aid for
arms in the hope that
it will keep the Arab world intimidated and give us its oil.
I also understand the motivation of the Israeli founders in seeking a
nuclear option as a
deterrent to another Holocaust. But they have created now what Seymour
Hirsch noted as “The
Samson Option,” which is to bring down the whole world on our heads to
prevent what seems a
self-fulfilling prophecy of Holocaust.
As a rogue nation, under its own impetus, Israel should invoke its
Talmudic and biblical
conscience, take a breath, and rethink where they are, who they are, what
they are doing, and
to whom. The survival of Israel’s Zionist State of Mind should not be
contingent on the
potential destruction of the world. That is as simply, as compassionately,
as reasonably as I
can state it. After my voice, will come voices far more strident and ugly,
as you can imagine.
Trust me. Put aside your arms and put aside your bunker mentality to talk
peacefully.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer living in New York.
|
