Even if not everyone knows it, Israel brought forward a secret program to get a atomic arsenal since its foundation and is today considered one nuclear power to all intents and purposes. Thanks to the revelations of the ex-technician and “deep Throat” Mordechai Vanunuin the 80s of the twentieth century, it was possible to look at the Israeli nuclear program with renewed attention. However, a number of unresolved questions still remain today, including the most important: How many nuclear weapons does Israel have and in what scenarios would it use them?
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The origins of the Israeli nuclear program
There precise date of the start of Israel’s nuclear program it is not knowneven if most sources speak of an inclusive time frame between 1948 and 1949therefore coinciding with the very foundation of the country.
The main standard bearer of the need for the Jewish State to equip itself with a nuclear arsenal was the “father of the homeland” himself, David Ben Gurionwho turned to the most illustrious Israeli scientist of the time, the chemist Ernst David Bergmannhead of Weizmann Institute of Science and scientific advisor to the Ministry of Defense, to translate the wishes of the country’s political and military leadership into reality.
A “great leap forward” occurred in the second half of the 1950s, when the Israelis managed to negotiate in two rounds with France (17 September 1956 and 3 October 1957) technical assistance for the construction of a nuclear reactor in the Negev desert, near the city of Dimona.
Nuclear weapons and the Arab-Israeli Wars
What in Ben Gurion’s public declarations was supposed to be “a project with exclusively peaceful purposes”, actually immediately concealed a clandestine nuclear program which was initially not well received by Israel’s Western partners. In the United States of America, in particular, the Administration Kennedy became particularly critical of Israeli initiatives, even threatening diplomatic and economic retaliation if Tel Aviv had not opened the nuclear plant at international inspections.
It seems that the goal of obtaining a nuclear weapon (albeit at low yield) was achieved by Israel in 1967on the eve of Six Day War. According to what was later published by the American investigative journalist Seymour Hershthe Israelis had even formulated two floors for a possible use of this weapon during that conflict but the reunited Arab armies were defeated without having to resort to the bomb.
The situation was very different at the time of Yom Kippur War when, after the setbacks suffered by Israel in the first two days of fighting, the Minister of Defense, Moshe Dayanobliged the Prime Minister of the time, Golda Meirto order the activation of the nuclear arsenal using the phrase: “This is the fall of the Third Temple!”. Even in this case, however, the tide of the conflict was reversed by Israel using only conventional arsenals.
The Revelations of Mordechai Vanunu
In the 1986 an ex-Israeli nuclear technician named Mordechai Vanunu revealed the extent of Israel’s nuclear program to the British press for the first time, accompanying his statements with 57 photos taken in highly sensitive areas of the power plant Dimonawhere he had worked for 9 years. Vanunu’s revelations provoked an immediate reaction from the Mossad who organized a secret operation to kidnap him and bring him back to Israel where he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for treason and revealing state secrets.
The April 21, 2004after having finished serving his sentence, Vanunu was released from prison, although he is still subjected to a regime of stringent controls, so much so that he is considered for all intents and purposes “a political prisoner of the state”.
Today’s situation and fears for the future
To date it is not at all clear how many nuclear warheads the Jewish State has managed to equip itself over the last sixty years. By consulting both the specialist and general press, a wide range is usually reported from a minimum of 80 to a maximum of 400 devices. If the highest estimate is true, then Israel would potentially have a nuclear arsenal numerically superior to that of France or the United Kingdom.
Officially, Israel maintains an open policy of “nuclear ambiguity”neither denying nor admitting to possessing the “supreme weapons”, however the studies and intelligence information (even if only partially accessible to the general public) make the denial simply untenable.
However, nothing is known about this to the employment doctrine of Israeli nuclear weapons. Both journalists and conspiracy theories have long discussed the so-called “Samson Option”i.e. the possibility that Israel, if it is overwhelmed by its Middle Eastern enemies, will target both them and the capitals of the main world powers with its nuclear arsenals, “guilty” in this scenario “of not having been able to prevent a new Shoah of the Jewish people ”, but nothing truly concrete ever emerged.
