I honestly don’t know what to make of this story. Apparently, the U. S. declassified a previously top secret document outlining Israel’s nuclear weapons capabilities (or, at least, some details of its nuclear weapons development program).
The Pentagon has declassified a document that was once labeled “top-secret,†which goes into sophisticated detail about Israel’s nuclear weapons program. The document was released quietly just prior to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech to a joint session of Congress.
Israel has never officially confirmed or denied the existence of a nuclear weapon’s program within its borders.
The Pentagon declassified sections covering Israel’s nuclear program, but “kept sections on Italy, France, West Germany and other NATO countries classified, with those sections blocked out in the document,†Israel National News reported.
The 386-page top-secret memo, titled, “Critical Technological Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations,†goes into great detail about how Israel turned into a nuclear power in the 1970s and 80s.
“As far as nuclear technology is concerned the Israelis are roughly where the U.S. was in the fission weapon field in about 1955 to 1960,†the report assesses.
Questioning the timing has become something of a cliche but it certainly looks apt in these particular circumstances. First, why did the U. S. declassify the report just prior to PM Netanyahu’s visit? And why is this just being noticed now? I find the whole thing mystifying.
Well, one way of looking at it is as a classic strong-arm tactic, along the lines of the one just seen with Hillary: “fall in line, or I’ll do something worse.”
But the shot-across-the-bow technique only works if the other party plays along. Otherwise, you create the potential for massive escalation from either side.
I am growing increasingly concerned about events.
“I find the whole thing mystifying.”
I assume this is gentlemanly, “give them the benefit of the doubt” Dave? Of course you know.
We also hear today that terms of the Iran Treaty might not be disclosed or even properly documented. What next? Lost emails at the IRS, or even private emails at State?
I’m skeptical a ploy like that could be effective with people who have the sort of laager mentality the Israelis do. I would also be greatly surprised if the Israelis don’t have more on us than we do on them.
Hence my concern.
If the Israelis retaliate with information of equal surprise, it would be with reports on which top American celebrities are gay, because none of this is news. More shocking, if by shock you mean not a shock, would be the revelations as to how Israel acquired the materials for the weapons.
As far as to why it happened, perhaps both American and some non-Likudnik or whatever Israelis are waking up to how constrictive all of the pretense about nukes is. You can’t really negotiate with Iran, which, presumably America wants and some Israelis want, without admitting a principle reason Iran wants its own nukes.
From a pretty fascinating Guardian article on Israeli espionage attempts to procure materials:
Avner Cohen, the author of two books on Israel’s bomb, said that policy of opacity in both Israel and in Washington is kept in place now largely by inertia. “At the political level, no one wants to deal with it for fear of opening a Pandora’s box. It has in many ways become a burden for the US, but people in Washington, all the way up to Obama will not touch it, because of the fear it could compromise the very basis of the Israeli-US understanding.”
Since this was “reported” by Breitbart, I took the time to read the declassified report. As I suspected, Brietbart mischaracterizes the report.
The report does not provide “sophisticated detail about Israel’s nuclear weapons program” and I t does not go “into great detail about how Israel turned into a nuclear power in the 1970s and 80s.”
The sentences quoted in the piece are the only two related to Israeli nuclear weapon capabilities and they are mentioned in passing in a section which describes one of Israelis laboratories. The report is not about nuclear capabilities, unlike what the article implies – it’s descriptive of Israeli R&D and science research in areas with convention military applications.
So if you are interested in the state of Israeli research into lasers and IR detectors (to give two examples) circa 1987, then this report will be of interest, otherwise it is unremarkable.
I think the original source for the story was an Israeli one.
Yes and the original Israeli article was a lot more accurate. Breitbart mischaracterized that as well.
I think the take home message is that no one should quote Breitbart without checking original sources.
Steve