It's quite striking that media discussions of nukes in the Middle East routinely gloss over the one state that actually has them—Israel.
https://x.com/Hoffman8Jon/status/2038986222874333218
It's quite striking that media discussions of nukes in the Middle East routinely gloss over the one state that actually has them—Israel.
Israel has an estimated 90 nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them by land, air, and sea, granting them a secure second-strike capability.
US intelligence indicated Israel's nuclear program at Dimona was weapons-related as early as 1960. The CIA cautioned that if Israel nuclearized, it would directly result in “substantial damage to the US and Western position in the Arab world,” and create inroads for the Soviet Union to deepen its influence among the Arab nationalist states.
Washington actually pressed Israel not to nuclearize, and in response Israel promised both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson that “Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East.”
This ultimately proved false—Israel nuclearized soon thereafter, leading to a secret understanding between Washington and Tel Aviv in 1969 stipulating that the United States would stop pressure on the nuclear issue and accommodate itself to Israel’s undeclared nuclear status in return for Israel not officially testing or declaring it has nuclear weapons.
Since then, Israel has targeted nuclear scientists and programs around the region to maintain its nuclear monopoly in the Middle East—a practice that continues today.
posted by Satish Sharma at
03:51
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