Israel was founded as a Jewish state in 1948 when the British partitioned lands that it controlled in the Middle East following World War II. There had been tension between the Jews and the Muslims in that area for centuries. Following the creation of a Jewish state, open war broke out between Israel and its Muslim neighbors. The first Israeli Prime Minister was obsessed with nuclear weapons. He instituted projects and recruited scientists to explore creation of an Israeli nuclear weapons program. In 1952, the Israel Atomic Energy Commission was created.
Israel established a close relationship with France in the 1950s and the two nations shared research and resources for the development of nuclear weapons. With French secret support, Israel began building a nuclear reactor and a reprocessing plant in the late 1950s. In 1955, Israel signed an agreement for construction of a U.S. reactor as part of the United States Atoms for Peace program. The Israelis used the construction of the US supported reactor as a cover for the construction of a much large reactor in the Negev Desert near Dimona with French help in 1958 The new French assisted reactor was capable of generating about fifty pounds of plutonium per year but the Israelis and the French claimed that it was for strictly peaceful purposes.
The Israelis acknowledge the existence of the nuclear complex at Dimona but refuse to discuss whether or not they have manufactured nuclear weapons there. The Reactors became operational and capable of producing plutonium around 1964. When the United States became aware of the activities at Dimona in the mid 1960s, they demanded that Israel allow international inspection of the site. Israel agreed on the condition that the United States carry out the inspections. With advanced notice of the inspections, it was thought that the Israelis had time to hide any evidence of nuclear weapons production and the inspections were declared useless and halted in 1969. The United States concluded at that time that Israel did possess nuclear weapons.
In 1986, a former technician at Dimona named Mordechai Vanunu fled to the United Kingdom and made public information about Israel’s nuclear program. It was determined at the time that Israel had enough material for twenty hydrogen bombs and two hundred fission bombs. Vanunu was eventually kidnapped by Israeli agents, returned to Israel, tried, convicted and held in prison for fourteen years.
There have been protests and serious debates in Israel over the nuclear weapons program. Israel has never admitted that it has nuclear weapons and has publicly declared that it would not be the first nation to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East. The exact meaning of this public announcement has been hotly debated. Israel has planes, missiles and submarines which are thought to be capable of delivering nuclear warheads.
Israeli nuclear complex at Dimona:
