It’s difficult to find much of anything we might call “good” coming out of the current US-Israel war against Iran. Yet, one positive development has been the fact that Israel’s deceitful practice of pretending it has no nuclear weapons program is now untenable.
The renewal of the discussion around Israel’s nuclear arms program was prompted in part by Iranian missile strikes in the area of Dimona, a city in southern Israel known to house Israel’s nuclear research facilities.
In a March 22 report on the strikes by the Jerusalem Post, the ongoing denials by the Israeli state are noted: “In the 1960s, then prime minister Levi Eshkol vowed that “Israel will not be the first state to introduce nuclear weapons into the region.” The sentiment has been repeated by Israeli officials since.”
Yet, the article goes on to note that ”it is generally accepted that the facility [near Dimona] produced plutonium for the alleged nuclear arsenal.” Modern assessments, “ such as a 2025 report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, estimated that Israel has a stockpile of around 90 nuclear warheads.”
Other estimates state the stockpile is considerably larger. For example, in 2016, leaked emails from former US Secretary of State of State Colin Powell show Powell stating that mutually-assured destruction would make it extremely unlikely that the Iranian regime would use nuclear arms, even if it had any. According to Powell: ““the boys in Tehran know Israel has 200 [nuclear weapons], all targeted on Tehran, and we have thousands.”
Yet, it is the policy of both the Israeli state and the US state to pretend that there is no Israeli nuclear stockpile. Agents of the American regime won’t even answer the question if asked about Israeli nuclear weapons. For example, in an exchange last week between Congressman Joaquin Castro and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Thomas DiNunno, Dinunno refused to answer straightforward questions about basic facts:
“What is Israel’s nuclear capability in terms of weapons?” Castro asked in an intelligence committee. “I can’t comment on that specific question. I’d have to refer you to the Israelis on that,” DiNanno replied. “Does Israel have nuclear weapons?” Castro reasserted the question. “I’m not prepared to comment on that,” DiNanno insisted.
“You’re not prepared to comment on it? It’s a very basic question. We are with an ally conducting a war against Iran. This war continues to escalate,” Castro reminded those in the briefing. When he clarified if DiNanno is unaware of Israel’s nuclear status, the latter said that he couldn’t comment on it either.
“You’re the main person in charge of knowing this and understanding it. Will you not give us an answer? I don’t understand why this issue is so taboo when it’s a basic question, and we’re in a war alongside Israel against Iran. We are dealing with the potential of a nuclear fallout,” Castro warned.
“Again, it would be outside my purview, as the arms control non-proliferation undersecretary, to discuss that specific question,” DiNanno replied again, giving no answer to the initial question.
This is transparently an effort to avoid admitting what is perhaps the most open “open secret” in international affairs: the State of Israel has a nuclear arsenal.
But what exactly is the purpose of refusing to admit the existence of the arsenal?
One major factor here is the fact that the existence of the arsenal makes the State of Israel ineligible for US aid under US law. This is a problem for US supporters of military and economic aid to the State of Israel. As Military.com recently reported:
For decades, the United States has provided Israel with substantial military assistance, currently structured as multi-year security aid authorized by Congress and implemented through annual appropriations. That support is often treated as legally routine. Yet a closer look at U.S. nonproliferation law raises a serious question that Congress and successive administrations have largely avoided: Does existing federal law permit aid to a country widely understood to possess nuclear weapons that it has never declared?
The language of the statute is straightforward. The Military.com report continues:
The most relevant statute is the Symington Amendment, codified at 22 U.S.C. § 2799aa-1. The law directs that most U.S. economic and military assistance “shall be terminated” to any country that delivers or receives nuclear enrichment technology outside full-scope international safeguards. ... The amendment does not name Israel, nor does it contain an Israel-specific exemption.
Needless to say, the Israeli regime’s nuclear arsenal is very much outside of “international safeguards.” The Tel Aviv regime is among the small handful of countries that has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and the regime has never allowed any international inspectors to view or inspect the Israeli stockpile in any way. In other words, Israel has done everything the Israeli regime accuses Iran of doing. Iran has long allowed in international nuclear inspectors and is a signatory of the NPT.
As merely one more example of the fact that the rule of law does not exist in the United States, the pro-Israel elements within the US government—which is most of the so-called “foreign-policy blob” maintain the fiction of Israel not being an illegal nuclear power under US law. This allows the US regime to further exploit the American taxpayers to ensure that Israel remains the top recipient of US military aid. US law simply doesn’t matter if it gets in the way of the regime’s support for the State of Israel.
Not even Powell’s admission was enough to get a straight answer from the US regime on this. In the wake of the leaked Powell emails, a reporter asked Pentagon spokesman John Kirby if the revelation about Israel’s nuclear arsenal would render Israel ineligible for aid. Kirby assumed a deer-in-the-headlight look of confusion and state he could not answer the question.
The absurdity of refusals by US officials to speak about Israel’s nuclear stockpile is further revealed by the fact that Israeli academics openly admit its existence. Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld, for example, has spoken openly on the matter, and has even threatened to unleash the arsenal on “the world” if the Israeli state faces an existential threat:
We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force. Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: “Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.” I consider it all hopeless at this point. We shall have to try to prevent things from coming to that, if at all possible. Our armed forces, however, are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under.’
The mention of Rome is no accident. The more fanatical branches of Israeli policymakers have long viewed Rome as an especially desirable target because it is effectively the capital of Christianity, and because the destruction of Rome would be a symbolic blow against the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Yet, the US regime continues to pretend that the Israeli stockpile does not exist—so as to further spend billions of taxpayer dollars through what is clearly an illegal foreign-aid program according to US law. Instead, the US would have us believe that nuclear non-proliferation is a priority for the US government. In reality, US nuclear policy is overwhelmingly geared toward one thing: preventing proliferation for the enemies of the State of Israel.
