For the past 40 years, Israel has sought to maintain a veil of secrecy over its nuclear capacity even if Mordechai Vanunu's revelations erased any shred of doubt about its possession of an atomic arsenal.
Ever since the 1965 inauguration of the Dimona plant in the southern Negev desert, the one-time workplace of the whistleblower Vanunu, Israel has consistently refused to deny or confirm that it possesses nuclear arms.
But even before Vanunu, who is to be released on Wednesday after 18 years in prison, leaked details of the program to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper in 1986, the official policy of ambiguity had left few people fooled.
Israel currently has two nuclear facilities, the reactor at Dimona in the Negev desert built with French aid and capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium and a smaller research reactor at Nahal Sorek, south of Tel Aviv.
Under an understanding with the US dating back to 1969, Israel has committed itself to abstain from any comment on its nuclear potential and not to carry out nuclear tests.
In return, the US does not pressure Israel to adhere to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which would oblige the Jewish state to submit its nuclear facilities to international supervision by the UN's atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The agency's Director General Mohamed ElBaradei recently urged Israel to give up its nuclear arsenal, claiming it spurred a regional arms race.
"I am not happy with the status quo, because I see a lot of frustration in the Middle East due to Israel's sitting on nuclear weapons or nuclear weapons capability, while others in the Middle East are committed to the NPT," he told the Israeli daily Haaretz.
As an extra precaution, the whole program is also covered by military censorship, which the Israeli media regularly bypasses by quoting foreign publications.
According to these "foreign experts," Israel has used its reactor at Dimona to produce around 200 nuclear warheads.
Peter Hounam, the journalist who first broke the Vanunu story for the Sunday Times, criticized Israel's "gall" for still failing to come clean about its capabilities but said it was determined not to upset its allies in Washington.
But its decision to try to gag Vanunu at all costs even after his release was likely to backfire and serve to increase demands for clarity, he added.
"I think that the international reaction to the way he is being treated will add to the impetus for the UN" being given access to the Dimona plant, he said.
"Everything about this stinks of hypocrisy," he added.
No Israeli leader has ever broken the long-standing taboo by unequivocally recognizing the existence of a nuclear arsenal, but allusions have become less and less oblique.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS