Nuclear Weapons

   What's Up With Israel's Nukes Program?

    By Eric Niiler

  

  The United States and Israel won't discuss it or even admit it exists. But experts say Israel has had nuclear weapons since the late 1950s.

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew a red line across a cartoon image of an Iranian nuclear bomb at the United Nations last week, his goal was to prod the United States and other countries to take possible military action against what he sees as an imminent threat. Left unsaid is the fact that Israel possesses the Middle East’s biggest nuclear weapons program, even though it denies its very existence.

 “It’s one of the best-known secrets,” said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. “We know that Iran does not have nuclear weapons. We know that Israel has nuclear weapons.”

Netanhayu warned that Iran would be close to having enough weapons-grade nuclear material by next spring or summer. President Barack Obama has said he wants more time for economic sanctions to take effect, and for diplomacy to work.

Neighbors Syria, Iraq and Iran are signatories to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, but Israel is not. The only other nuclear nations that haven’t signed on are Pakistan, India and North Korea. That means inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are not allowed to visit Israel to determine whether nuclear material is entering or exiting the country, or any other aspects of weapons development. The only exception is for a small research reactor.

IAEA officials in Vienna refused to comment about any aspect of Israel’s nuclear weapons program.

But according to Kristensen, the U.S. intelligence community estimates that Israel has 80 to 90 nuclear warheads. Israel has the capability of launching these warheads via ballistic missiles (called the Jericho 2) that have a range of about 1,500 kilometers, or 930 miles, on missiles on U.S. supplied F-15s and F-16 fighter jets and on Cruise missiles aboard diesel-powered submarines supplied by Germany.