Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(November 2003)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Israel's Expanding Nuclear Capability.
Note: The following information and time line of events is readily available
in the public domain.
This is delicate but well publicised knowledge of Israel's nuclear capability,
which has been quoted as shrouded by "nuclear ambiguity", a phrase obviously
intended to convey that Israel does not admit the extent of their nuclear capability.
 According to senior Bush Administration and Israeli
officials, Israel has modified American-supplied cruise
missiles to give them the capability to launch nuclear
warheads from "Dolphin" submarines, (wonder who supplied those), which
expands Israel's nuclear capability one step further.
This previously undisclosed
capability, obviously bolsters Israel's deterrent weaponry against avowed Middle
East enemies, such as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran, but complicates efforts
by the United States and the United Nations to stop the proliferation of nuclear
weapons in both the Middle East and the Far East.
Timeline of the development of Israel's nuclear
capability:
1949: Israel's nuclear capability history is said to have started when France
and Israel set up a joint research program, which began with a geological
survey of the Negev desert in search of recoverable Uranium.
1953: Israeli researchers perfect a process for extracting Uranium, and developing
a new method of producing heavy water, which is a key ingredient in the process.
1956: France and Israel agree in secret to build a nuclear reactor in the Negev
desert.
1960: United States intelligence determines that Israel has a secret nuclear
facility. (Can one say a little late in the day).
1965: Israel performs its first plutonium extraction, and France assists Israel
in developing its Jericho missiles.
1975: Israel receives nuclear-capable Lance missiles from the United States.
1986: The London Times newspaper, assisted by information from a former Israeli
nuclear technician, Mordechai Vanunu, (who was later to be convicted of treason
and sentenced to eighteen years in prison), exposed Israel's nuclear weapons
program.
1987: Israel test-fires a Jericho 2 missile.
2000: The first submarine-launched missile is reported to have been tested
somewhere in the area of the Indian Ocean.
 Disturbing statistics indeed. Israel in the mid 1950's,
(in a secret agreement with the French Government), began
building a plutonium reactor in a remote corner of the
Negev desert outside the village of Dimona. This massive
project employed as many as a 1500 workforce of Israeli,
and French workers, to build an extensive underground
complex on a 14 square mile site.
By the way, it
was French military aircraft that secretly transported large quantities of
heavy water, (a component required for developing a plutonium reactor), from
Norway.
Question for President Chirac - What perverse reason or ulterior
motive did France have in performing this covert act of providing Israel
with a nuclear capability?
In December of 1960 Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion told the Israeli
government that a nuclear reactor was under construction, but insisted that
it was exclusively for peaceful purposes. According to published accounts,
in June of 1967 on the eve of the Middle East war, Israeli engineers assembled
two improvised nuclear devices.
Would Israel have used such devices? Unfortunately
I believe that if the war had been going against them
and they had their backs to the wall that they would
indeed have used such weapons. Just a personal opinion
- no material evidence to the positive, the contrary,
or any information available to prove otherwise.
Comment: Shall we applaud, or condemn, the apparent
devious and obvious political subterfuge employed by
France in assisting Israel to develop a nuclear capability?
I suppose that it depends which side of "the fence" one
happens to be on.
 The United States is currently concerned, as they well
should be, regarding the possible proliferation of nuclear
weapons by North Korea and Iran and are demanding that
both countries cease their current efforts to become
nuclear powers, but I don't hear any condemnation of
Pakistan, India, and especially Israel.
America would
appear to be employing its usual "Double Standard",
with one rule for Israel and another for the rest of
the world. So what else is new - Israel does what Israel
wants to do and gets away with thumbing its nose with
impunity at the world in general, with no apparent recriminations
coming from the United Nations or any other controlling
entity of this world.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to
bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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