from 21st Century Wire:
IMAGE: 1969, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and IAF Commander Maj. Gen. Mordechai Hod awaiting the arrival of the initial four F-4 Phantom aircraft at the Air Traffic Control Tower of Hatzor Airbase (Source: Israeli Air Force)
It is thought that Israel progressively developed its nuclear program throughout the 1950s and 1960s, likely attaining the ability to produce nuclear weapons around 1967. The Israeli government has consistently maintained a policy of secrecy regarding its nuclear activities, adopting a position of nuclear ambiguity. Estimates indicate that Israel has between 90 and 200 nuclear warheads. Although Israel has never officially conducted a nuclear test, many scholars believe that clandestine tests took place in areas such as Algeria and French Polynesia, not to mention the infamous Vela incident in the South Atlantic.
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During the summer of 1969, the Nixon administration focused on determining the appropriate course of action regarding the troubling Israeli nuclear weapons program. National Security Study Memorandum 40 mandated interagency analyses and proposals on this matter, culminating in the declassified 1969 memorandum from Henry Kissinger to President Nixon, concerning the Israeli Nuclear Program, which reflected the outcomes of these discussions and investigations.
DOCUMENT: June 7, 1969 Memorandum from Henry Kissinger to President Nixon, ‘Israeli Nuclear Program (Source: Nixon Library)
Declassified documentation (1, 2, 3 and 4) from the 1968 discussions between Paul Warnke, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and Israeli ambassador Yitzhak Rabin serves as evidence of the final attempts by the United States to curb Israel’s nuclear advancements by leveraging the provision of advanced F-4 Phantom jets. By September 1969, Israel had already acquired four F-4 Phantom aircraft and was subsequently requesting an additional 50 Phantoms, along with necessary equipment and training from the U.S. government. Israeli airpower had been the decisive factor in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and the War of Attrition between Israel and Egypt (which ended in August 1970) undeniably showed that the sophisticated Phantoms were decisive at the time Israel was engaged in combat with the Egyptian artillery along the Suez Canal Zone.
In 1969, high-ranking officials in the Nixon administration considered addressing Israel’s nuclear capabilities, but President Nixon decided that the U.S. could accept an undeclared Israeli nuclear arsenal. On December 27, it was announced that Israel would receive 16 Phantom aircraft by the end of 1969 and 34 more in 1970, marking the largest arms deal in Israel’s history at $285 million, paid in cash to avoid loan interest. The powerful zionist lobby in the US had once more managed to get what it wanted while making sure Israel could unchallengedly cross the threshold….
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