Busy Jerusalem The American documents – recently that secreted them – revealed how Israel developed its nuclear capacities in the 1960s, bypassing Tel Aviv on American inspectors and advancing towards the construction of the nuclear reactor in Dimouna in the desert of the Negev Negev with the help of France and without Washington flag.
The first Israeli Prime Minister launched David Ben Gourion To launch the nuclear project in the second half of the 1950s, and after a decade, and on the eve of the 1967 war, Israel collected its first nuclear devices.
Faced with the strong American opposition led by President John Kennedy, Israeli leaders were determined to achieve their objective, and they considered the nuclear project as a commitment to secure the future of their state.
Secrets
From the start, the leaders of Israel considered Dimouna’s project as a “secret in a secret”; The first was represented by the Israeli nuclear agreement in 1957, which led to the creation of the nuclear complex. The two countries have been secretly negotiated due to the sensitivity of the issue, according to the “Zaman of Israel” website.
The National Security Archives of George Washington University in January published a new electronic volume which included 20 documents on the Israel nuclear project, which spoke of the extent of the US government’s knowledge of its secrets and roads adopted by Tel Aviv to obtain nuclear weapons by bypass Washington.
The new publications also included complete reports on visits in 1965 and 1966, as well as a preliminary report in 1967, and during this period, Israel made great achievements in the nuclear field.
According to documents examined by the Israeli website, there was a “deeper secret” represented by the installation of 6 -story underground fuel treatment, which made it possible to use plutonium production just to completely manufacture weapons.
The documents examined by the Israeli website indicate that when America discovered the “Dimouna project” in the last months of 1960, it was not aware of the existence of an underground nuclear treatment installation, because only a few Israelis and French knew it.
Internal discussions in America have concentrated on the evaluation of the nature and objectives of the project, whether it is the production of plutonium, electricity or research production. Although some in Washington are initially suspected that the project was aimed at producing nuclear weapons, they could not prove it, there was no “damaged evidence” that the Dimouna reactor was devoted to the production of nuclear weapons.
The mystery was obvious in the first special assessment of national intelligence of Dimouna published by the CIA on December 8, 1960. The document indicated that “Israel built a complex of nuclear reactors in the Negev for research, plutonium production or electricity production”, and that “the production of good plutonium to make nuclear weapons is one of the basic objectives of Israel”.
Despite confidentiality
Another secret report, recently revealed entitled “Israeli production of Blutonium”, and prepared by the joint intelligence committee for atomic energy on December 2, 1960, showed that American officials knew the construction of the large reactor a bit near Beersheba in the south of Israel, and that it includes a “separation of plutonium” installation.
The secret report did not explain how the Committee concluded, but has just mentioned the existence of an installation of separation of the plutonium, indicating that the objective of the Dimouna reactor was not a nuclear research, but the production of weapons.
This secret document is perhaps the first or the only American intelligence report which explicitly stipulates that the French-Israeli project included from the start the main technological components of the nuclear weapons program, a production reactor and an installation for the separation of plutonium.
Although the administration of the American president Dwight Eisenhower asked Israel about the objectives of the project, but the reason why this knowledge does not appear in subsequent intelligence reports remains a mystery.
All American intelligence assessments on Dimouna from 1961 to 1967 indicate at least the question of the separation installation with regard to a future decision that Israel could take. However, during the same period, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the CIA adopted a position that “Dimouna does not have such an installation”.
Admission
In a speech at the Knesset on December 21, 1960, in response to American pressure, Ben Gurion officially announced the existence of a Dimouna reactor, but he insisted that it was “my research for industrial, agricultural, scientific and medical purposes”.
However, intelligence assessments have raised doubts by the Eisenhower administration, and his public statements reflected his surprise to the discovery of the Dimouna reactor, while Ben Gerion denied their effort to have nuclear weapons, and he said it with anger at the American ambassador, they created Reed, “we are not affiliated to America and we will never be.”
Israel used Ben Gurion’s speech for years with the American inspectors in Dimouna, the first was in 1961 each visit.
And she occupied to persuade the inspectors that her objective was to build a nuclear installation for the production of electricity, and made a wide campaign of deception through which the installation of underground separation and additional components on the site.
The Americans between 1961 and 1969 carried out eight inspections in Dimouna, mostly under pressure from the American president John Kennedy, and aimed to transfer political messages and to access the technological information that Washington is not aware.
The problem of the separation of plutonium was a major concern, and the American team warned that Israel could be able, within 18 months or less than the collection of a separation installation, and the conversion of Dimouna of a research reactor in a weapon production installation.
In 1965, Israel completed the construction of the underground separation installation, and a year later, he began to produce a good plutonium to make weapons, and on the eve of the 1967 war, he collected his first nuclear devices.
A report published by the State Department Intelligence and Research Office revealed on March 9, 1967 that Israel had already completed the construction of the installment for the separation of plutonium, and that “Dimouna” works in full capacity for the end of weapons production, and that Tel Aviv is able to collect a nuclear weapon in the six to eight weeks.