Israel's nuclear program one of ambiguity

Israel's nuclear program one of ambiguity

It took the Sept. 11 attacks to change Israel's policy of opacity over its non-conventional weapons, a policy that had been responsible for years of possibly unnecessary conflict and the skirting of international conventions
By Dan Williams
REUTERS
Wednesday, Nov 12, 2003,Page 9
"We chose uncertainty, which afforded deterrence as far as the Arabs were concerned and convenience as far as our friends were concerned."

Shimon Peres, former Israeli prime minister

Forty years ago a flustered Shimon Peres faced off with US president John F. Kennedy on a secret seen as critical to the Jewish state's survival, and got away with saying next to nothing.

"Kennedy began bombarding me with questions. Suddenly he says, `Are you making an atom bomb?' I told him, `Mr President, I can promise you one thing: Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East,'" Peres recalled in the recent documentary film A Bomb in the Basement.

That sidestep by Israel's veteran statesman evolved into a strategy of ambiguity straddling two national needs -- to strike fear into numerically superior foes while calming global jitters at any doomsday saber-rattling in the volatile Middle East.

"We chose uncertainty, which afforded deterrence as far as the Arabs were concerned and convenience as far as our friends were concerned," Peres said.
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