nuclear-news

Israel – don’t ask, don’t tell, about its nuclear weapons

Israel’s policy toward its nuclear secrets needs to change as well…….
Israel’s policy goes by the Hebrew word amimut, meaning vagueness, opacity or ambiguity. It is a turbo-charged version of “don’t ask, don’t tell.

Books of The Times – Avner Cohen’s ‘Worst-Kept Secret,’ Israel and the Bomb – NYTimes.com, by Ethan Bronner, 13 Oct 10, In 1986 a former technician in the Dimona nuclear reactor in Israel revealed to The Sunday Times of London everything he knew about Israel’s clandestine nuclear weapons program. It caused a worldwide sensation, with experts estimating Israel’s arsenal at more than 100 atom bombs.
Israel’s nuclear status had been widely assumed for years, but the specifics provided by the technician, Mordechai Vanunu — secret photographs as well as details of tritium production and plutonium processing — laid the groundwork for an intense international debate.

That debate occurred everywhere but in Israel. The Israeli news media were all over the Vanunu story: his defection and treason, his conversion to Christianity and his seduction and capture by a Mossad agent code-named Cindy. But they didn’t go near the policy implications……Little seems to have changed in the quarter-century since. Israel still doesn’t engage in public conversation about its nuclear arsenal. And Mr. Cohen is still amazed. But the central point in his fine new book, “The Worst-Kept Secret,” is that a great deal has changed and Israel’s policy toward its nuclear secrets needs to change as well…….
Israel’s policy goes by the Hebrew word amimut, meaning vagueness, opacity or ambiguity. It is a turbo-charged version of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” The contours of the policy in a society where long-kept secrets have been falling away — the once-hidden names of the heads of the nation’s security services, for example, are now published — remain remarkably rigid. The military censor’s office, which has less and less to do, still changes the phrase “nuclear weapons” in news articles to “nuclear option” or “nuclear capability” and requires that mention of Israel’s arsenal in Israeli newspapers be followed by the words “according to foreign sources.”…..
Books of The Times – Avner Cohen’s ‘Worst-Kept Secret,’ Israel and the Bomb – NYTimes.com

October 14, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons