nuclear-news

Time for Israel to end its secrecy about its nuclear weapons

Israelis know almost nothing about how the program started, where the bombs are stored and whether their leaders ever considered using them

Why Israel Should Declare Itself a Nuclear Power, Newsweek, 21 Oct 10, Ambiguity over Israel’s nuclear program has been the norm, but a new book argues that coming clean would actually help deter Iran…..philosopher Avner Cohen, who argues in an impressively researched new book, The Worst-Kept Secret, that it is time for Israel to come clean about its nukes……While Israel is widely regarded as the world’s sixth nuclear power, with scores or possibly hundreds of atomic bombs, it has never acknowledged possessing nuclear weapons. That ambiguity—Israel doesn’t deny reports about its arsenal either—has allowed the tiny country to project power and deter its enemies without the international scrutiny and pressure that comes with a more transparent nuclear program.

In a culture where the most sensitive issues are rigorously debated in the press and on the street, the nuclear program and the policy of opacity are perhaps the last remaining taboos. Israelis know almost nothing about how the program started, where the bombs are stored and whether their leaders ever considered using them—and they tend not to ask…..Cohen’s own book would likely have been suppressed by Israeli censors were it not for the fact that he lives and writes in the U.S. (his first book on the subject more than a decade ago led to his brief arrest). It includes many intriguing details….

Why Israel Should Declare Itself a Nuclear Power – Newsweek

October 20, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons