how Israel got the Bomb

[welsh]

For years Israel's national security against its muslim neighbors has rested on it's nuclear weapons. Although I don't believe Israel has ever admitted to having nuclear weapons, it's generally believed they do

But how did they get the bomb? From the US? Apparently not.

How the UK gave Israel the bomb

Documents reveal that Britain supplied heavy water without safeguards against military use, enabling the production of nuclear weapons

David Leigh
Thursday August 4, 2005
The Guardian

Britain secretly supplied the 20 tons of heavy water to Israel nearly half a century ago which enabled it to make nuclear weapons, according to Whitehall documents which have been discovered at the Public Records Office.
Officials in the Macmillan government deliberately concealed the deal from the US, according to the files, which were discovered by BBC Newsnight and broadcast last night.

Historians and politicians have been startled by the discovery, which sheds new light on the process by which Israel was able to circumvent attempts to restrict membership of the "nuclear club" to the great powers.

Most of those involved are now dead, but Lord (Ian) Gilmour, who was active in Conservative politics during that era, said last night: "I would have been astonished and found it absolutely unbelievable." He said he did not believe Harold Macmillan or his ministers knew anything about the sale, which Britain permitted without demanding safeguards against military use.

"They've gone out of their way to do it without safeguards," he said. "One would have thought that any reasonably educated civil servant wouldn't have dreamed of doing anything like this without consulting a minister but as far as I can see they didn't."

How could this happen? What were the Brits thinking?

A nuclear specialist, Frank Barnaby, said: "I had no idea at all the British were involved."

The sale, in two successive 10-ton shipments to Israel from a British port, went to Israel's secret underground reactor at Dimona in the Negev desert.

Dr Barnaby said the deal appeared "rather foolhardy" and added: "I would have thought a cautious government would have in no way been seen to be doing anything to help the Israeli nuclear programme."

The primary motive for the sale, according to the documents, appeared to be commercial. The British atomic energy authority was able to get rid of a consignment of heavy water worth £1.5m, or £20m in today's prices, which it had bought from Norway but no longer had a use for.

So it was about money?

The deal was structured as a resale to Norway, which then traded the consignment on to Israel. This enabled British officials to say they had no responsibility themselves for imposing safeguards.

But, according to the documents, the deal was concealed from the US, which was hostile to proliferation, because the Eisenhower administration might have insisted on unacceptable conditions which would have scuppered the sale.

When Robert McNamara became the US defence secretary in 1961, he and President Kennedy strived to stop Israel from going on to build nuclear weapons. He told Newsnight last night that he had never known of Britain's behaviour at the time.

"The fact Israel was trying to develop a nuclear bomb should not have come as a surprise but that Britain should have supplied it with heavy water was indeed a surprise to me," he said.

"It's very surprising to me that we weren't told because we shared information about the nuclear bomb very closely with the British."

The origins of the heavy water used in the Dimona reactor remained almost entirely unknown until the revelations of Mordechai Vanunu, a disaffected Dimona technician, in the 1980s.

It was disclosed then that the 20 tons originated from Norway. But Norway itself continued to remain silent about the true nature of the deal.

And why was Norway quiet? Also money?

Heavy water, made by a laborious electrolysis process, is so called because it contains extra neutrons. It was a crucial element of the kind of basic nuclear reactor then being built by Israel with French help, which used natural uranium rather than the more advanced technology involving enriched uranium fuel.

But French help comes as no suprise.

 

[Maphusio]

I always admired the saying, "So what if they have the bomb too. Now we can blow ourselves up 200X instead of 100X."
In the end I guess that quote is rather romantic as now days you have to worry about the one mad man with one bomb. Not so much the country with an arsenal of them. I seriously doubt Israel will do anything with it to its neighbors as their military can decimate pretty much anything and anyone.

With all that said and done... Wow the UK pulled a fast one without the US knowing.

 

[Bradylama]

Fucking Britain. Shit all over the Middle East and tell everybody to have fun.

 

[Briosafreak]

The French sold the tech, and the Americans were really pissed about it at the time. The young french governement assistant that completed the transaction was still alive a year ago, ie seen an interview with him where he tells how everything worked. For the democratic French the motivation was in part finantial in one hand, but mainly it was a moral imperative for them to help the state of Israel to survive, given the way Jews were treated in France during the Petain years. Piss the americans was a welcome bonus, of course.

And you know the Israeli negociator very well welsh, it was Shimon Peres.

 

[Brother None]

Well, that sucks on Britain's side, especially as GB is one of the more non-committed countries when it comes to the Israel issue, since they don't have slaughtered Jewish populations to be ashamed off nor huge Jewish lobbies breathing down their necks. One of the few neutrals, Britain.

Despite the fact that Israel is an unstable (TERRORISM!) country holding nukes, which worries me, I'm getting slightly more itchy about Bush's deconstruction of the NPT. Soon, there'll be nothing left and we can all enjoy our nukes, albeit briefly

 

[Colt]

Last time I checked, terrorists didn't produce their own jet fighters and very excellent main battle tanks.

Heavy water isn't required to make nuclear weapons from what I recall, just the more destructive kind. I wouldn't be surprised if the US passed them a few atomic bombs, or based them there themselves, and then the Israelis wanted to upgrade. - Colt

 

[Bradylama]

Last time I checked, terrorists didn't produce their own jet fighters and very excellent main battle tanks.

Heavy water isn't required to make nuclear weapons from what I recall, just the more destructive kind. I wouldn't be surprised if the US passed them a few atomic bombs, or based them there themselves, and then the Israelis wanted to upgrade. - Colt

As I recall, the Israelis essentially extorted some warheads out of Nixon by threatening to use their existing arsenal on their neighbors. I don't remember where I read that, though, but it doesn't sound unlikely.

 

[Briosafreak]

Nope Bradly, the story goes as i`ve told, the French gave the technology to Israel, and the americans kicked and screamed but weren`t able to stop it.

Since then there are rumours of the americans giving some technology to the Israelis since Yom Kippur and Nixon, true, but the Israelis are known to usually get american nuclear tech by spying. And they are really good at it.

Edit: Cool avatar Bradylama, just noticed it.

 

[Dan]

And, yet again, Brios proves himself to be the international spy I always knew he was.