The proliferation of nuclear weapons and related material to more state and non–state actors alongwith the safety and security of nuclear weapons has become a topic of immense significance for the international community. The advocates of international non– proliferation campaign are actively pursuing the three pillar system of NPT. The pillars emphasize the promotion of non–proliferation and disarmament parallel to the advancement of peaceful uses of nuclear technology. The creation of a world free from nuclear shadows is linked to the acquisition of nuclear weapons by more states and the security of acquired nuclear weapons. Besides nuclear proliferation and nuclear security, the real issue is to address the clandestine nuclear activities of undeclared nuclear weapon states. The covert nuclear activities supporting the ambiguous nuclear status warrant serious attention of the international community.
The strategic tail of nuclear activities is deeply rooted in Middle East and buried in Negave Desert near Dimona city of Israel which is an unnoticed nuclear installation, commonly known as Negev Nuclear Research Centre or Dimona nuclear reactor. Dimona town containing extremely secret nuclear arrangements of Israel are located near the Jordanian border. Via its highly classified and confidential status Dimona is constantly engaged in advancing the nuclear capabilities of Jerusalem. The strategic muscle of Israel was polished and strengthened by the first Prime Minister David Ben – Gurion not only approved a handsome budget for the construction of Dimona nuclear facility, but also invited the international community to support Israel financially and strategically. The nuclear reactor in the Negev desert areas consists of ten separate buildings called Machons which have 2,700 employees including nuclear scientists, staff and technicians. With the establishment of Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) in 1952 and initiation of French nuclear cooperation with Israel in 1958, the construction of Dimona nuclear reactor was originally started.
The plutonium producing Dimona provided the first nuclear weapon to the Israeli Defence Forces in third Arab–Israeli war of 1967. The Yom Kippur war forced Prime Minister Golda Meir to deploy 13 nuclear bombs to avert the Arab aggression by teaching them a strong lesson in 1973. The third nuclear alert of a full–scale nuclear war was issued against Saddam in 1991 during the Operation Desert Storm. The unique way of confronting ideological rivals through strategy of deliberate ambiguity augmented the offensive military capabilities of Israel, the first undeclared and sixth nuclear weapons state internationally.
US spy planes U–2 informed Washington immediately about the France–Israel strategic relations and American investigatory teams were activated to inspect the suspected areas. Israel’s initial refusal, and later permission, to American inspectors opened a few sections of the Negev nuclear reactor for investigation. The unopened underground buildings continued the nuclear program and encouraged the strategic ambitions of leading state officials. In 1974, US investigations recognised the nuclear status of Israel in a report Prospects for Further Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. CIA concluded in the report that the state of Israel has developed nuclear weapons to deter the neighbouring Muslim countries. Furthermore, American Vela satellite also confirmed Jerusalem’s nuclear by detecting the evidence of alleged nuclear test on the southern coast of Africa under Israel–South African strategic nexus.
The secret nuclear weapons have granted the status of sole nuclear power to Jerusalem in the Middle East and the world’s first state which effectively created a strategic ambiguity over its amimut nuclear status. The controversial debate on nuclear Israel emerged when the Jewish authorities from Jerusalem selected nuclear ambiguity covered in nuclear opacity. The doctrinal attributes of covert nuclear weapons program were developed by first Prime Minster David Ben – Gurion, ninth President Shimon Peres, third Prime Minster Levi Eshkol, and military officer Moshe Dayan in 1960s.
Israeli nuclear whistle blowers, Mordechai Vanunu, revealed publically the clandestinely functioning nuclear reactor of Israel. In 1986, the escaped nuclear scientist in an interview to UK based The Sunday Times revealed the nuclear activities he witnessed for nine years in Dimona. Vanunu’s experience in Machon 2 of Negev nuclear reactor exposed Jerusalem’s nuclear secret by providing various sketches along with several photographs. Having given inside information about unacknowledged nuclear weapons forced Vanunu to leave Israel. Eventually, Vanunu was captured by Mossad and completed his eighteen years imprisonment in 2004 on treason and espionage charges.
One of the largest nuclear stockpiling state, Israel is easily staying outside the nuclear club of five states while maintaining the strategic ambiguity over its nuclear status. This Jewish state is expressly denying possession of nuclear weapons, preferring to introduce a nuclear opacity in the Middle East. The state officials believe Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s comments, “Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons in the region.” The nuclear confession of Israel has become an open secret which is relying on the policy of deliberate ambiguity–neither openly admitting nor denying the possession of nuclear weapons.
The abstruse nuclear option of Israel has become a unique phenomenon of contemporary world politics. The clandestine nuclear status has created a credible nuclear deterrence for Israel in the Middle East without communicating globally or declaring internationally its nuclear capability. The Israeli authorities have gained international sympathy, surrounded by hostile neighbouring Arab states instead of facing criticism on its secret nuclear activities. Jerusalem’s policy of calculated opacity over its nuclear program has ominously created a nuclear monopoly in the Middle Eastern region which has strengthened its regional standing. The disclosure of strategy of deliberate ambiguity has enabled Israel to acquire maximum security at minimum cost against its potential rivals.
The absence of an open nuclear deterrence policy or formally accepting the possession of nuclear weapons alongwith admitting the estimated nuclear stockpiles by international community has provided strategic advantages to Israel. The nuclear opacity left Israel’s rival with accurately uncalculated and precisely overestimated strength of its nuclear capabilities. The avoidance of a declared nuclear program has effectively maintained a robust nuclear deterrence in the region. Despite developing friendly relations with great powers, the possession of nuclear arsenals has ensured Jerusalem’s self–reliant policy by preventing its dependence on the international community. The secretly swelling nuclear capabilities of Jerusalem has granted it broader freedom of action to undermine the security of its neighbours without facing international opposition of its nuclear program. The avoidance of admitting or declaring and announcing or accepting the possession of untested nuclear weapons has served the wider strategic objectives of Jerusalem. Israel has also adopted the Jewish biblical notion of Samson Option, the coded name of massive retaliation as an operative defensive strategy to deter the non–nuclear and non–Jewish states. Therefore, the revelations of credible information about nuclear deterrence of undeclared weapons and unidentified nuclear devices of Israel based on abovementioned realities have consciously added a cryptic story to ongoing nuclear politics.
The actual problem attached to clandestine nuclear activities needs serious attention and required adequate response from the proponents of global non-proliferation campaign. The nuclear silence by concealing the disguised role of nuclear weapons is an indubitable reality instead of an international mystery or a hidden truth that the state of Israel has acquired sizeable nuclear weapons. The protagonists of global non–proliferation regime should adopt sufficient steps to address the secretly growing Jerusalem’s strategic muscles because Israel has not subscribed itself to Nuclear Non–Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) or Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC). This Jewish state only ratified Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The official reluctance to accept the leading treaties dealing or regulating the nuclear aspirations of states by Israel evidently shows Jerusalem’s rejection of creating a nuclear free Middle East. The vision of a sixth Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Middle East has been hindered by Israel.
Jerusalem’s willingness of consistent empowering it and evolving strategic posture of deliberate ambiguity is equivalent to rebuffing the role of mainstream nuclear treaties and refusing the role of nuclear regulating global arrangements, this should be cause for serious concern for the international community. A comprehensive nuclear regime of an apposite alteration in exiting non-proliferation is needed to deal with Jerusalem’s covert nuclear posture. Jerusalem’s nuclear derangement coupled with its officially non–cooperative or confrontational behaviour towards multidimensional global non–proliferation efforts possesses substantial potential to fracture the international non-proliferation regime.
