National Interest: 11 information on the most dangerous secret weapons arsenal in the Middle East
Israel’s nuclear weapon represents one of the most dangerous secret arsenals in the world, because Tel Aviv does not recognize its possession, although unofficial reports say it is one of the 9 nuclear powers in the world.
There are 9 countries in the world that possess about 15 thousand nuclear bombs, but 4 of them are not signatories to the NPT and do not officially recognize that they possess nuclear weapons, which made it clear that it includes Israel in addition to India, Pakistan and North Korea, and that the total It has about 350 nuclear bombs.
According to the statistics, Israel possesses about 80 nuclear bombs, while the report of the “National Interest” magazine indicates that an email leaked to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, was indicating that Israel possesses about 200 nuclear bombs.
“Although the number of nuclear bombs that Israel possesses is ambiguous, there is no doubt that Tel Aviv has a strong nuclear arsenal,” the magazine continued.
Israel relies on nuclear weapons as a means to deter its enemies from targeting it with a nuclear, chemical or biological attack, in addition to using it as a last resort if the Israeli army is defeated in conventional war.
The goal of the Israeli nuclear weapon is to protect the existence of the Israeli state.
The American magazine says that Israel is not expected to declare itself a nuclear power any time soon, noting that the ambiguity over whether or not it possesses a nuclear weapon serves the interests of Israel well.
David Ben-Gurion, the founder of the State of Israel, was obsessed with possessing nuclear weapons to secure Israel’s existence.
Shimon Peres, who later became Prime Minister of Israel and its president, managed to make a deal with France in the 1950s to acquire a heavy water reactor and a uranium enrichment reactor, which was built underground in the Dimona desert to become the main component in the production of Israel’s nuclear weapons.
In the 1960s, American reports indicated that it was possible that Israel had acquired nuclear weapons.
The American efforts to get Israel to join the NPT went unheeded.
In 1969, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and US President Richard Nixon entered into a secret agreement on its nuclear program, stipulating that the United States ease its inspection procedures for nuclear facilities and commit to non-proliferation efforts, in exchange for Israel stopping its nuclear tests and not declaring its nuclear weapons.
The October war was a milestone in Israel’s nuclear history and its first nuclear crisis.
When the Arab armies managed to achieve sudden strategic victories over the Israeli army, Israel put its nuclear weapons on standby, according to the magazine, which indicated that “Jericho 1” missiles (surface-to-surface) missiles were equipped with nuclear warheads, as they were loaded on fighters.
The F-4 is Phantom, but it was not used in the end.
The magazine says: “There are no regional competitors who have nuclear weapons like Israel, but its army relies on this weapon to be effective in destroying frames of tanks if it moves towards Israel in large formations that exceed the ability of the Israeli army to deal with it with conventional weapons.
The magazine adds: “The range of the Jericho missile does not exceed 500 km (short-range) and is capable of hitting Cairo and Damascus with the nuclear warheads it carries”.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied having nuclear weapons.
The American magazine says: “Experts estimate that Israel’s nuclear arsenal contains about 80 bombs, which means that what Israel has is less than other countries, such as France, China or Britain”.
“But when we consider that its opponents do not have any nuclear weapons, this means that this arsenal can turn things around,” the magazine says.
The magazine pointed out that Israel distributes its nuclear weapons to its various weapons by land, sea and air, in order to be able to launch a nuclear attack in several ways that makes it one of the countries that possesses the “trinity of nuclear deterrence”.
The magazine says: “The F-4 Phantom” twin-engine aircraft is the first aircraft to carry Israeli nuclear weapons for launch from the air.
Later, the second generation of Israeli nuclear bombs is being loaded onto F-15I and F-16I because it is smaller.
Later, he was removed from the service and replaced by a “Jericho-2” with a range exceeding 1400 km, and a “Jericho-3” missile with a range exceeding 4,900 km, and reports indicate that Israel has about 20 missiles of this type.
Israel possesses 5 nuclear submarines, reports indicate that it is equipped with means to launch missiles carrying nuclear warheads, which makes it capable of launching a nuclear attack from the sea, even if all means of launching nuclear weapons by land and air are destroyed.
If there were no Israeli citizen named Mordechai Vanunu, perhaps the world would not know to this day whether or not Israel actually has nuclear weapons.
Mordechai was an engineer at the Nuclear Weapon Research Center at the Dimona reactor in the Negev desert.
Uncover the world’s most dangerous nuclear secret
In the fifties of the last century, Israel began building its nuclear arsenal, and it was France that helped it in this step.
The founder of the State of Israel in 1948 David Ben-Gurion believed that possession of a nuclear weapon was the most important way to protect the State of Israel.
Israel possessed its first nuclear weapons in the 1960s and was preparing to use it in the October war against the Arab armies.
In 1986 an Israeli citizen named Mordechai Vanunu went to Australia and informed the British press of secret details regarding the Israeli nuclear program.
Vanunu was working as an engineer at the Nuclear Weapon Research Center at the Dimona reactor in the Negev desert, after which the Mossad was able to return it to Israel and was sentenced to 18 years in prison for “espionage and divulging secrets,” according to the “Deutsche Welle” report.
