How Israel's nuclear secret just slipped out

By Age Correspondent
July 23, 2005

A prominent Israeli historian has provided the closest thing to an official admission that Israel had nuclear weapons at least as far back as 1967.

Sloppy attempts by the Israeli Government to censor the information have instead fuelled the controversy.

Though it is widely assumed that Israel has nuclear weapons, the country consistently denies it. The Economist once defined the Israeli bomb as "the world's worst-kept secret".

Towards the 38th anniversary of the war between Israel and its neighbours Egypt, Jordan and Syria in June 1967, the so called Six-Day War, Israeli historian and journalist Tom Segev published a revealing book on the situation in Israel before, during and after the war.

One issue caught the censor's eye, but only after an interview with Segev had been submitted to it by Israel's largest daily newspaper. The book was then examined and its publishing house, Keter, was obliged to recall 4000 copies. According to Keter, the censors asked them to erase half a line. All Keter's employees were mobilised: they covered the offending words with white correcting fluid. The publisher was happy that he did not have to destroy the already printed books and could make it to the war anniversary on June 5.

The picture of the censored page 341 was published a few weeks later on a popular Israeli internet news service and advice was given on how to get rid of the white fluid, though the content was not disclosed. The clean-up revealed what has long been known but never officially admitted: Israel possessed nuclear weapons in 1967.

Segev quoted from a diary of the former army chief of staff and later deputy prime minister, Yigael Yadin, which Segev had found in the state archive. Yadin described in his diary an agreement that he mediated between Labour Party prime minister Levi Eshkol and party dissident General Moshe Dayan. After strong public pressure, Eshkol gave in and agreed on June 1 to appoint Dayan defence minister.

This was at the height of the crisis leading to the war, which broke out on June 5. Eshkol did not trust Dayan and therefore the dependable Yadin was appointed to negotiate an understanding establishing the division of responsibilities between the prime minister and the new defence minister. Yadin wrote about this settlement on June 2, according to Segev, that "Dayan was not supposed to declare war alone and not to expand it.

He was not allowed on his own to bomb central cities in Arab countries and not to bomb on his own with unconventional weapon."

The censored segment is unlikely to have attracted any real attention had it not been "suppressed". But it served as a kind of official confirmation that on the eve of the 1967 war Israel possessed a "rudimentary nuclear capability".

On July 18, a commentator in Haaretz mocked the inefficiency of the censors and the overreaction of the intelligence community to the material that had been published.

According to the commentary, Segev got a letter from the authorities warning him against a "close certainty to harm the security of the state".

An investigation was launched in the state archive to find out how it was possible that the historian was able to study Yagin's diary. It was discovered that a staff member had not been instructed properly, and therefore unknowingly gave the researcher classified material.

Obviously nobody suspected that such explosive material was hidden in the papers.

The writer's name has been withheld to protect them from possible prosecution under Israeli censorship laws.

The Age Correspondent's name has been with-held due to security concerns.
