Israel must stop nuclear tomfoolery

A former worker at Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility says that Tel Aviv should abandon its policy of nuclear ambiguity and acknowledge what it is doing at the site.

Former politician Uzi Even told Israeli army radio that the political footwork “by which we fool only ourselves and nobody else, is not good for us any more,” AFP reported on Monday.

“It was good, effective and successful for close to 40 years, but over 40 years many things changed, and now I am telling you clearly, this policy is no longer in our interest,” he added.

“We could open Dimona to international inspection.”

Under the nuclear ambiguity policy, which Israel successfully maintained for years with the help of the United States, Tel Aviv neither confirms nor denies it possesses nuclear weapons.

Since 1958, when Israel began building the plutonium and uranium processing facility, it has allegedly manufactured scores of nuclear warheads at the site, earning it a reputation as the only player in the Middle East with a nuclear arsenal.

Former US President Jimmy Carter has said Israel has between 200 and 300 nuclear warheads.

But now, after years of silence on the issue, the International Atomic Energy Agency plans to discuss Israel’s nuclear activities for the first time at its next meeting in June.

However, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, “I don’t think there is a real danger or threat to Israel’s traditional position, as it has been expressed over the years.”