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Toronto Star article about Israel's nuclear weapons, etc...


Here's a quote from the opening paragraphs:

"Some Israelis were miffed to hear Robert Gates voice at his U.S. Senate confirmation hearing the open secret that Israel has the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.

Gates won plaudits in Washington this week for his candour on the Iraq war.

But the incoming secretary of defence also speculated at the Tuesday hearing on why Iran might be seeking the means to build an atomic bomb. "They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf," he said.

That statement led Israeli news bulletins, with some pundits suggesting former CIA chief Gates may have breached a U.S. "don't ask, don't tell" policy dating to the late 1960s.


Here's another quote:

According to recently declassified documents cited by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, under President Richard Nixon, the United States knew Israel had developed nuclear weapons but chose not to insist its Mideast ally come clean on the capability and accept international regulation.

Israel neither confirms nor denies having the bomb, as part of a "strategic ambiguity" policy that it says fends off numerically superior enemies while avoiding an arms race.

By not declaring itself, Israel also skirts a U.S. ban on funding states that proliferate weapons of mass destruction. It can thus enjoy more than $2 billion in annual military and other aid from Washington."

The Toronto Star is basically Canada's equivalent to one of the major New York or Washington newspapers.