Special to WorldTribune.com

Israel is questioning the timing of a “routine release” of archival documents by the U.S. State Department that revealed the administration of Richard Nixon demanded Israel not deploy nuclear weapons.

Many observers believe the release of the documents was aimed at embarrassing Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who staunchly opposes the nuclear deal with Iran that is currently under review by the U.S. Congress.

The documents released on Aug. 18 by the State Department show that Israel and the United States worked together to formulate the Jewish State’s nuclear doctrine. “We would decide that we could tolerate Israeli activity short of assembly of a completed nuclear device” a U.S. memo that was part of the document dump said.

Israel at the time was set to have ten Jericho surface-to-surface missiles equipped with nuclear warheads, according to the documents, which cover events from 1969-1972. Israel was asked to provide a written obligation neither to arm its Jericho surface-to-surface missiles with nuclear warheads nor to deploy them.

Previously, Israel’s official policy, presented to the U.S. in the early 1960s by then-deputy defense minister Shimon Peres, was “we will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the region.”

It was agreed during the administration of President John F. Kennedy that American inspectors would visit Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor once a twice a year. Dimona was, according to U.S. suspicions, producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon.

Nixon shifted the U.S. approach to limiting the further development of Israel’s nuclear program. Israel was asked to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which was signed in 1968 and went into effect in 1970.

A Nixon administration special committee determined that “our goal is to convince Israel to join the NPT by the end of the year. And to ratify the treaty.” The documents reveal that a meeting was set up between Nixon administration officials and then-Israeli ambassador to Washington Yitzhak Rabin where Israel was asked “to provide us with written assurances that it will stop creating and will not deploy Jericho missiles or other strategic missiles with nuclear warheads.”

In another document, American concern is expressed that even if Israel were to join the NPT, it was liable to continue covertly producing nuclear weapons and missiles. Henry Kissinger wrote in a memo, “we judge that the introduction of nuclear weapons into the Near East would increase the dangers in an already dangerous situation and therefore not be in our interest. Israel has 12 surface-to-surface missiles delivered from France. It has set up a production line and plans by the end of 1970 to have a total force of 24–30, ten of which are programmed for nuclear warheads.”

Kissinger said that “when the Israelis signed the contract buying the Phantom aircraft last November, they committed themselves not to be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Near East. But it was plain from the discussion that they interpreted that to mean they could possess nuclear weapons as long as they did not test, deploy, or make them public. In signing the contract, we wrote Rabin saying that we believe mere ‘possession’ constitutes ‘introduction’ and that Israel’s introduction of nuclear weapons by our definition would be cause for us to cancel the contract.”

The U.S. demanded: “Reaffirm to the US in writing the assurance that Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Near East, specifying that ‘introduction’ shall mean possession of nuclear explosive devices. [For our own internal purposes, we would decide that we could tolerate Israeli activity short of assembly of a completed nuclear device.] Give us assurances in writing that it will stop production and will not deploy ‘Jericho’ missiles or any other nuclear-capable strategic missile. [NOTE: I do not believe we can ask Israel not to produce missiles. Israel is sovereign in this decision, and I do not see how we can ask it not to produce a weapon just because we do not see it as an effective weapon without nuclear warheads. We might persuade them not to deploy what they produce on grounds that the rest of the world will believe that the missiles must have nuclear warheads.]”

After a meeting between then-Prime Minister Golda Meir’s and Nixon, the U.S. stopped its inspections of the Dimona reactor in 1969. In later foreign reports, it was claimed that ambassador Rabin and Meir promised that, in exchange for a halt to the inspections, Israel agreed not to be the first to deploy or arm nuclear weapons, and likely vowed not to hold nuclear tests.

Israel, which is believed to have a stockpile of as many as 100 nuclear warheads, has yet to join the NPT.

  ‘Routine release?’ Documents reveal U.S. demanded Israel not deploy nukes, Golda Meir, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, WorldTribune.com, Yitzakh Rabin