In 1965, a U.S. atomic energy technology company located in California reported to the U.S. government that it had lost a batch of more than 200 pounds of enriched uranium.
This company is responsible for the U.S. federal government’s uranium enrichment industry. For such a major event, the CIA failed to have an accurate result in the end, and finally, they reached a consensus.
“The nuclear material was transferred to Israel and used to make nuclear weapons.”
Israel is one of the countries recognized in the world as possessing nuclear weapons. Although Israel has never admitted that it possesses nuclear weapons, it has long been an open secret that Israel possesses nuclear weapons.
Compared with other countries with nuclear weapons, Israel does not admit that it has nuclear weapons mainly because Israel has never conducted public nuclear tests.
After all, Israel’s land area is only 25,000 square kilometers. If Israel tests a nuclear bomb, the whole of Israel will be shrouded in nuclear radiation.
Of course, not testing nuclear weapons does not mean not possessing nuclear weapons. According to the forecast of the International Military Journal, Israel’s nuclear warhead reserves are about 10-100, which is no less than the nuclear warhead reserves of India and Pakistan.
Many people read this and want to ask if Israel is just a small country and if there is no site for testing nuclear weapons. Are Israel’s nuclear weapons really lethal?
In fact, the development of nuclear weapons is not a very difficult task. If the United Nations relaxes its restrictions on the development of nuclear weapons, then more than half of the countries in the world will be able to develop nuclear weapons.
You must know that the five permanent members of the United Nations all developed nuclear weapons before the 1970s. The technological level of some medium-sized countries in modern times is also comparable to that of the five permanent members in the 1970s.
Most countries in modern times do not have nuclear weapons, mainly because the United Nations restricts non-nuclear countries from developing nuclear weapons.
Israel’s nuclear weapons development program
In 1948, after the Palestine region of Israel declared independence and established a state, it encountered joint opposition from the surrounding Arab countries.
In the end, Israel relied on equipment from the United States and the Soviet Union and many military loans to finally defeat the so-called Arab coalition forces and successfully gain a foothold in the Middle East.
For a long time, Israel has been prepared for danger in times of peace. They have always kept the goal of establishing a military power in mind, hoping that they can become the only military power in the Middle East.
A decade later, Israeli leaders began a secret nuclear weapons research program. This plan is not only kept secret internally but also confidentially externally.
Because the external environment did not allow the development of nuclear weapons at that time, most of the politicians in Israel did not want to spend a lot of money on researching nuclear weapons at the beginning of the founding of the country. This will inevitably affect the foundation of the country as a military power in the Middle East.
The reasons for opposition from internal politicians are also clear:
Israel develops nuclear weapons, and Egypt in the West will definitely use this as an excuse to launch a war, which is not conducive to Israel’s economic development in the early days of its founding.
Once the plan to develop nuclear weapons is leaked, many countries in the Middle East are likely to start a military competition, which is also not conducive to Israel.
Countries in the Middle East are densely populated, and the real effect of nuclear weapons is not great, and the explosion of nuclear weapons will also affect themselves.
The United States advocates the nuclear non-proliferation movement, which will likely worsen the relationship between Israel and the United States.
Last, but not least, it’s too expensive.
This problem continued until 1955, when Israel’s leaders secretly decided to develop a nuclear weapons program.
This year, Israel’s opponents received a lot of military aid from the Soviet Union. Although Israel won the Suez War, France also issued a policy prohibiting other countries from selling weapons to Egypt, Israel, and Syria.
However, at this time, the Soviet Union turned around and sold military weapons to other Middle Eastern countries.
In this way, even if there is no threat to the west of Israel for the time being, there is a threat to the east again.
In the same year, the relationship between Israel and the Soviet Union also changed, and the United States began to assist Israel in developing nuclear reactors in a semi-push style.
Nahal Sorek (NahalShoreq) nuclear reactor.
Of course, the specifications of the Nahal Shoreq nuclear reactor are strictly controlled by the United States, and the actual power is only five megawatts, which cannot be used to make nuclear weapons.
Although Israel’s nuclear weapons have not undergone public test explosions, judging from Israel’s current technological level, even if Israel has not conducted secret nuclear tests, the nuclear weapons developed by Israel are fully capable of actual combat.
And the American scholar Jeffrey Richardson once said.
“Despite providing no evidence of a nuclear test explosion to the world, Israeli weapons designers are convinced that their country entered the nuclear club in 1966.”
In fact 1979, Israel may have conducted a secret nuclear test. In 1979, the American Vela satellite system discovered two double flashes at the junction of the South Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Of these two double flashes, one is brighter, and the other is darker, just in line with the light produced by the explosion of a nuclear weapon.
After the outbreak of the Vela incident, the United States sent a scientific research team to investigate the South Atlantic region. Finally, in 1980, the US investigation team announced that the Vela incident was caused by a meteor hitting the earth, not the result of a nuclear explosion.
However, due to the special relationship between the United States and Israel, most countries in the world believe that the Vela incident was a nuclear test jointly conducted by Israel and South Africa. After the Vela incident, the United States did increase economic sanctions on South Africa and forced South Africa to give up its nuclear weapons.
Under the general environment at that time, there was actually another important reason why Israel did not publicly declare that it had conducted a nuclear test.
August 1963.
The United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain signed the “Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty” in Moscow, which prohibits countries from conducting nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space and sea.
In June 1968, they officially issued an “(NPT Treaty)” announcement in the name of the United Nations.
Under such circumstances, Israel’s public declaration of conducting a nuclear weapon test is already regarded as an act of suicide. Once the news is released, it may be subject to international moral condemnation and may trigger a new round of economic sanctions.
At present, it is an open secret that Israel possesses nuclear weapons. As for whether Israel has conducted nuclear tests, more evidence is needed to support it. Judging from Israel’s current scientific and technological strength, even if the Vela incident was not a nuclear test conducted by Israel, Israel can develop nuclear weapons that can be used in actual combat by virtue of its strong technological strength. And because Israel is in a relatively complicated international environment, among all the nuclear-armed countries in the world, the country most likely to use nuclear weapons is Israel.
