The world's most efficient “secret” manufacturer of weapons of mass destruction was not Iraq, nor is it Syria — it is Washington's closest ally and partner in the Middle East, Israel.

In September 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, a technician at Israel's Dimona nuclear site, revealed to the British Sunday Times that the nuclear military program based there had produced “over 200” nuclear warheads.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists estimates that Israel has the world's fifth-largest stockpile of nuclear warheads (more than Britain's 185, the bulletin believes).

In February 2000, Knesset member Issam Mahoul said Israel had “200 to 300” nuclear weapons; in August of that year, the Federation of American Scientists said that Israel could have produced “at least 100 nuclear weapons, but probably not significantly more than 200”; the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates that Israel has 200 nukes. Other sources, including Jane's Intelligence Review, estimate that Tel Aviv has between 400 and 500 nuclear weapons.

What Dimona is to Israel's nuclear program, the Israeli Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) at Nes Ziona is to its chemical and biological warfare (CBW) programme. The high-security facility does not appear on aerial survey photographs and maps, with orange groves taking its place.

Except for token visits to Dimona by a Norwegian team in 1961 and a US team in 1969, there have been no international inspections on the site. Even Israel's parliament, the Knesset, is denied access.

However, the 1993 report by the Office of Technology Assessment for the US Congress states that Israel has “undeclared offensive chemical warfare capabilities” and is '`generally reported as having an undeclared offensive biological warfare program”.

Anthony Cordesman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies states that Israel has conducted extensive research into gas warfare and is ready to produce biological weapons.

According to an exhaustive study by Karel Knip, a Dutch journalist, the IIBR's work has included the synthesis of nerve gases such as tabun, sarin and VX.

The October 1992 crash of an El Al cargo plane in Amsterdam, which caused at least 47 deaths and caused hundreds of immediate and subsequent mysterious illnesses, led to the disclosure in 1998 that the flight was carrying chemicals including 227.5 litres of dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) — enough to produce 270 kilograms of sarin. The DMMP was supplied by Solkatronic Chemicals Inc of Morrisville, Pennsylvania, and was destined for the IIBR.

There are allegations that Israel has used CBW on numerous occasions since 1948. Israeli historian Uri Milstein has alleged that “in many conquered Arab villages, the water supply was poisoned to prevent the inhabitants from coming back”. Milstein states that one of the largest of such covert operations caused the typhoid outbreak in Acre in May 1948.

In 1954, it was widely reported that Israeli defence minister Pinchas Lavon had proposed using CBW for special operations. In 1955, Prime Minister Ben Gurion ordered the weaponisation and stockpiling of chemical weapons in case of a war with Egypt. Former Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky claims that lethal tests have been performed on Arab prisoners at the IIBR.

Chemical defoliants were used by the army against Palestinian lands, including Ain el Beida in 1968, Araqba in 1972 and Mejdel Beni Fadil in 1973. Chemical weapons were used in the 1982 war on Lebanon, including hydrogen cyanide, nerve gas and phosphorus shells. In the 1980s, lethal gases were used against Palestinian civilians and Palestinian, Lebanese and Israeli Jewish prisoners.

Discussing delivery systems, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists states that Israel's US-supplied F-16 squadrons based at Nevatim and Ramon are the most likely carriers of nuclear warheads and that a small group of pilots has been trained for nuclear strikes.

According to the Sunday Times, F-16s crews are also “trained to fit an active chemical or biological weapon within minutes of receiving the command to attack”. Israel's F-4s, F-15s and Jaguars are also nuclear-capable.

Israel's long-range missiles, the Jericho I (with a range of 660km) and Jericho II (1500km) are also nuclear-capable. The Shavit satellite launch vehicle is convertible into an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 7800km.

Israel also has three submarines — the Dolphin, the Leviathan and the Tekuma — which are reportedly modified to carry nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.

Israel is widely believed to possess a tactical nuclear capability, including small nuclear landmines and nuclear warheads that it can fire from cannons.

Israel has signed but not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, but has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty .

[Abridged from Index on Censorship.]

From Green Left Weekly, April 23, 2003.
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