It’s difficult to find much of anything we might call “good” coming out of the current US-Israel war against Iran. Yet, one positive development has been the fact that Israel’s deceitful practice of pretending it has no nuclear weapons program is now untenable. 

The renewal of the discussion around Israel’s nuclear arms program was prompted in part by Iranian missile strikes in the area of Dimona, a city in southern Israel known to house Israel’s nuclear research facilities. 

In a March 22 report on the strikes by the Jerusalem Post, the ongoing denials by the Israeli state are noted: “In the 1960s, then prime minister Levi Eshkol vowed that “Israel will not be the first state to introduce nuclear weapons into the region.” The sentiment has been repeated by Israeli officials since.”

Yet, the article goes on to note that ”it is generally accepted that the facility [near Dimona] produced plutonium for the alleged nuclear arsenal.” Modern assessments, “ such as a 2025 report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, estimated that Israel has a stockpile of around 90 nuclear warheads.”

Other estimates state the stockpile is considerably larger. For example, in 2016, leaked emails from former US Secretary of State of State Colin Powell show Powell stating that mutually-assured destruction would make it extremely unlikely that the Iranian regime would use nuclear arms, even if it had any. According to Powell: ““the boys in Tehran know Israel has 200 [nuclear weapons], all targeted on Tehran, and we have thousands.”

Yet, it is the policy of both the Israeli state and the US state to pretend that there is no Israeli nuclear stockpile. Agents of the American regime won’t even answer the question if asked about Israeli nuclear weapons. For example, in an exchange last week between Congressman Joaquin Castro and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Thomas DiNunno, Dinunno refused to answer straightforward questions about basic facts:

“What is Israel’s nuclear capability in terms of weapons?” Castro asked in an intelligence committee. “I can’t comment on that specific question. I’d have to refer you to the Israelis on that,” DiNanno replied. “Does Israel have nuclear weapons?” Castro reasserted the question. “I’m not prepared to comment on that,” DiNanno insisted. “You’re not prepared to comment on it? It’s a very basic question. We are with an ally conducting a war against Iran. This war continues to escalate,” Castro reminded those in the briefing. When he clarified if DiNanno is unaware of Israel’s nuclear status, the latter said that he couldn’t comment on it either. “You’re the main person in charge of knowing this and understanding it. Will you not give us an answer? I don’t understand why this issue is so taboo when it’s a basic question, and we’re in a war alongside........

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