Democracy, Duplicity, and Dimona

Western historical complicity in Israel¿s nuclear program is unutterable yet undeniable; a subject area for scholars focused on techno-politics and the intelligence community. Circumventing the democratic process,Dimonäs history is evinced and encapsulated by shadowy scientism, mockingbird journalism,compartmented bureaucracies, clandestine corporatism and great power imperialism. In October 1956 Israel acquired from France an atomic weapons reactor, and over the ensuing years would receive furtive support from every continent save Asia. Led by the CIA, as early as 1958 the U.S. was cognizant of Dimonäs existence yet chose silent inaction. When Dimona was publicly unveiled in December 1960, the U.S. denied any foreknowledge of the facility; with the obsequious U.S. press promulgating in the ensuing decade that Dimona was a peaceful project. Even though Dimona constitutes the conflict¿s paramount catalyst,the U.S. prevented the atom from emerging as the defining subject of the Six Day War historiography. Using Egypt as its proxy, the U.S.S.R.'s intention to militarily extirpate the Negev reactor represents an understudied Cold War dimension of Israel's nuclear history.