Report by the Joint Intelligence Committee, “Development of nuclear weapons by fifth countries during the period up to 1970”, 5 September 1961
“Israel began an enlarged atomic energy programme in 1956/57. There is reason to suppose that its purpose was partly military, and the installations now being built could, when complete, be put to military use unless this were prevented by pressure from outside. It would be technically practicable for the Israelis to hold a nuclear test in 1965…”
Source: PRO/CAB 158/43
These are my initial thoughts: the causes of the 1967 war are inextricably linked to Egypt’s struggle for independence, from Britain, and the nationalisation of the Suez Canal. Israel, on a number of occasions, plotted to blow up British installations in Egypt (in addition to such events as Israel’s unilateral diversion of the river Jordan) in order to elicit an Egyptian reprisal, preferably for Israel, on a grand scale (which of course happened) that would provide an opportunity for Israel to annex more land of the Palestinians (the now occupied territories). However, most of the western world then and now sees the conflict through the eyes of the biased media as the usual Arab aggression. The fact is Israel ethnically cleansed Palestine in 1948 (after a number of previous years preparing for an Israeli state in Palestine – Zionism) with the intention of furthering colonial expansion into the land known as the occupied territories. It is the foreign policy of Israel (and the US) and the events that are not published via the media that at key to understanding Israel’s military ambitions. When all of the facts are gathered and the key events analysed between 1948 and 1967, from an Israeli and US foreign policy perspective, one can see that its creation of an enlarged atomic energy programme in 1956/57 is most likely, on the basis of the facts and evidence, for the purposes of developing nuclear weapons and for military purposes (for what purpose though?). There is no evidence to support Israeli security and a defence policy and a genuine reason for this. The fact is Israel has the nuclear power and capability to obliterate the whole Middle East together with the backing of the US. However, due to the media, western people instead learn about what the west think of Iran and its nuclear enrichment programme and what they perceive (mostly misperceptions) to be Iranian foreign policy although there is of course nothing about the realities of Israeli foreign policy, at any time, for the simple reason that Israel is an ally of the US and Iran is not.