For decades, Israel’s nuclear program has existed in the shadows - not officially acknowledged, never confirmed, yet globally understood.
Now, a new set of declassified U.S. intelligence documents reveals precisely when Washington first realized that Israel’s nuclear ambitions had moved from theory to near completion.
These records, once buried in government vaults, confirm that as early as 1960, the United States had credible assessments that Israel’s Dimona reactor was not solely for “peaceful research,” but directly tied to the production of weapons-grade plutonium.
By February 1967, U.S. intelligence concluded that Israel was 6 to 8 weeks away from building its first nuclear bomb.
🕵️ “Absolutely Not”: Ben-Gurion’s Public Denials
In late 1960, as construction of the Dimona reactor became impossible to conceal from satellite imagery and foreign diplomats, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion addressed the Israeli Knesset.
His statement emphasized that the reactor was intended only for “peaceful purposes.”
Behind the scenes, however, diplomatic cables show rising tension.
Ben-Gurion summoned U.S. Ambassador Ogden Reid to Sde Boker in response to press claims that Israel had failed to notify the U.S. of the project.
The prime minister reportedly declared, “Absolutely not,” when asked if Israel had nuclear weapons ambitions - a claim now contradicted by U.S. intelligence assessments declassified more than sixty years later.
📂 Inside the 1960 JAEIC Report
A key document among the new releases is a December 1960 report by the U.S. Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee (JAEIC).
It marked a shift in Washington’s understanding.
For the first time, the U.S. acknowledged that the Dimona facility would include a plutonium separation plant, a hallmark of weapons programs.
This revelation was a turning point - moving the Israeli nuclear issue from rumor to strategic concern.
Still, over the next several years, internal assessments fluctuated between suspicion and confirmation, largely because of Israel’s deliberate obfuscation.
💣 “6–8 Weeks from the Bomb”
By early 1967, the evidence was irrefutable.
Multiple Israeli sources informed the U.S. Embassy that the Dimona reactor was running at full capacity and that the plutonium extraction plant was complete.
This led U.S. analysts to conclude that Israel could produce a nuclear weapon within 6 to 8 weeks.
The intelligence community began to accept that Israel had likely crossed the nuclear threshold - or was prepared to do so imminently.
What followed was not international condemnation or sanctions, but a diplomatic accommodation.
🤝 The Nixon-Meir Pact
By the end of the 1960s, the issue culminated in what historian Avner Cohen has described as a “bilateral secret deal” between U.S. President Richard Nixon and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
Under this agreement, Israel would refrain from public nuclear tests or declarations, and in return, the United States would cease pressuring Israel for full transparency.
The result: Israel gained what is now termed “undeclared nuclear weapons status.”
It became the only nuclear-armed state never to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) while avoiding the diplomatic and economic consequences faced by others, such as Iran or North Korea.
🧾 Systematic Deception Confirmed
Perhaps most damning in the released documents is the first official mention that “Israel was systematically deceiving the United States about Dimona.”
This echoed years of misleading site tours, evasive answers, and compartmentalized intelligence briefings.
One document even notes a quote from Benjamin Blumberg, founder of Israel’s secretive Lekem intelligence unit, suggesting he was a central figure behind Dimona’s strategic concealment.
Though Blumberg died in recent years, his legacy appears intimately tied to the early architecture of Israel’s clandestine nuclear program.
🔒 Secrecy Persists
While the 2024 release includes over 20 previously classified documents, many others remain sealed.
A 1976 American intelligence assessment of Dimona remains fully redacted by the CIA - still classified nearly 50 years later.
That silence speaks volumes.
Even today, Israel neither confirms nor denies possession of nuclear weapons.
🧭 A Mirror for Today
The release of these documents coincides with rising nuclear tension across the region.
The IAEA’s Rafael Grossi has stated that the Iran nuclear deal is now “irrelevant,” as Tehran is enriching uranium to near-weapons grade.
In that context, these revelations are not just historical - they are political.
They expose a double standard that continues to shape the global non-proliferation regime: transparency for some, ambiguity for others.