Israel and the Bomb

The New York Times Book Review, Lawrence Korb
With Israel and the Bomb, he has written a scholarly treatise that includes over 1,200 footnotes, yet reads like a novel.... [H]is book [is] worth reading.


A.R. Norton, Boston University
This important volume deserves the attention of Middle East scholars and students of foreign policy, nuclear proliferation, and Israeli politics.


Review
"Cohen's book hits nations sensitivity." -- Dan Ephron, Washington Times


Review
"This is an extraordinarily important book. Cohen has produced an amazing piece of historical scholarship on a subject deliberately shrouded in clouds of misdirection, for legitimate raisons d'etat, by both Israeli and American governments." -- Samuel W. Lewis, U.S. Ambassador to Israel (1977-1985)


Lawrence Kolb
A scholarly treatise that includes over 1,200 footnotes, yet reads like a novel. . . . {Cohen] analyzes in rich detail how this policy of 'nuclear opacity' evolved and what made it possible.


Paul C. Warnke, former Assistant Secretary of Defense
A compelling and comprehensive account of the development of what he calls Israel´s doctrine of ‘nuclear opacity.´


Carl Kaysen former deputy national security advisor to JFK
Cohen lays out as fully as now possible the intricate interplay of domestic politics in Tel Aviv/Jerusalem, Paris, and Washington with the diplomatic interaction of the three countries, formal and informal, that shaped the path of Israel's nuclear program. An unmatched and indispensable contribution to understanding our nuclear age, the lessons of Israel and the Bomb have renewed salience in the context of the movement of more nations into the nuclear club.


Spurgeon Keeny President and Executive Director, The Arms Control Association
This impeccably documented history of the first two decades of the Israeli nuclear program illuminates the complex domestic and international forces that shaped the activity and gives the reader fascinating insight into the thinking of Israeli, French, and U.S. leaders on the uniquely sensitive subject that only a few participants were fully aware of at the time.


From the Publisher
This is an extraordinarily important book. Cohen has produced an amazing piece of historical scholarship on a subject deliberately shrouded in clouds of misdirection, for legitimate raisons d'etat, by both Israeli and American governments. Although some details still remain secret in government archives, he has by prodigious research managed to peel back the onion almost completely and has objectively detailed how Israel's nuclear weapons program evolved. . . . Anyone concerned about current U.S. efforts to slow down the nuclear arms race in the subcontinent will find Israel and the Bomb a cautionary tale. And for anyone who is interested in Israel, the Arab-Israeli conflict, or Israeli-American relations, Cohen's book is MUST reading. (Samuel W. Lewis U.S. Ambassador to Israel (1977-1985))


Tom Segev
Cohen's work will necessitate the rewriting of Israel's history, wars, international relations, domestic political crises, economy, psychology, national pride--everything will have to be viewed in a different light.


Book Description
This interpretive political history that draws on thousands of American and Israeli government documents -- most of them recently declassified and never before cited -- and more than one hundred interviews with key individuals who played important roles in this story.


Download Description
Until now, there has been no detailed account of Israel's nuclear history. Previous treatments of the subject relied heavily on rumors, leaks, and journalistic speculations. But with Israel and the Bomb, Avner Cohen has forged an interpretive political history that draws on thousands of American and Israeli government documents -- most of them recently declassified and never before cited -- and more than one hundred interviews with key individuals who played important roles in this story. Cohen reveals that Israel crossed the nuclear weapons threshold on the eve of the 1967 Six Day War, yet it continues to maintain an ambiguous posture with regard to its nuclear capability to this day. What made this posture of "opacity" possible, and how did it evolve? Cohen focuses on a two-decade period from about 1950 until 1970, during which David Ben-Gurion's vision of making Israel a nuclear-weapon state was realized. Cohen proceeds to weave together the story of the formative years of Israel's nuclear program, from the founding of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission in 1952, to the alliance with France that gave Israel the sophisticated technology it needed, to the failure of American intelligence to identify the Dimona Project for what it was, to the negotiations between President Nixon and Prime Minister Meir that led to the current policy of secrecy. Cohen also analyzes the complex forces that led Israel to conceal its nuclear program -- from concerns over Arab reaction and the negative effect of the debate at home to consideration of America's commitment to nonproliferation.


About the Author
Avner Cohen is a senior research fellow at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. He has taught and researched in universities in Israel and the United States and has published numerous articles on subjects as diverse as skepticism, political theory, nuclear ethics, nuclear proliferation, and Israeli history. He is the coeditor of Nuclear Weapons and the Future of Humanity and The Institution of Philosophy.


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Must reading (Samuel W. Lewis was U.S. Ambassador to Israel, 1977 - 85). — Samuel W. Lewis


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