Jimmy Carter: Israel has 150 nuclear bombs

Aubrey Eban (he later changed his first name to the Hebrew name Abba), the Cambridge-educated Israeli foreign minister (1963-74) was known as one of the masterful orators of the twentieth century (several students of the subject of public speaking name him, Winston Churchill, and Australia’s Robert Menzies as the three greatest speakers in the English language in the last century) — in fact, he was a polyglot, able to deliver artfully crafted speeches in half a dozen languages. Eban was born on 1915, but was so precocious that he completed his graduate studies in Classics and Oriental languages at Queen’s College, Cambridge, at the age of 23, earning a prestigious Fellow position in Arabic and Hebrew at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1938. He coined many memorable phrases — for example, about the failures of the Palestinian leadership: “The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Eban also brought his linguistic skills to bear on the delicate issue of Israel’s nuclear arsenal. Officially, Israel adheres to a policy of nuclear opaqueness, insistently denying it possess nuclear weapons. Israel’s neighbors, and the world, know differently. Eban, in his official capacity, had to proclaim the Israeli official line - but he found a clever way of expressing it. When asked whether or not Israel was in possession of nuclear weapons, Eban would respond: “Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East - but it will not be the second country to do so, either.”

What would Eban think of the latest statement by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter? In remarks published yesterday, Carter said Israel has 150 nuclear weapons in its arsenal. His statement, quoted by the Times of London, appeared to be the first time a former U.S. president stated publicly the number of nuclear warheads Israel supposedly has in its possession. The Israeli government declined to comment on the statement. “Mr. Carter is responsible for what he says,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s spokesman, Mark Regev, would only tell Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. A former head of Israel’s military intelligence, Aharon Zeevi Farkash, denounced Carter’s remark as “irresponsible.”

As we say above, Israel has for decades clung to its policy of nuclear ambiguity, refusing to confirm or deny whether or not it has nuclear weapons. The deterrence policy aims at keeping enemy Arab states from attacking Israel. Israel first began developing a nuclear reactor in its southern desert town of Dimona in the late 1950s. Israel put together its first nuclear weapons in late May or early June 1967, on the eve of the Six Day War. Foreign intelligence estimates have commonly put the number of nuclear warheads in the Israeli arsenal at up to 200. According to the Times, Carter made the remark at the Hay-on-Wye festival in Wales, which promotes current affairs books and literature. U.S. officials normally do not address the issue, in line with Israel’s policy of nuclear ambiguity. This attitude of U.S. officials was captured by University of Maryland’s George Quester, who once said that the attitude of a typical U.S. Foreign Service officer to the question of whether or not Israel has nuclear weapons is the mirror image of that officer’s approach to the question of whether God exists. Quester explained: If you ask a Foreign Service officer the question: “Do you know that God exists?” — the officer is likely to respond: “I don’t know that God exists, but I believe He does.” Now, if you ask the same officer the question: “Does Israel have nuclear weapons?” — the officer will likely respond: “I know Israel has nuclear weapons, but I don’t believe it.”

Carter also told the festival that “my advice to the U.S. would be to start talking to Iran now’ to persuade it to drop its nuclear work. Former Israeli military intelligence head Farkash said Carter’s remark was irresponsible because they came at a time “when an effort is being made on the global level to try and prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. Apparently, during his latest round in Israel and in the region he was so insulted that he saw it fit to say things which I think are irresponsible,” Farkash told Israel Radio. Fakash was referring to the fact that Carter was given the cold shoulder during his latest visit to Israel in April, because of his declared intention to meet with leaders of the Islamic militant Hamas movement. He was denied entry to Gaza, but met with Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Mashaal in Damascus after leaving Israel. The retired Israeli major-general nevertheless downplayed the importance of the statement by the former U.S. president, pointing out Carter “was president a long time ago” and saying “remarks like these have been made before.”