This Israeli nuclear “invisible” on which the United States has turned a blind eye for 50 years

Not said, not taken. Israel and the United States continue to apply this precept to the letter on the hypersensitive dossier of the atom. It is true that the stakes are high: Israel would have 200 nuclear warheads capable of equipping long-range 2,000-kilometer Jericho-type missiles as well as submarines, according to estimates by foreign military experts facing the crisis. greater media silence.

And for good reason: Israeli leaders have never broken the omerta on the issue by admitting that their country has such an arsenal. In answer to all questions, they have for decades resorted to a formula as vague as it is laconic according to which “Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons in the region”. But no one is fooled.

READ ALSO: Towards a sea war between Israel and Iran?

The « arrangements » concluded between Israelis and Americans are an exchange of good practices. The Americans pledge not to exert pressure on the Jewish state to force it to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which bans the production of atomic bombs.

Avowed objective: to enable Israel to maintain a “Strategic deterrence” in the face of its enemies, first and foremost the Islamic Republic of Iran. For its part, the Jewish state promises not to officially recognize the possession of nuclear weapons in the name of a so-called “Ambiguity”, not to threaten to use it and not to carry out tests.

Tacit agreement then written

This agreement first reached in 1969 between Richard Nixon and Golda Meir, the Israeli Prime Minister at the time, was for a long time purely verbal. But in 1998, Bill Clinton went further and agreed to have these arrangements written down on paper.

His successors have done the same. In 2009, the coming to power of Barack Obama, supposed to be much less favorable to Israel, gave a cold sweat to Benjamin Netanyahu who feared that the United States would use these “ arrangements As a bargaining chip to obtain concessions on other issues.

Finally, Barack Obama affixed his signature without complaint. Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom relations were very tense, made a thinly veiled allusion to the episode during an interview. “I asked to receive and then received from him a detailed list of strategic arrangements that have existed between our two countries for many years. It is not for nothing that I presented this request and it is not for nothing that I obtained satisfaction ” welcomed the former Prime Minister.

Marché Bennett-Biden

Joe Biden was no exception. He also gave the green light, even if it meant giving arguments to the ayatollahs’ regime. Since the spring, negotiations have been held in Vienna for a possible return of the United States to the international Iranian nuclear agreement and a lifting of American sanctions against Tehran.

Donald Trump pulled his country out of this agreement in 2018 three years after it was signed. For the moment, the talks in the Austrian capital are at a standstill to the great satisfaction of Israel, which has continued to denounce the multiple flaws.

But when they met in Washington, Naftali Bennett made a concession to Joe Biden. He pledged to refrain from launching a vigorous political and media campaign around the world, including the United States, against signing any agreement with Iran. He thus takes the opposite view of Benjamin Netanyahu who had not hesitated to come in person to denounce the decision of Barack Obama to ratify this agreement during a speech to the American Congress.

READ ALSO: The honeymoon is over: Joe Biden, Israel’s new pet peeve?

–