John F. Kennedy Pushed for Inspection of Israel Nuclear Facilities

[David Josephs]

Jim et al,

When I had that discussion with a few of the "Israel killed JFK cause of the nukes situation" BS I did a bit of research and everything that I've read suggests that Israel and the French were doing this behind the USA's back and against their wishes.

Believe that and I have a bridge to sell you. De Gaulle terminated collaboration with Israel in 1958 or 1959.

And de Gaulle, like JFK and Ike before him, knew everything that was happening under his administration, knew everything the CIA was doing. Please.

There is not a single source that does not acknowledge France's involvement in Israel's nuclear program... they acquired material from the US, they were our ally for pete's sake.

The point being the JFK didn't want anyone with nukes in the middle east as he feared it would escalate tensions, not reduce them.
Israel basically lied to JFK's face about the entire ordeal...

But you believing that a country's leaders know everything that happens within their administration is a bit too naive for discussion on these pages.

Can you offer proof that de Gaulle was against Israel prior to 1967 when it was in 1960 that de Gaulle and Ben-Gurion meet and 1964 that the reactor comes on line?

"De Gaulle terminated collaboration with Israel in 1958 or 1959" uh, not so much Paul.



As for the relationship prior to that? https://fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/farr.htm

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On 7 November 1956, a secret meeting was held between Israeli foreign minister Golda Meir, Shimon Peres, and French foreign and defense ministers Christian Pineau and Maurice Bourges-Manoury. The French, embarrassed by their failure to support their ally in the operation, found the Israelis deeply concerned about a Soviet threat. In this meeting, they substantially modified the initial understanding beyond a research reactor. Peres secured an agreement from France to assist Israel in developing a nuclear deterrent. After further months of negotiation, agreement was reached for an 18-megawatt (thermal) research reactor of the EL-3 type, along with plutonium separation technology. France and Israel signed the agreement in October 1957.[15] Later the reactor was officially upgraded to 24 megawatts, but the actual specifications issued to engineers provided for core cooling ducts sufficient for up to three times this power level, along with a plutonium plant of similar capacity. Data from insider reports revealed in 1986 would estimate the power level at 125-150 megawatts.[16] The reactor, not connected to turbines for power production, needed this increase in size only to increase its plutonium production. How this upgrade came about remains unknown, but Bourges-Maunoury, replacing Mollet as French prime minister, may have contributed to it.[17] Shimon Peres, the guiding hand in the Israeli nuclear program, had a close relationship with Bourges-Maunoury and probably helped him politically.[18]

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Why was France so eager to help Israel? DeMollet and then de Gaulle had a place for Israel within their strategic vision. A nuclear Israel could be a counterforce against Egypt in France's fight in Algeria. Egypt was openly aiding the rebel forces there. France also wanted to obtain the bomb itself. The United States had embargoed certain nuclear enabling computer technology from France. Israel could get the technology from America and pass it through to France. The U.S. furnished Israel heavy water, under the Atoms for Peace program, for the small research reactor at Soreq. France could use this heavy water. Since France was some years away from nuclear testing and success, Israeli science was an insurance policy in case of technical problems in France's own program.[19] The Israeli intelligence community's knowledge of past French (especially Vichy) anti-Semitic transgressions and the continued presence of former Nazi collaborators in French intelligence provided the Israelis with some blackmail opportunities.[20] The cooperation was so close that Israel worked with France on the preproduction design of early Mirage jet aircraft, designed to be capable of delivering nuclear bombs.[21]

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The breakup of Israel-France relations happens well after 1959 and well after JFK mostly due to De Gaulle's desire to align with the Arab world.
[B]De Gaulle Calls Jews Domineering, Israel an Expansionist State[/B]

By Donald Neff

[FONT=&amp]It was 32 years ago, on Nov. 27, 1967, when President Charles de Gaulle of France publicly described Jews as an "elite people, sure of themselves and domineering" and Israel as an expansionist state.1 De Gaulle's comment came in the context of his disappointment that Israel had launched the 1967 war against his strong advice and then had occupied large areas containing nearly a million Palestinians. A firestorm of charges of anti-Semitism followed his remarks, culminating in an interesting exchange by two of the world's great elder statesmen, David Ben-Gurion and De Gaulle.2
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[FONT=&amp]While the rare public exchange of views between these two heroic figures caught the headlines, little noted was a profound geopolitical shift taking place. France was ending its strong support of Israel and the United States was replacing France as Israel's major patron. Up to this point the United States had sometimes taken a fairly balanced attitude to the Middle East conflict.[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]After the 1967 war, when France severed its close ties to Israel, U.S. policy under the influence first of Democratic President Lyndon Johnson and later of Republican Secretary of State Henry Kissinger became blatantly pro-Israel.[/FONT]


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/opinio....html?_r=0

But if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tries to push his luck on settlements or the peace process, he would do well to remember an unnerving precedent: Israel's loss, in 1967, of what had been a robust alliance with France.
The French-Israeli relationship began in the mid-1950s, when Israel became a major customer for the French arms industry. But the bond was not merely commercial: at the time France was trying to quash a rebellion in Algeria, and it shared with Israel a strategic interest in combating radical Arab nationalism. In 1956, France and Israel even fought together against Egypt in the Suez crisis.
The tacit alliance, championed by Israel's deputy defense minister, Shimon Peres, deepened during the late '50s and early '60s through military cooperation and cultural exchanges. French technical assistance helped Israel get nuclear weapons, and France supplied the advanced military aircraft that became the backbone of the Israeli Air Force.
The relationship only grew warmer when Charles de Gaulle, the World War II hero, took over as French president in 1959. He recognized the historic justice of a Jewish "national home," which he saw "as some compensation for suffering endured through long ages," and he heaped praise on David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding prime minister, as one of the "greatest leaders in the West."
The bilateral bonds ran outside the government, too, with strongly pro-Israel public opinion, both among French Jews and non-Jews. But with the end of the Algerian war in 1962, de Gaulle began mending France's ties to the Arab world and the relationship came under strain. For a while, France tried to balance its relationships: Israeli officials were heartily welcomed in Paris, and de Gaulle continued to speak of Israel as "the ally and friend" of France.
This double game, however, ended when the Six-Day War in 1967 forced France to pick a side. In a shock to its Israeli allies, it chose the Arab states: despite aggressive moves by Egypt, France imposed a temporary arms embargo on the region which mostly hurt Israel and warned senior Israeli officials to avoid hostilities.
When Israel launched a pre-emptive strike on June 5, France condemned it even as Israel's nearly immediate aerial victory was won largely with French-made aircraft.
A few months later de Gaulle bluntly told reporters that France had "freed itself ... from the very special and very close ties" with Israel, nastily adding that Jews were "an elite people, sure of itself, and dominating."
This was not a sentimental stance: de Gaulle had made a strategic decision to bolster France's stature in the vast Arab world, which in 1967 meant largely abandoning Israel. France proceeded to make the arms embargo on Israel permanent, sought oil deals with the Arab states and adopted increasingly anti-Israel rhetoric.


http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countrie.../nuke.htmlFrance launched Israel on the nuclear path in the late 1950s by building the Dimona reactor, which is still the source of Israel's plutonium--its main nuclear weapon fuel. The reactor's heavy water, essential to achieve a chain reaction, was supplied by Norway in 1959. In 1963, when the reactor started operation, the United States supplied four more tons of heavy water.
Israel got other nuclear help from the United States, which also supplied a small 5-megawatt (thermal) research reactor at Nahal Soreq. The reactor started in 1960, but cannot produce significant quantities of plutonium. Instead, the reactor offered an early training ground for Israeli nuclear technicians. Later in the 1960s, Israel was widely thought to have smuggled more than 100 kilograms of highly enriched uranium out of a nuclear materials plant in Pennsylvania.
France's contribution
Franco-Israeli nuclear cooperation is described in detail in the book "Les Deux Bombes" (1982) by French journalist Pierre Pean, who gained access to the official French files on Dimona. The book revealed that the Dimona's cooling circuits were built two to three times larger than necessary for the 26-megawatt reactor Dimona was supposed to be--proof that it had always been intended to make bomb quantities of plutonium. The book also revealed that French technicians had built a plutonium extraction plant at the same site. According to Pean, French nuclear assistance enabled Israel to produce enough plutonium for one bomb even before the 1967 Six Day War. France also gave Israel nuclear weapon design information.