When Israel went nuclear

[Michael Karpin] explores many other topics in the book, among them how the nuclear issue influenced the development of the relationship between the United States and Israel, the ways in which a belief in the existence of Israeli nuclear weapons informed military decisions by Egypt in the 1973 Yom K...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJewish Advocate Vol. 198; no. 52
Main Author Levenson, Daniel E
Format Book Review
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston The Jewish Advocate 28.12.2007
Subjects
Karpin, Michael
Middle Eastern history
Military technology
Nonfiction
Nuclear weapons
Israel
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Summary:[Michael Karpin] explores many other topics in the book, among them how the nuclear issue influenced the development of the relationship between the United States and Israel, the ways in which a belief in the existence of Israeli nuclear weapons informed military decisions by Egypt in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and what the future implications of a nuclear Israel might be. In the end, however, it is this same tension and anxiety that Ben-Gurion expressed about existential threats to the Jewish state that runs throughout the book, and certainly colors all of the Israeli interactions and efforts to acquire the "ultimate weapon," which is the driving force in the story he tells. Karpin also makes it clear that, on the Israeli side, it was former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion who drove forward the development of Israel's nuclear program in the decades after the establishment of Israel. Deeply afraid that the surrounding Arab states would try and exploit any possible weakness or deficiency in Israel's defenses, BenGurion saw the attainment of nuclear weapons as vital to the survival of Israel.
ISSN:1077-2995