Israel has upward of two hundred nuclear weapons. It also maintains active chemical and biological weapons programs. Israel has not ratified either Chemical or Biological Weapons Convention.

US government pressed dozens of states to sign 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty. But American leaders did little to pressure Israel to halt its nuclear program and sign the agreement.

Kennedy administration wanted to restrain Israel nuclear ambitions in early 1960s. It persuaded Israel to permit US scientists to tour Israel nuclear research facility at Dimona. Israel government repeatedly denied it had a weapons program. It dragged its feet in scheduling visits. And it imposed onerous restrictions on inspectors access when visits did occur.

First US visit was on May 18, 1961. It involved just two American scientists and lasted only four days. Only one of them was spent at Dimona site. Warren Bass wrote "Israel's strategy was to permit a visit... but ensure that the inspectors did not find anything."

A follow-up visit a year later was not even a real inspection. Israelis unexpectedly invited US Atomic Energy Commission officials to make impromptu tour of Dimona. Bass notes this visit "hardly merits the name 'inspection'" but Kennedy administration "did not seem eager to pick a fight."

Kennedy threatened Ben Gurion and Levi Eshkol that noncompliance could "jeopardize American commitment to Israel's security and well being." But Johnson was unwilling to risk an American-Israeli crisis over the issue. Instead of inspections every six months Johnson settled for quick visit once a year or so.

In 1968 CIA Director Richard Helms came to White House. He told Johnson that US intelligence concluded Israel had acquired nuclear capability. Johnson told him to make sure nobody else was shown the evidence. This included Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

Journalist Seymour Hersh wrote "Johnson's purpose in chasing Helms and his intelligence away was clear: he did not want to know what the CIA was trying to tell him, for once he accepted that information, he would have to act on it. By 1968, the President had no intention of doing anything to stop the Israeli bomb."

The irony is hard to miss. US pressured many other states to join NPT. It imposed sanctions on countries that defied US wishes and acquired nuclear weapons. It went to war in 2003 to prevent Iraq from pursuing weapons of mass destruction. It contemplated attacking Iran and North Korea for same reason. Yet Washington has long subsidized an ally whose clandestine weapons activities are well known. Israel nuclear arsenal has given several of its neighbors a powerful incentive to seek weapons themselves.

Source: The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy