The Great Israeli Nuclear Conspiracy

By Barry Dalgleish

Nuclear Build Up

Israel maintains deliberate ambiguity over its nuclear capability. However, its arsenal is an open secret. Israel's nuclear buildup reads like a 007 novel. The Israeli Atomic Energy Commission was established in 1952. Within a year, it had successfully developed a method for producing heavy water, enabling Israel to produce nuclear materials. In 1957, agreements were reached with France to build a 24 MWt reactor. This allowed the secret construction of a chemical reprocessing plant at Dimona in the Negev desert, that would remain outside the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This marked the beginning of a clandestine deception racket. To keep the whole program under wraps, French customs officials were told that reactor components were part of a desalinization plant bound for Latin America. Behind it all was a dedicated intelligence agency, the Office of Science Liasons (LEKEM) that was set up ‘to provide security and intelligence for the project.’¹ Even the US was kept in the dark. It wasn’t until 1960 that suspicions were raised by the CIA. Incredulously, despite several visits from US inspectors, they were subjected to persistent evasiveness from Israel, to the extent of installing false control room panels and bricking over elevators and hallways accessing areas of the facility.

By 1966, Israel’s nuclear ambitions were becoming clear. A key player here was Norway, which had embroiled itself in heavy water scandals with Israel during the 1980s². To avoid detection, heavy water was dispatched to other countries then indirectly sent to Israel, contravening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which forbids the transfer of heavy water without international controls. Israel stonewalled inspections. Had it acquiesced, Israel would have been exposed as the first country to break protocols upon which world nuclear trade depends. Remarkably, the IAEA was accused of being biased. However, Norway wasn’t innocent either. The country had produced around 450 tons of heavy water over the years, exported without proper inspection controls. In fact, ‘Twenty tons went into Israel’s Dimona reactor in 1963, which has now made enough plutonium for well over 100 atomic bombs.’³

Britain was also an offender. 20 tonnes of heavy water were sold to Israel in 1958, redirected from Norway and intentionally kept secret from Washington⁴. Records were fudged to show a direct sale from Norway to Israel, but actually, the water was shipped from a British port in Israeli ships. It was further revealed that the UK was supplying Israel with plutonium in 1966⁵. Civil servant Michael Israel Michaels, who had close ties to Israel, quietly pushed the deal through, against the wishes of the UK Government.

Another vital bomb-making ingredient is yellowcake (uranium oxide), processed from uranium ore. The first supplies came from Argentina. Declassified documents from the US National Security Archive reveal that Israel in 1963-64, secretly acquired 80-100 tons of Argentine yellowcake⁶. Again, Israel stonewalled scrutiny, despite the potential threat to global security.

Then there was the Plumbat Affair⁷.In November 1968, cargo ship Scheersberg A set sail from Antwerp, Belgium, to Genoa, Italy, carrying 560 drums of yellowcake. The ship mysteriously disappeared, only to turn up two weeks overdue at the Turkish port of Iskenderum, empty. The captain, Peter Barrow, lied to the Turkish authorities saying the ship had come from Naples. A few days later, Barrow and his crew abandoned ship and disappeared. The mystery simmered for five years until the arrest of Mossad agent Dan Aerbel in Oslo on suspicion of murder, following an assassination in 1973. Following an extensive interrogation, he spilled the beans and the mystery suddenly revealed itself. He admitted temporary ownership of the Scheersberg A.

Operation Plumbat was a remarkable and daring operation, which had eluded the world for five years. Aerbel's role was to dispose of the evidence by getting rid of the Scheersberg A. It wasn’t until his testimony was picked up by Norwegian intelligence that it all unravelled. The cargo was moved using front companies to obscure the operation. It would transfer its clandestine cargo over to an Israeli freighter halfway through the voyage.

Another major player was South Africa, who also exported yellowcake to Israel. Both countries would end up working together to support each others nuclear ambitions. SA was increasingly isolated due to apartheid. SA played a pivotal role in helping Israel develop its nuclear capability.

It wasn’t until 1986 that the cat was finally let out of the bag, courtesy of whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu⁸. From 1976 to 1985, Vanunu worked at the Dimona plant. Before leaving he took photographs. A year later he took his story to the Sunday Times. Israel had no intentions of letting Vanunu away with his disclosures. He was was kidnapped by the Mossad in Rome and returned to Israel, where he was tried and convicted of treason and espionage and sentenced to 18 years in prison, despite the fact that Vanunu had limited expertise on weapons development and would have had little impact on Israeli national security. It became apparent that Israel’s nuclear program was much more advanced than originally thought and that the weapons being developed were ahead of other nuclear weapon states. Despite continued restrictions Vanunu remains defiant⁹.

Today, Israel owes a great deal to Germany, through the supply of a fleet of Dolphin class submarines, and financial support over the years¹⁰. Intriguingly, the order for the first 2 subs were agreed after the fall of the Berlin wall, all done discreetly of course. To date, Israel has 6 submarines in operation, each believed to have ballistic nuclear missile capability¹¹.

The Samson Option

The Samson Option refers to Israel’s nuclear strategy whereby it would launch a massive nuclear retaliatory strike if the state itself was being overrun. It’s derived from the biblical legend of Samson, who had been captured by the Philistines and put on public display, with his eyes torn out. He responded by pushing apart the temple pillars, bringing down the roof and killing himself and his enemies. The Samson Option became another way of saying “Never again.”12 It would be tested unexpectedly following the outbreak of the ‘Yom Kippur’ war in 1973, when Egypt and Syria took Israel by surprise by advancing into the Israeli occupied Sinai and Golan Heights, taken by Israel during the invasion of Arab and Palestinian territories in the 1967 war. It got to the stage when Israel thought it was all over. But then it called its first nuclear alert and armed its nuclear arsenal, to blackmail Washington into a policy change of immediately supplying arms to sustain an extended war effort. However, through intelligence operatives in Israel, the Soviet Union had informed Egypt that Israel had armed warheads ready to go. The Israeli threat was never realised. But interestingly it had transpired that the US had intentionally delayed the supply of weapons to Israel, allowing the Arabs to ‘win some territory, and some self-respect, and thus set up the possibility of serious land-for-peace bargaining.’¹² As Henry Kissinger put it, the aim was to, “let Israel come out ahead, but bleed.”

The Samson Option remains today, along with the Hannibal directive, a strategy to prevent the kidnapping of hostages by attacking the abductors – even if it kills those being taken¹³.

Israeli society has been described as a cult by psychotherapist and former Israeli citizen Avigail Abarbanel, based on its insular view of the world, and lack of individual identity that’s been replaced a group identity, as well as her experience of dealing with many cult survivors over the years and the similarities between the Zionist belief system and a cult¹⁴. She expands further on the nature of Israeli society, whereby ‘Jews are the ultimate victims and the most important victims that have ever existed in human history’. As far as the Palestinians are concerned they are just another group ‘hell-bent on annihilating the Jewish people for their own reasons’. Survival ‘is more important than anything’ and that includes human values and any personal sense of purpose. As she sums up: ‘Jewish victimhood is the central pillar of Jewish identity Israel-style, and it is an unspoken social taboo to question it’. It was only after she left Israel that the brainwashing and indoctrination she had endured since childhood became apparent.

Some cults have engaged in suicide pacts. This looks a bit like Samson and Hannibal. This then is where we are. A heavily indoctrinated ‘cult’ with a nuclear arsenal. This should be ringing alarm bells everywhere.

References

1. Nuclear Weapons. https://nuke.fas.org/guide/israel/nuke/index.html, Federation of American Scientists. Accessed 31 December 2025.
2. Norway’s Heavy Water Scandals. https://www.wisconsinproject.org/norways-heavy-water-scandals/, Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.
3. Israeli A-Bombs and Norwegian Heavy Water: Arms Control Through Public Pressure. https://www.wisconsinproject.org/israeli-a-bombs-and-norwegian-heavy-water-arms-control-through-public-pressure/, Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.
4. How Britain helped Israel get the bomb. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4743493.stm, BBC News.
5. Britain secretly gave Israel plutonium for atom bombs, BBC investigation reveals. https://electronicintifada.net/content/britain-secretly-gave-israel-plutonium-atom-bombs-bbc-investigation-reveals/5890, Electronic Intifada.
6. Israel's Quest for Yellowcake: The Secret Argentine-Israeli Connection, 1963-1966. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb432/, The National Security Archive.
7. The Plumbat Affair. Davneport, et.al. https://archive.org/details/plumbataffair00dave/mode/2up, Internet Archive Books.
8. The Relevance of Mordechai Vanunu Disclosures to Israel’s National Security (pdf). https://nuke.fas.org/cochran/nuc_10149601a_174.pdf, Federation of American Scientists.
9. Vanunu Mordechai Home Page. https://archive.ph/HvGtq#selection-25.0-25.21. Vanunu Mordechai J.C.
10. Israel's Deployment of Nuclear Missiles on Subs from Germany. https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/israel-deploys-nuclear-weapons-on-german-built-submarines-a-836784.html, SPIEGEL International
11. Israel Submarine Capabilities. https://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/israel-submarine-capabilities/, Nuclear Threat Initiative.
12. The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal & American Foreign Policy. Hersh. S. https://archive.org/details/Sampson_Option, Internet Archive Books.
    13.What is the Hannibal Directive and why is it controversial? https://www.middleeasteye.net/explainers/israel-war-gaza-what-hannibal-directive-why-controversial, Middle East Eye.
13. Reposting the 2018 Introduction to Beyond Tribal Loyalties. https://avigail.substack.com/p/the-2018-introduction-to-beyond-tribal, Avigail Abarbanel’s Fully Human Essays, Substack.

One comment

1. MR ALAN JOHN MARSHALL says:

   13 January 2026 at 11:28

   My late father served in the British Army in Palestine,1945-48. Like many others he adopted a Palestinian family, giving them food, blankets and medication. His best friend from childhood was among 20 others captured by the Stern Gang and murdered in the Nagrev.They took revenge on the Kibbutz, which contained future butcher Manacim Begum.

   Reply