Israelis piqued by Gates nuclear confirmation

Jerusalem, Dec 8: Robert Gates, the incoming US secretary ofdefense, won plaudits in Washington this week for his candour on theIraq war.

Some Israelis were less pleased, however, to hear Gates mentionwith equal frankness what US administrations have long avoided utteringin public -- that the Jewish state has WAsoa only nuclear arsenal.

To be fair, it was pretty oblique.

During his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Gatesspeculated on why Iran might be seeking the means to build an atomicbomb. ''They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan totheir east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and usin the Persian Gulf,'' he said.

The statement led Israeli news bulletins, with some punditssuggesting that former CIA chief Gates may have breached a US ''don'task, don't tell'' policy dating back to the late 1960s.

''I haven't a clue why Gates made those remarks,'' BinyaminBen-Eliezer, a member of Israel's security cabinet, said in a radiointerview.

A retired Israeli diplomat, speaking to Reuters on condition ofanonymity, called the testimony ''quite unprecedented'' and added: ''Ican only assume he (Gates) has yet to get to grips with theunderstandings that exist between us and the Americans.'' According torecently declassifed documents cited by the Bulletin of the AtomicScientists magazine, under President Richard Nixon the United Statesknew Israel had developed nuclear weapons but opted against insistingthat its ally come clean on the capability and accept internationalregulation.

Israel neither confirms nor denies having the bomb, as part of a''strategic ambiguity'' policy that it says fends off numericallysuperior enemies while avoiding an arms race.

By not declaring itself to be nuclear armed, Israel also skirts aUS ban on funding countries that proliferate weapons of massdestruction. It can thus enjoy more than 2 billion dollars in annualmilitary and other aid from Washington.

Double-Standard Seen

This sanctioned reticence is a major irritantfor Arabs and Iran, which see a double-standard in US policy in theregion.

Former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was careful not todiscuss the Israeli nuclear option explicitly. Pressed on it during a2004 briefing, he said only that Israel had ''arranged itself so ithasn't been put in the sea'' by its foes.

Though Gates replaces Rumsfeld as part of a move by US PresidentGeorge W Bush to revitalise prospects for Iraq and a wider peace inWAsia, no one has yet gone as far as to propose openly that Washingtonreview Israel's open secret.

''I am not aware of any change in US policy on discussing Israeland its nuclear capability,'' said Stewart Tuttle, spokesman for the USembassy in Tel Aviv.

Shimon Peres, who helped found Israel's main atomic reactor in the1950s -- officially for civilian use -- and is now deputy to PrimeMinister Ehud Olmert, sounded similarly unperturbed.

''This announcement makes no fundamental difference,'' he told Israel Radio.

''Whether or not Israel has nuclear weapons, the fact is that Israel is the only country threatened with destruction ...

Israel is not threatening any country. Weapons do not firethemselves, people fire them.'' He was apparently referring to arch-foeIran, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for theelimination of the ''Zionist regime'' but denied his country seeksnuclear arms.

Reuters