Kennedy, Eshkol and Israel's Nuclear Weapons and Security Guarantees

Levi Eshkol tells John F. Kennedy,

if you don't want us to have nuclear weapons,

then give us explicit security guarantees.

If we get attacked, the United States will 100% back us.

In the biggest slap in the face

a US president ever gave to Israel,

John F. Kennedy said, no,

I will not promise to back you 100% if you get attacked.

Informal guarantees we already have

is more than adequate to deter or halt swiftly

any aggression against Israel or its neighbors.

Existing informal security arrangements

already meet Israel's needs

and give a clear warning to the Arabs.

To go any further at this junction

would entail certain positive disadvantages

to you as well as to us.

While I do not wish to overstate this influence,

how much I can protect you,

I'm convinced that we can best advance your interests

as well as ours by maintaining such relationships.

After that, a letter was sent

from the prime minister's office to the State Department

stating that they were not satisfied.

Prime minister felt that although Israel

was a friend of the US,

perhaps more likely to be a friend

who would attract strong sympathy in an emergency,

but not necessarily one for who the US would go to war for.

He felt that a closer US-Israeli relationship

would be needed to undercut the view

that although they have no plans

for manufacturing nuclear weapons now,

it would be short-sighted for Israel

not to move toward that position

where it could exercise the option quickly

if later circumstances required.

Unfortunately, the communication after that

ends because of John F. Kennedy's assassination.

However, before John F. Kennedy died,

he was able to secure a nuclear inspection

for the following January,

and it was discovered the material that Israelis had

for future reactor fuel requirements

was well beyond those needed

for normal research reactor operation.