Yair Lapid, Israel’s Prime Minister just made an erratic allusion to the broadly suspected nuclear arsenal of the country during his speech on Monday.
At Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission
Lapid made a reference to the country’s offensive and defensive capabilities, while making a speech at an event to address an amendment of leadership at Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission. He also referred to the country’s “other capabilities” – which was understood as an allusion to the nuclear weapons.
Israel is broadly believed to own hundreds of nuclear weapons, having developed the technology during 1960s. In contrary to most assumed atomic powers, Israel hasn’t even declared possession formally.
Israel’s Policy
Israel has never officially declared possession of nuclear weapons. Instead, the country pursues a policy that it names ‘opacity’ – it means when pushed, Israeli leaders have preferred to make only ambiguous or oblique reference to the nukes.
Earlier Made References to Israel Being Nuclear Power
In the early 1960s, the first such speech was made by the junior defense minister of that time, Shimon Peres, who stated that the country would surely not be the first one to come up with nuclear weapons in the region.
Later on, Ehud Olmert, former Prime Minister, seemed to acknowledge the atomic competence when he listed the country, along with the US, France and Russia, as possessing nuclear weapons, although he later tried to revert the remarks, which were already aired on German television.
Benjamin Netanyahu also once made a reference to Israel being a “nuclear power” while he was making a presentation to the Cabinet, and then he immediately corrected himself to state “energy power.”