Israeli Physicist Denies Report About Country’s Nuclear Prowess

The head of Israel’s space agency has dismissed a New York Times report citing Israel as a top member of the world nuclear club.

Professor Yuval Ne’eman, a nuclear expert and former minister of science, said the report was a “rehash” of claims made to a British paper by Mordechai Vanunu, a former employee at the nuclear reactor in Dimona who is now serving a long jail term for security offenses.

Ne’eman, a founder of the right-wing Tehiya party, said the Jan. 10 report could have been motivated by an American desire to exert pressure on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

He said the article might represent a suggestion to Jerusalem and to the new U.S. administration that “Israel is strong enough to be able to make territorial concessions.”

Israel reportedly has as many as 50 to 200 nuclear weapons, according to the Times.

Another Israeli expert cast doubt on a claim made in the Times article that Israel in 1991 bought from Britain supercomputers capable of nuclear weapon and missile design.

“I haven’t seen such computers in Israel, and I don’t know on what basis the claim is made,” said Dr. Shai Feldman, head of the arms limitation project at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.

Feldman believes the administration of Bill Clinton taking office Jan. 20 will continue efforts by President Bush to apply pressure on Israel to sign the non-proliferation treaty.

“But Clinton also wants to guarantee the safety of Israel, and I don’t think real pressure will come until peace is reached in the Middle East,” he said.

Ne’eman, who has stated Israel is not in possession of atomic weapons, said Israel should not sign the treaty “and tie its own hands.

“The treaty is in any case a fiction. Look at (Iraqi dictator) Saddam (Hussein). He signed the pact, but this does not prevent him from getting nuclear material from many other countries.”