The Nixon administration feared Israel would try to acquire nuclear weapons, recently released documents show. A memo from 1969, released Wednesday by the National Archives, reported intelligence that Israel was developing the capacity to produce and deploy nuclear weapons, and suggested it could start a Middle East arms race and lead other states to align themselves with Russia. The memo, authored by Joseph Sisco, an assistant U.S. secretary of state, was sent to William Rogers, Nixon’s secretary of state. Israel has never officially confirmed that it has nuclear weapons.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.