Former US President John F. Kennedy wanted to keep a closer eye on the Israeli occupation's nuclear activity, especially in the Dimona nuclear reactor, in order to prevent the militarization of the Israeli occupation's nuclear program.

The US President wanted to have Jewish physicist Isidor Rabi visit the Dimona nuclear reactor, and he sought to facilitate the visit via communications between Abram Chayes, the legal advisor of the US State Department, and his counterpart Teddy Kollek, though "Tel Aviv" kept kicking the can down the road until JFK's untimely death, which saw the US easing the pressure on "Israel" over its nuclear program.

The revelation highlighted that on May 21, 1963, Chayes said: "I have no doubt that Rabi will come under your wing [...] And no doubt either that you will turn out all the necessary brass bands."

Rabi was a Nobel Laureate in Physics in 1944, with his contributions being overreaching, from the creation of the atomic clock to the MASER system, and laser technology. He was a prominent anti-nuclear weapons activist, even refusing to assist in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.

Washington's bids to send Rabi to "Israel" came after disagreements between Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and JFK as the latter opposed the Israeli occupation's nuclear expansion. 

Friendly approach

The physicist was handpicked due to being a Polish-Hungarian Jew who was in the US diaspora, as well as his close ties to the Israeli settlers, as the Kennedy administration thought it would make it easier for the Israelis to welcome him.

"[Rabi] is an old friend of ours... The President personally is very interested in having some qualified American scientists visit the Dimona reactor... I understand that you have a number of problems in this respect and that you are unwilling to create precedents," Chayes' letter read, highlighting his personal connection with Rabi.

"On the other hand, one way to satisfy the President's interest without causing any very serious difficulties on your side would be to arrange for Rabi to visit the reactor during the course of his trip," he said.

"I make this suggestion on the assumption that you have no substantive objection to US scientists visiting the reactor. That was the impression I got from Ernst Bergman. If I am wrong, of course, the suggestion can, and I am sure will be disregarded," the letter further added.

'No objection'

Nearly a month later, the reply came from Kollek, wherein he said: "The question of the visit to the reactor is being dealt with as you know on the highest level. Certainly, nobody has any objection in principle to an American visitor but again, for a variety of reasons that I would prefer to explain orally, we did not intend to involve Professor Rabi in this just because by chance, he happened to visit here."

The letter was sent at the peak of Israeli-US tensions over the Dimona plant, and this revelation came to add to the trove of documents revealed by the occupation years ago, highlighting the major tensions between JFK and Israeli Prime Minister Ben-Gurion and Levi Eshkol over the Israeli nuclear program.

Documents unveiled earlier showed that an Israeli minister showed that Eshkol and his entourage saw that Kennedy was militarily obstructing the Israeli occupation, highlighting that there were actual fears of Kennedy ordering that paratroopers be dropped on Dimona.

Eshkol and Ben-Gurion both saw the nuclear capabilities of the Israeli occupation as an insurance policy for the Israeli occupation's "existence".

The Dimona nuclear reactor was built in 1958 with help from France, with the United States voicing its anger over the move and Kennedy putting in much effort toward stopping the Israeli occupation from manufacturing nuclear weapons.

Former Israeli occupation Prime Minister Ehud Barak admitted that the occupation possesses nuclear weapons through a post on X he made in April.

"[...] political parties in the West are deeply concerned about the possibility that, if the coup in Israel succeeds, a messianic dictatorship will be established in the heart of the Middle East with nuclear weapons in its possession," Barak said on Twitter.

Long history of nuclear terror 

Various statements have previously come from Israeli officials condemning the occupation as having or aiming to acquire an arsenal of nuclear weapons, such as Ben-Gurion, who addressed Jewish scientists leaving Germany and called on them to put their minds to nuclear research and "do everything possible to provide the desired Jewish state with nuclear weapons."

Over the years, the Israeli occupation has adhered to a policy of ambiguity when it comes to its nuclear sector, but the most prominent thing that was leaked was a team of reporters from The Sunday Times saying in the early 90s that Mordechai Vanunu, the technician who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in "Israel", confirmed through photographs and government documents that the occupation had between 100 and 200 nuclear warheads with a variety of destructive capabilities.

Moreover, the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper in 1977 quoted French General Georges Bouet as saying during an interview with the French Europe 1 radio that the occupation possessed at the time the means required to produce two atomic bombs a year, revealing that it also had 13 atomic bombs, as well as the means to get them to their targets.

Yedioth Ahronoth reported in 1978 that a New York radio station broadcast a classified documented report on September 4, 1974, prepared by the CIA, which stated: "We believe that Israel has indeed manufactured nuclear weapons."

Maariv also confirmed the report on March 2, 1978, citing a high-ranking CIA official, that then-US President Lyndon Johnson was informed that the Israeli occupation had nuclear weapons, and the head of state ordered that the whole thing remains under covers.

The Israeli occupation challenged the UN Security Council Resolution 487 of June 1981, which required "Tel Aviv" to urgently submit all of its nuclear facilities to the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The IAEA on September 18, 2009, issued a resolution calling on the occupation to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, as well as open its facilities to international inspection, though the occupation did not express any interest in the matter.

Again the UN General Assembly invited the occupation to become a treaty member in December 2009 following the UNGA Resolution "Establishment of a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in the Region of the Middle East". Though 167 countries voted in favor of the resolution, the Israeli occupation refused to acquiesce in it. Furthermore, "Tel Aviv" skipped the 2010 nuclear summit in Washington.

The First Committee of the UN General Assembly ruled in October 2022 in an initial 152-5 decision that "Israel" must destroy all its nuclear weapons and submit its nuclear facilities to the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Four countries - Canada, Micronesia, Palau, and the United States - as well as the Israeli entity, opposed Friday's resolution on the "risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East." Another 24 countries abstained, including European Union members.