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Iran and Israel have continued to trade deadly blows into the weekend, following an unprecedented Israeli attack on Friday aimed at destroying Tehran’s nuclear program and decapitating its military leadership.

Iran launched multiple waves of missiles and drones toward Israel throughout the day on Saturday. Simultaneously, Israel undertook new airstrikes against Iranian targets, with Iran claiming that Israel set a critical natural gas field ablaze, as well as an oil depot.

The skies above Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem were lit up Saturday by incoming missiles, drones, interceptor rockets and explosions. Both sides have threatened more to come.

Israel’s military and intelligence operation against Iran early Friday was unprecedented in scale and scope, prompting Iran to vow a “crushing response” as the escalating conflict risks pulling the Middle East into a wider war.

Here’s what you need to know.

Israel and Iran trade missile attacks

Shortly before sunrise in Iran on Friday, Israel launched the first strikes of its operation against the regime’s nuclear program.

That operation, called “Rising Lion,” had two prongs: Heavy airstrikes against at least one of Iran’s enrichment sites, and more targeted strikes in Tehran to decapitate the regime’s military leadership. It aimed to halt what Israel said was Tehran’s rapid progress in developing nuclear weapons.

At a United Nations Security Council meeting on Friday, Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani said the Israeli strikes had killed at least 78 people and injured more than 320, mostly civilians.

Israel’s attack came after years of threats and days of heightened speculation – but without the United States’ blessing. The administration of US President Donald Trump stressed that Israel acted unilaterally and that Washington was “not involved.”

Iran hit back on Friday evening, launching what state media said were “hundreds” of ballistic missiles as part of a “crushing response.” Iran claimed that it struck Israeli military-industrial centers used for producing missiles and other military equipment.

Israeli security forces inspect destroyed houses that were struck by a missile fired from Iran, in Rishon Lezion, Israel on June 14, 2025. Ohad Zwigenberg/AP

But Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Iran had “crossed red lines” by firing missiles at civilian population centers and vowed it would pay a “very heavy price.”

At least three people were killed in Israel and dozens injured by Iranian strikes, Israeli authorities said.

Overnight into Saturday, Israel and Iran continued to trade deadly missile attacks, unleashing destruction in both countries and forcing residents to flee to underground shelters. In Israel, emergency crews launched search and rescue efforts on Saturday, as people remained trapped under destroyed homes and buildings, while explosions were heard in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The Israeli Air Force said it carried out a new wave of strikes hitting defense arrays in Tehran overnight and the Israeli military said it struck two Iranian air force bases used for missile and drone operations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s operation would continue “for as many days as it takes” to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat. Tehran, which insists its nuclear program is peaceful, says it has “no option but to respond.”

A firefighter calls out his colleagues at the scene of an explosion in a residential compound in northern Tehran, Iran, on June 13, 2025. Vahid Salemi/AP

Where and when did Israel strike?

Iran has not seen such a widespread assault in a single day since the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. Israel targeted locations all across the capital city, Tehran, and around the country.

The first explosions tore through Tehran at around 3.30 a.m. Friday (8 p.m. ET Thursday). Videos geolocated by CNN showed flames and smoke billowing from buildings across the city.

Residents of Tehran were blindsided. Many did not expect Israel to strike so swiftly. “I didn’t know what was happening. It was really scary,” a 17-year-old Iranian told CNN, requesting anonymity due to safety concerns.

Shortly after explosions rocked Tehran, Israel struck elsewhere in the country. Israel’s military said it used jets to strike “dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in different areas of Iran.”

An explosion was reported at Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) south of Tehran.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirmed that Natanz had been hit, but said it had not observed an increase in radiation levels in the area. Israel later claimed that it had hit a second nuclear facility in Isfahan.

On Saturday, flames erupted at Iran’s South Pars gas field – the world’s largest natural gas field – according to reports in Iranian state media.

Video footage circulating on social media and geolocated by CNN shows a large blaze and plumes of smoke rising from the gas field in Iran’s southern Bushehr province.

The oil field was hit by an Israeli drone strike, according to the Iranian state media reports.

Later, Iranian state media reported that an Israeli strike hit the Shahran oil depot and a separate fuel tank near Tehran, causing a large fire.

What did Israel say?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a statement in Tel Aviv, Israel, on the Iran attacks. GPO

Israel will “strike every target” of Iran’s regime, Netanyahu said in a video address on Saturday as his country and Iran continued to trade blows.

In the “very near future, you will see Israeli planes, the Israeli Air Force, our brave pilots, above the skies of Tehran,” Netanyahu said.

“We will strike every site and every target of the Ayatollah’s regime,” he warned.

Netanyahu had earlier said Israel would continue its operation for as long as it takes “to remove these threats.”

Netanyahu claimed that Iran had in recent years produced enough highly enriched uranium for nine nuclear weapons.

“Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year, it could be within a few months,” he said. “This is a clear and present danger to Israel’s survival.”

“Tehran is burning,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz posted to X on Saturday accompanying a video showing a large blaze near the Iranian city.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also said it had destroyed Iran’s ballistic missile launch sites and stockpiles.

Addressing the Iranian people directly in a video released Friday night local time, Netanyahu warned “more is on the way,” urging civilians to “stand up and let your voices be heard.”

He said Israel’s fight is not against them but against the Iranian government.

Who did Israel kill?

Several of the most important men in Iran’s military and its nuclear program were killed in Israel’s strikes.

Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, head of the secretive Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was the highest-profile of those killed.

Israel also said it killed Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces; Ali Shamkhani, a close aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; and Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s air force.

Nine scientists and experts involved in Iran’s nuclear program were also killed, Israel’s military said. This includes Ali Bakhouei Karimi, Mansour Asgari, and Saeed Barji — experts in mechanics, physics and materials engineers respectively, the IDF said.

How has the US responded?

The Trump administration – which has been pursuing a diplomatic path with Iran in recent weeks – sought to distance itself from Israel’s attack.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel’s actions were “unilateral.” Although Israel notified the US ahead of its strikes, Rubio said the US was “not involved” in the attack.

“Our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” he added. Earlier this week, the US had made efforts to arrange the departure of non-essential personnel from various countries in the Middle East, leading to speculation that an Israeli attack on Iran could be imminent.

People look at a crater in the ground after a missile strike in Herzliya, Israel, on Tuesday, June 17. Amir Levy/Getty Images Iranian pilgrims who were rerouted through Iraq sit inside a bus at the Arar border crossing on Tuesday. They were unable to fly home because of the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel. Ahmed Saad/Reuters Men inspect damage at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Bnei Brak, Israel, on Monday, June 16. John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images A mourner touches the shrouded body of a loved one who was killed in Israeli strikes in the Iranian city of Tabriz on Monday. Matin Hashemi/AP This photo, taken with a drone, shows damaged residential homes in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday. Moshe Mizrahi/Reuters Israeli civil defense and emergency responders conduct nighttime search-and-rescue operations after an Iranian missile strike in Kiryat Gat, Israel, on Sunday, June 15. Tsafrir Abayov/Anadolu/Getty Images A wounded man looks at his shirt following Israeli strikes in Tehran, Iran. Amir Kholousi/WANA/Reuters Traffic builds as people flee Tehran on Sunday. Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images Missiles launched from Iran are intercepted near Ashkelon, Israel, on Sunday. Amir Cohen/Reuters People take shelter at the side of a highway near Sha’ar HaGai, Israel, as sirens sound on Sunday. Jamal Awad/Reuters Flames rise from an oil storage facility in Tehran after it was struck by an Israeli missile on Sunday. Vahid Salemi/AP A Jewish man prays as he takes shelter in Jerusalem on Saturday, June 14. Maya Alleruzzo/AP Rescue personnel work in Rishon LeZion, Israel, on Saturday. Ammar Awad/Reuters An explosion is seen in Tel Aviv on Friday, June 13. Tomer Neuberg/AP Police officers patrol the streets in Tel Aviv following an airstrike on Friday. Ilia Yefimovich/Picture-Alliance/DPA/AP Firefighters inspect the aftermath of an Iranian strike in Ramat Gan, Israel, on Friday. Ilia Yefimovich/Picture-Alliance/DPA/AP Families shelter in bunkers in Ashkelon, Israel, on Friday. Tsafrir Abayov/Anadolu/Getty Images People inspect the aftermath of a strike in Ramat Gan, Israel. Ilia Yefimovich/Picture-Alliance/DPA/AP Israel’s Iron Dome defense system is used to intercept missiles over Tel Aviv as Iran began retaliatory strikes on Friday night. Leo Correa/AP A police officer walks past a destroyed residential building after Israeli strikes in Tehran on Friday. Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/AP Damage is seen inside a building in Tehran on Friday. SABA/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images Thousands gather in Tehran’s Enqelab Square to protest Israel’s attack on Friday. Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu/Getty Images Residential buildings are damaged in Tehran. SABA/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images A patient is tended to inside the sheltered parking facility of the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv. The country was bracing for Iran’s retaliation. Itai Ron/Reuters People inspect a destroyed vehicle in Tehran. Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Images Emergency workers inspect a residential complex that was damaged in Tehran. Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Images Men stand outside a destroyed residential building in Tehran on Friday. Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Images A street in Jerusalem is empty Friday amid fears of a retaliatory attack. John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images Worshippers chant slogans as they attend Friday prayers at Tehran University. Vahid Salemi/AP The Western Wall in Jerusalem stands nearly empty Friday as Israel’s Home Front Command banned public gatherings. Mahmoud Illean/AP A man loads groceries in the back of his car as he stocks up with supplies in Tel Aviv on Friday. Maya Levin/AFP/Getty Images People look at damage in Tehran on Friday. Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times/Redux A girl in Hadera, Israel, runs to a bomb shelter on Friday. Ariel Schalit/AP A loader works at the scene of a destroyed residential building in Tehran on Friday. Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Images People look out at the skyline in Tehran after the airstrikes early on Friday. Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times/Redux Debris and rubble are seen in Tehran after the Israeli attack on Friday. Meghdad Madadi/Tasnim News/AFP/Getty Images A child is carried through a street in Tehran after hearing explosions early on Friday. Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times/Redux Smoke rises after Israel’s wave of airstrikes on Tehran. SAN/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The escalating conflict between Israel and Iran Prev Next

Nonetheless, the US helped Israel intercept Iranian missiles on Friday evening, two Israeli sources have told CNN. Other countries in the region also supported Israeli air defenses, one source said.

President Trump urged Iran to agree to a new nuclear deal “before there is nothing left,” suggesting that follow-up Israeli attacks on the country would be “even more brutal.”

Trump said he had given Iran “chance after chance” to make a deal. “JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” he wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.

What happened to the last Iran nuclear deal?

Under a 2015 nuclear deal struck by former US President Barack Obama, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to drastically limit its number of centrifuges and cap uranium enrichment at levels far below those required to make weapons, in exchange for sanctions relief.

But during his first term as president in 2018, Trump withdrew from the JCPOA, saying the “rotten structure” of the agreement was not enough to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb. He ramped up sanctions on Iran and threatened to sanction any country that helped the regime to obtain nuclear weapons.

In his second term, Trump has revived efforts to strike a new nuclear deal with Iran. Just hours before Israel’s strikes, the president cautioned Israel against launching an attack while US-Iran talks are ongoing.

“As long as I think there is an agreement, I don’t want them going in because that would blow it. Might help it, actually, but also could blow it,” Trump said.

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.

Iran’s intelligence minister has said the country holds a vast trove of classified Israeli documents and plans to release them soon. The files detail Israel’s nuclear program, foreign relations, and defense capabilities, according to state media.

The Israeli government has not commented on the claim, which comes amid rising tensions between the two countries and renewed scrutiny of Iran’s own nuclear activities.

Newsweek has reached out to the Iranian and Israeli foreign ministries for comment.

Why It Matters

The disclosure adds a new layer of uncertainty to a region already on edge. Any release of secret Israeli nuclear data could destabilize diplomatic relations, provoke military retaliation, or undermine U.S.-led negotiations with Tehran. The episode also highlights the deepening mistrust between Iran and the West over nuclear ambitions, espionage, and covert operations.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib attends the inauguration ceremony of the 6th term of the Assembly of Experts in Tehran, Iran, May 21, 2024. Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib attends the inauguration ceremony of the 6th term of the Assembly of Experts in Tehran, Iran, May 21, 2024. Vahid Salemi/AP Photo

What To Know

Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib said Tehran had acquired thousands of Israeli documents, describing them as a “treasure trove” capable of strengthening Iran’s strategic position. He said the materials had been transferred under heavy secrecy to secure locations in Iran and would be published “soon.”

“Talking of thousands of documents would be an understatement,” Khatib said, adding that the transfer required “confidential” methods and a period of “media silence,” according to Iran’s state broadcaster.

Cyber Attacks and Espionage

Iran has not revealed how it obtained the documents it says it has or if they relate to the 2023 cyberattack on an Israeli nuclear center. State media called the transfer part of a wider intelligence campaign, highlighting its secrecy and complexity. Recent arrests of Israelis accused of spying for Tehran, though not officially linked, have raised speculation of a connection.

Meanwhile, a social media account closely linked to Iran’s armed forces also posted a message in Hebrew shortly after the announcement, stating: “We know all your secrets now.” The post appeared to signal a coordinated effort to amplify Tehran’s claims and increase psychological pressure on Israeli officials.

אנחנו יודעים את כל הסודות שלך עכשיו. — Iran Military (@IRIran_Military) June 8, 2025

Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a leading expert on Middle East geopolitics, told Newsweek that “an intelligence war has been ongoing between Israel and Iran,” and that based on recent arrests in Israel, “it does appear as if Tehran has succeeded in recruiting a large number of informants in Israel.” He added, “Whether the documents Tehran claims it has obtained come from those recruits and whether they contain important revelations, remains to be seen.”

Regional Conflict

The announcement is the latest salvo in a protracted campaign of hostilities between Iran and Israel. Iran has blamed Israel for assassinating its nuclear scientists, while Israel accuses Tehran of arming regional militias targeting Israeli assets. Last year, the two exchanged limited strikes after Israel bombed Iran’s consulate in Damascus. Though escalation was avoided, tensions remain high.

Many rockets, fired from Iran, are seen over Jerusalem from Hebron, West Bank on October 01, 2024. The Israeli army announced that missiles were fired from Iran towards Israel and sirens were heard across the… Many rockets, fired from Iran, are seen over Jerusalem from Hebron, West Bank on October 01, 2024. The Israeli army announced that missiles were fired from Iran towards Israel and sirens were heard across the country, especially in Tel Aviv. More Wisam Hashlamoun/Getty Images

Nuclear Diplomacy

Those tensions now intersect with renewed international scrutiny of Iran’s nuclear program. Just as Tehran threatens to expose Israeli secrets, a recent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) accused Iran of carrying out undeclared nuclear activities. While Iran maintains its ambitions are peaceful, the U.S. has renewed calls for curbs on uranium enrichment and greater transparency.

Negotiations between Washington and Tehran remain stalled, with Iran saying the latest U.S. proposal does not include the lifting of sanctions—a core demand for Tehran—signaling a potential deadlock. Iran is expected to submit a counteroffer soon.

What People Are Saying

Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Newsweek: “Tehran may seek to shed a spotlight on Israel’s undeclared nuclear weapons program. But unlike Iran, Israel is not a party to the NPT and, as a result, has never committed legally to refrain from building nuclear weapons.”

Esmail Khatib, Iranian Intelligence Minister, said, “The transfer of this treasure trove was time-consuming and required security measures… the documents should be unveiled soon.”

What Happens Next

Any publication of Israeli documents could escalate diplomatic tensions and reshape regional dynamics—diverting international scrutiny just as nuclear negotiations reach a fragile stage. The IAEA Board of Governors is expected to censure Iran over its nuclear program later this week. Meanwhile, Iran is preparing a counter-proposal after rejecting the U.S. nuclear offer, prompting President Donald Trump to caution that “time is running out.”

By the time Israeli aircraft were streaking across the sky toward nuclear and military sites in Iran on Friday, secret commando teams, swarms of armed drones and explosives concealed in ordinary vehicles were emerging from hiding deep inside Iran and making their way toward slumbering targets. Among the targets were military commanders, nuclear scientists and leaders of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps — many of them “still in their beds, in their homes,” according to a senior Israeli security official with direct knowledge of the operation who provided previously unpublished details to The Washington Post.

By daybreak, members of the inner circle of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and key figures in the country’s nuclear brain trust were dead, in some cases apparent casualties of explosives-packed drones or other devices that blew holes in the sides of apartment high-rises and other structures in central Tehran, according to Israeli and Western security officials, as well as regime statements on known casualties.

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An operation dubbed “Rising Lion” by the Israeli government relied on the activation of clandestine intelligence teams, pre-positioned weapons caches and other capabilities that had lain dormant inside Iranian territory for weeks or even months, officials said.

The targeted killings were part of a “first wave” in the attack plan designed to kill “decision-makers” in the Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran’s regime while they “were in places that we knew about,” the senior Israeli security official said. Israeli officials, who have an incentive to tout the success of the strikes, and others spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the secrecy of the operation, which expanded in the ensuing hours to include missile and airstrikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites.

Among those killed in the opening phase were Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, commander of Iran’s military; Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s main paramilitary force; and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran.

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The killings were part of a multistage operation led by Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence service, that had accelerated in recent months but was “long in the making and required bold and sophisticated planning” as well as “tactical deception,” a second senior Israeli security official said.

The final stages of preparation unfolded even amid revived U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran, and they involved Mossad agents enlisted to “smuggle large quantities of special weaponry into Iran, deploy it throughout the country, and launch it toward designated targets,” the second official said.

The strategic impact of the operation will take days or weeks to assess, said Western security officials, who noted that it is too early to tell whether the attack would amount to more than a temporary setback in Iran’s alleged efforts to acquire nuclear weapons capabilities. Iranian officials have denied pursuing a nuclear weapon, and they say their nuclear program is solely for peaceful ends.

The simultaneous killings of so many key leadership figures appeared to expose a startling inability by Iran to protect leaders of its military and scientific establishments from an adversary that has been assumed to be targeting those individuals for years.

Israeli officials warned Friday that the decapitation campaign is poised to continue. The first security official said that Mossad had relayed messages to second-tier commanders and regime officials likely to be tapped to replace those killed.

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“Some of them received a letter under the door; some received a phone call; some received a call on the number of their spouses,” the official said of messages meant to make clear that “we know where they are and that we have access to them.”

President Donald Trump seemed to amplify that warning in a post on social media Friday. “They’re all DEAD now,” he said of the regime figures killed in the Israeli attacks. He urged Iran to reach a deal to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons before follow-on attacks that “will only get worse.”

The “elimination operations,” as one Israeli official described the initial wave of attacks Friday, were one aspect of Mossad’s role in the Rising Lion operation, officials said. The agency worked “shoulder to shoulder for years” with the Israel Defense Forces to assemble dossiers on key Iranian leadership figures, including locations of bunkers and residences.

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More recently, Mossad commando units began deploying “precision-guided weapons systems in open areas” near Iran’s surface-to-air missile batteries to take out antiaircraft capabilities in the early hours of the strikes, the second Israeli security official said.

Mossad also established “a base of explosive drones” deep inside Iran well before the attack, weapons that were activated and aimed at ground-to-ground missile launch locations at Iran’s Esfajabad base near Tehran, the official said. The attack came just weeks after Ukraine carried out a similar operation, using armed drones hidden in shipping containers in strikes that stunned the Kremlin and destroyed Russian military aircraft on unprotected airstrips.

To neutralize other air defenses that might be used against Israeli jets, Mossad “secretly deployed strike systems and advanced technologies on vehicles,” an apparent reference to hidden explosives that could be remotely detonated to damage and disrupt air defense systems.

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The first Israeli security official provided some additional detail about this aspect of the operation, indicating that it targeted trucks used to move Iranian missiles to launch sites. “For every truck you eliminate, you eliminate four missiles,” the official said.

The killings and military strikes Friday add to an already substantial toll on Iran and its proxies and allies over the past year, including an elaborate operation in Beirut last fall in which hundreds of Hezbollah operatives were killed or maimed when pagers that the militant group had purchased for operatives — and had been rigged with explosives by Israel — exploded.

Israeli air force photo

by ROBERT BECKHUSEN

Israel’s nuclear weapons program is one of the biggest open secrets in the world. Now we know a little more about the angst inside the Pentagon in the late 1960s, as Israel was months away from activating its nuclear deterrent.

That’s all according to documents obtained by the non-profit National Security Archive at George Washington University. In 2006, the researchers revealed the Nixon administration’s wrangling over what to do about Israel’s nuclear weapons program. But one batch of documents in 2014 revealed new details about the debate—and the stark warnings from Pentagon officials about the dangers of Israeli nukes.

One of the more severe warnings came from then-Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard. On July 14, 1969, Packard sent a memo to Melvin Laird—the secretary of defense—laying down what to discuss with the president. The memo reflected a “general consensus” among Pentagon officials and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that Israel’s weapons program would destabilize the region.

“The choices of decision before the president is to lean on the Israelis or not to lean on them,” Packard wrote. “In my opinion, not to lean on them would, in affect, involve us in a conspiracy with Israel which would leave matters dangerous to our security in their hands.”

Israel remains highly secretive about its nuclear weapons—which are believed to number in the several hundreds. In the late 1960s, the secretive nature of the program led to lots of uncertainty in Washington about how far Israel had made it, and whether other Middle Eastern states knew about the program.

The officials recommended seeking an agreement with Israel not to deploy Jericho I ballistic missiles—which could plausibly be used for non-nuclear weapons, but were too impractical and expensive to build unless Israel intended to build nukes.

The memo also recommended delaying the delivery of McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom fighters to the Israel air force—the “lean” option to convince Israel to back off. But the U.S. was also in another dilemma. The Pentagon was also concerned the Israelis didn’t have the training to properly maintain the fighters if Washington delivered them.

That meant in the case of a war, the U.S. would have to rush technicians to Israel to keep its American-supplied fighters in the air—“the worst possible political time for us to do so,” the memo stated. But if the U.S. delayed delivery for too long, reporters might find out and start asking uncomfortable questions about the reasons.

Israel’s Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona. Red circle indicates plutonium separation facility for nuclear weapons production. Google Earth/Digital Globe photo

In another memo, Paul Warnke—the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs—described Israel’s weapons program as constituting “the single most dangerous phenomenon in an area dangerous enough without nuclear weapons.”

But Warnke was skeptical that cancelling the fighter deal would make much progress. Israel was only a few months away from finishing a nuclear weapon, and “would be unable and unwilling to put the genie back in the bottle.”

Ultimately, Pres. Richard Nixon didn’t cancel the fighter deal, and Israel went ahead and built the undeclared nuclear arsenal that exists today. The National Security Archives notes that the exact reasons why Nixon did not follow the advice of his Pentagon advisers is unclear. If documents exist showing why, the government hasn’t released them.

It could be because of influence from the State Department, whose officials feared that public knowledge of Israeli nukes would scuttle peace negotiations. The diplomats favored a softer line and a “graduated approach” that would “begin with essentially persuasive tactics,” one State Department memo explained.

There were also worried how the Soviet Union would react. If the open-secret became totally open, the State Department feared the Arab states would demand the Soviet Union supply them with nuclear material. That’s something Moscow would have been reluctant to oblige, but it may have been forced to do it anyways.

The Soviet Union put high priority on maintaining good relations with its Middle East allies. A cold—but preferable—option would be to publicly pretend Israel’s weapons program didn’t exist. And that’s what it appeared the U.S. did.

But what’s perhaps most interesting is the blunt and caustic attitudes from the Americans.

“Israel wants nuclear weapons, as was both explicit and implicit in our conversations with [Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Yitzhak] Rabin, for two reasons: first, to deter the Arabs from striking Israel, and second, if deterrence fails and Israel were about to be overrun, to destroy the Arabs in a nuclear Armageddon,” the State Department memo noted.

But as the memo also stated, it’s not possible to deter an irregular adversary, which Israel’s enemies were fast becoming. Aside from provoking Israel’s rivals from developing nuclear weapons on their own—nuclear programs would later proceed to various degrees in Syria, Iraq and Iran—it would provoke a shift from conventional to unconventional warfare Israel would be hard-pressed to deter over the long term.

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