REVEALED: Israel’s 1967 Plan To Nuke Egypt

Politico reports:

On Monday, the 50th anniversary of the start of the 1967 war, the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project (NPIHP) at the Woodrow Wilson Center’s History and Public Policy Program is releasing historical testimonies and documents—some never before published—that highlight the nuclear dimension of the crisis, and reveal of the existence of a crash effort to assemble Israel’s first nuclear device.

In May 1967, facing an unprecedented existential threat from Egypt and its other neighbors, Israel assembled for the first time two or three rudimentary nuclear explosives. And some in the Israeli government and military drew up a plan to detonate the nukes in the Egyptian desert—in a massive demonstration of Israeli power.

Of course, Israel never went through with it. The plan—called Operation Shimshon—was intended as a last resort. As it happened, Israel destroyed the Egyptian Air Force on the ground in 3 hours, and Shimshon was never spoken of again, just another victim of Israel’s nuclear taboo—until now.

Israel’s foreign ministry has declined to comment on the revelation. There’s much more about the plan at the link.