Shimon Perez tried to sell South Africa's apartheid government the bomb

[Ponce]

The memos and minutes that confirm Israel's nuclear stockpile Documents reveal how then-defence minister Shimon Perez tried to sell South Africa's apartheid government the bomb

Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 May 2010 21.00 BST Article history This is the secret memo by South Africa's military chief of staff, General RF Armstrong, asking for nukes on the Jericho missiles. It has been revealed before, but its context was not understood. We now know the memo was the direct result of a meeting between PW Botha and Shimon Peres, and the basis of Botha's demand for nukes. This memo was uncovered by Peter Liberman and published in the Nonproliferation Review.

• Declassified memo from General RF Armstrong

This cover page of an ISSA (ISrael-South Africa agreement) meeting in Pretoria between Israeli and South African officials on 30 June 1975 establishes the presence of General Armstrong, who wrote the nuclear memo.

• Minutes of third ISSA meeting, 30/6/1975

This document details the another ISSA meeting during which Botha says he needs the 'right payload' and Peres offers it in 'three sizes' (paragraph 10).

• Minutes from further ISSA meeting

This is the cover page and two other pages from the secret military agreement between Israel and South Africa, signed by both Shimon Peres and Botha. Note on page two there is a clause that says the very existence of the agreement is secret. Both men have signed the agreement on page three.

• Israel-South Africa agreement

In this letter, dated 11 November 1974, Peres says Israel and the South African apartheid government share a "common hatred of injustice" and urges a "close identity of aspirations and interests".

• Letter from Shimon Peres, 11/11/1974

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-documents

[Heavyweight]

That's proof positive that Israel has nukes.

The chicanery can now end. Israel has nukes.

[Large Sarge]

I guess this might be a warning shot to the world

with 9/11 opening up

and now this latest korean ship thing pointing towards Israel

well, they got to tell everyone "you better not mess with us"

Israel is the only terror state in the middle east, and likely the only real one in the world

all these other nations look like stupid cattle (goy) in comparison to Israel and her level of deception, secrecy, cleverness and ruthlessness.

[Hatha Sunahara]

Why does South Africa need nukes? Do they have a lot of external enemies? As far as I know, at that time--when PW Botha was the leader, their only enemies were the poor underclass of blacks--who were domestic enemies of the S. African elite. Were they planning to nuke Soweto?

I presume the three sizes Peres offered them were small, medium and large. And I wonder why the excitement about proof that Israel has nukes. How long has it been since hearing anyone deny that Israel has nukes. The Israelis don't deny it, nor do they confirm it. This ambiguity makes people think twice about who they are dealing with. And didn't Vanunu take pictures of bomb parts that were published in some British newspaper? How much ambiguity can the Israelis maintain after that? What I'd like to know is how small have the Israelis managed to make their nukes? And how much more do they know about nukes than the other nuclear powers? And who else have they sold them to? Apparently controlling all the money in the world isn't enough. They need nuclear weapons. To defend themselves. And for other mischief? The elites of the world are friends and admirers of Israel who shows them how to survive in a hostle world.

Hatha

[Ponce]

Up to this day I am still wondering if the state of Israel really have nukes, remember the way that the grown ups used to scared you with the "buggie man" when you were a kid?........I for one would be more scare if they were to show me the bomb.

Because of the above, as far as I am concern, that's the real reason as to why they don't want anyone else in the Middle East to have nukes.

[Large Sarge]

JFK gave his life trying to stop Israel from getting nukes

see "final Judgement" by Michael Collins Piper

[keehah]

Missed this the first time round.

Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons
Exclusive: Secret apartheid-era papers give first official evidence of Israeli nuclear weapons (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-weapons)

Chris McGreal in Washington The Guardian, Monday 24 May 2010

Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons.

The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret.

The documents, uncovered by an American academic, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, in research for a book on the close relationship between the two countries, provide evidence that Israel has nuclear weapons despite its policy of "ambiguity" in neither confirming nor denying their existence.

The Israeli authorities tried to stop South Africa's post-apartheid government declassifying the documents at Polakow-Suransky's request and the revelations will be an embarrassment, particularly as this week's nuclear non-proliferation talks in New York focus on the Middle East.

They will also undermine Israel's attempts to suggest that, if it has nuclear weapons, it is a "responsible" power that would not misuse them, whereas countries such as Iran cannot be trusted.

A spokeswoman for Peres today said the report was baseless and there were "never any negotiations" between the two countries. She did not comment on the authenticity of the documents.

South African documents show that the apartheid-era military wanted the missiles as a deterrent and for potential strikes against neighbouring states.

The documents show both sides met on 31 March 1975. Polakow-Suransky writes in his book published in the US this week, The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's secret alliance with apartheid South Africa. At the talks Israeli officials "formally offered to sell South Africa some of the nuclear-capable Jericho missiles in its arsenal".

Among those attending the meeting was the South African military chief of staff, Lieutenant General RF Armstrong. He immediately drew up a memo in which he laid out the benefits of South Africa obtaining the Jericho missiles but only if they were fitted with nuclear weapons.

The memo, marked "top secret" and dated the same day as the meeting with the Israelis, has previously been revealed but its context was not fully understood because it was not known to be directly linked to the Israeli offer on the same day and that it was the basis for a direct request to Israel. In it, Armstrong writes: "In considering the merits of a weapon system such as the one being offered, certain assumptions have been made: a) That the missiles will be armed with nuclear warheads manufactured in RSA (Republic of South Africa) or acquired elsewhere."

But South Africa was years from being able to build atomic weapons. A little more than two months later, on 4 June, Peres and Botha met in Zurich. By then the Jericho project had the codename Chalet.

The top secret minutes of the meeting record that: "Minister Botha expressed interest in a limited number of units of Chalet subject to the correct payload being available." The document then records: "Minister Peres said the correct payload was available in three sizes. Minister Botha expressed his appreciation and said that he would ask for advice." The "three sizes" are believed to refer to the conventional, chemical and nuclear weapons.

The use of a euphemism, the "correct payload", reflects Israeli sensitivity over the nuclear issue and would not have been used had it been referring to conventional weapons. It can also only have meant nuclear warheads as Armstrong's memorandum makes clear South Africa was interested in the Jericho missiles solely as a means of delivering nuclear weapons.

In addition, the only payload the South Africans would have needed to obtain from Israel was nuclear. The South Africans were capable of putting together other warheads.

Botha did not go ahead with the deal in part because of the cost. In addition, any deal would have to have had final approval by Israel's prime minister and it is uncertain it would have been forthcoming.

South Africa eventually built its own nuclear bombs, albeit possibly with Israeli assistance. But the collaboration on military technology only grew over the following years. South Africa also provided much of the yellowcake uranium that Israel required to develop its weapons.

The documents confirm accounts by a former South African naval commander, Dieter Gerhardt – jailed in 1983 for spying for the Soviet Union. After his release with the collapse of apartheid, Gerhardt said there was an agreement between Israel and South Africa called Chalet which involved an offer by the Jewish state to arm eight Jericho missiles with "special warheads". Gerhardt said these were atomic bombs. But until now there has been no documentary evidence of the offer.

Some weeks before Peres made his offer of nuclear warheads to Botha, the two defence ministers signed a covert agreement governing the military alliance known as Secment. It was so secret that it included a denial of its own existence: "It is hereby expressly agreed that the very existence of this agreement... shall be secret and shall not be disclosed by either party".

The agreement also said that neither party could unilaterally renounce it.

The existence of Israel's nuclear weapons programme was revealed by Mordechai Vanunu to the Sunday Times in 1986. He provided photographs taken inside the Dimona nuclear site and gave detailed descriptions of the processes involved in producing part of the nuclear material but provided no written documentation.

Documents seized by Iranian students from the US embassy in Tehran after the 1979 revolution revealed the Shah expressed an interest to Israel in developing nuclear arms. But the South African documents offer confirmation Israel was in a position to arm Jericho missiles with nuclear warheads.

Israel pressured the present South African government not to declassify documents obtained by Polakow-Suransky. "The Israeli defence ministry tried to block my access to the Secment agreement on the grounds it was sensitive material, especially the signature and the date," he said. "The South Africans didn't seem to care; they blacked out a few lines and handed it over to me. The ANC government is not so worried about protecting the dirty laundry of the apartheid regime's old allies."

[Neuro]

The ANC government is not so worried about protecting the dirty laundry of the apartheid regime's old allies."Really?! South Africa may not have an ANC government much longer then... My guess is that Israel don't really care that much about this any longer. Cause no one else cares, everyone knows that Israel has nukes, it is just that you can't say it officially...