Israel’s Prime Minister Makes Rare Allusion To Country’s Nuclear Weapons Arsenal

The first such statement was made in the early 1960s by then junior defense minister Shimon Peres who said that Israel would “certainly not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the region.”

More recently, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared to acknowledge the nuclear capability when he listed Israel, along with the United States, Russia and France, as having nuclear weapons, though he later attempted to row back the comments, which were made on German television.

Benjamin Netanyahu too once referred to Israel as a “nuclear power” during a presentation to his Cabinet, before he corrected himself to say “energy power.”