"Israel" built its first nuclear bomb shortly after the 1967 Six Day war, according to "Israeli" press reports on a book to be published soon in the United States. In the book "Israel and the Bomb," researcher Avner Cohen said he pinpointed the moment Israel entered the nuclear weapons club by studying thousands of "Israeli" and US government documents and interviewing hundreds of people involved in "Israel's" nuclear program."

"Israel" has never acknowledged having an atomic arsenal but experts estimate the Jewish state has built between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons in a program launched with French assistance in the 1950s. Mark Heller of Tel Aviv's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies said there is no general consensus on when "Israel" built its first bomb except that it is believed to have occurred before the 1973 Arab-"Israeli" war." "Most accounts of the 1973 war include references to concerns, particularly in the United States, that "Israel" may have been preparing to use nuclear weapons" after severe setbacks at the start of the war, Heller said. He said US President Richard Nixon's decision to airlift weapons to "Israel" during the war was widely seen as designed to avoid "Israel" using its nuclear bomb in desperation."

"According to Cohen's book, it was also Nixon who convinced then-prime minister Golda Meir to maintain a policy of deliberate ambiguity about "Israel's" nuclear capability."