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TIME'S sources further believe that the U.S. learned about the bombs as a result of a reconnaissance sweep of the Middle East by a spy plane. Some high officials in Washington insist that the U.S. had no knowledge of the bombs and deny that they were a factor in the alert. The plane was spotted by Israeli air defenses and two Phantom jets scrambled to intercept it. "I have it on my radar," the Israeli pilot radioed. "It is an [SR-71] American Blackbird." Back to him came a direct order from a high-ranking Israeli Air Force commander: "Down at." The SR-71, flying effortlessly at 85,000 ft., easily outclimbed and outdistanced the Israelis and returned to its base with significant readings.
The origins of the nuclear bomb project date back to Israel's birth. Atomic scientists were encouraged by Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first President and a chemist of international repute. Israeli nuclear experts produced low-grade uranium from phosphate in the Negev and developed an efficient technique for producing heavy water. In 1953, Israel, in exchange for these processes, was allowed to study France's nuclear program and participate in its Sahara tests. Four years later, France gave Israel its first nuclear reactor. Later, the French also helped with the design of Israel's Dimona Atomic Research Community in the Negev. which Premier David Ben-Gurion called nothing but a "textile factory."
The Dimona nuclear reactor went into operation in 1964. Meanwhile, an intense secret debate had begun within Israel about whether the government should also build a separation plant to produce the fissionable material necessary for an Abomb. Ben-Gurion and Shimon Peres, then Deputy Defense Minister and currently Israel's Defense Minister, favored doing so. Others, including Mrs. Meir and Yigal Allon, now Israel's Foreign Minister, initially opposed the project. So did Ben-Gurion's successor as Premier, Levi Eshkol. The Israeli equivalent of the U.S. National Security Council vetoed the separation-plant project in early 1968. Shortly afterward, Eshkol discovered that Dayan —in the wake of the 1967 Six-Day War —had secretly ordered the start of construction on an S.P. Eshkol and his advisers felt that they could only rubber-stamp a project already under way.
Dayan believes that a nuclear capability is essential to Israel. "Israel has no choice," he recently told TIME Correspondent Marlin Levin. "With our manpower we cannot physically, financially or economically go on acquiring more and more tanks and more and more planes. Before long you will have all of us maintaining and oiling the tanks."
Some Western intelligence experts believe that Israel conducted an underground nuclear test in the Negev in 1963, and that preparation of nuclear material for assembly into A-bombs began soon thereafter. The S.P. was completed in 1969, but Israel did not immediately begin manufacturing bombs. Instead, Israeli scientists