A group of House Democrats called on the Trump administration to formally acknowledge Israel's "undeclared" nuclear weapons program – a move that would mark a sharp break from decades of bipartisan US policy – according to a report published Tuesday in The Washington Post.
In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, revealed by The Washington Post, more than 24 Democrats led by Representative Joaquin Castro argued that Washington's silence on Israel's nuclear program was indefensible, given the war with Iran and the acute risk of military escalation.
"Not theoretical"
"The risks of miscalculation, escalation, and nuclear use in this environment are not theoretical," they wrote. "Congress has a constitutional responsibility to be fully informed about the nuclear balance in the Middle East, the risk of escalation by any party to this conflict, and the administration's planning and contingencies for such scenarios."
Fears of nuclear escalation are shared by figures within the Trump administration who believe Israel's red lines may not be sufficiently understood, US officials noted. According to the officials, Israel does not acknowledge its nuclear weapons program – built covertly from the late 1950s onward – and has no publicly stated doctrine governing how those weapons would be used.
The letter is the latest sign of a shift in the Democratic Party's posture toward Israel, driven by growing frustration over civilian casualties in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and Lebanon, and high-profile lobbying in Washington in support of the war with Iran.
"No one had dared do this before"
Avner Cohen, an Israeli-American scholar, said the letter broke a taboo that had held for more than half a century. "This is something people had not dared to do before." He told The Washington Post, "Raising these questions publicly is a departure from a bipartisan norm."
The origins of the American-Israeli silence on the nuclear issue lie in an informal agreement between former President Richard Nixon and former Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1969, in which Washington effectively accepted Israel's nuclear ambiguity policy and agreed to shield it from international criticism. "Israel alone could not have maintained this policy for decades without the United States," Cohen said.
The letter's authors argued that the policy now undermines US credibility, given that Washington is seeking to limit the nuclear programs of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE without acknowledging the nuclear weapons program of their neighbor, Israel. "We cannot develop a coherent nonproliferation policy for the Middle East while maintaining an official silence policy regarding the nuclear weapons capabilities of one central party to the ongoing conflict," the lawmakers wrote.
In March, Castro asked the State Department's senior arms control official, Thomas DiNanno, to describe Israel's nuclear weapons capability during a public hearing – and DiNanno refused. "I cannot address that specific question," he said.
Castro, in an interview with The Washington Post, said the United States "should not refuse to disclose this information about a foreign country merely out of courtesy, when so much is at stake for our service members, our economy, and our country."
