Final_Judgment

[50] Final Judgment 111
own views in a letter to the Israeli ambassador in Washington, intended to
be circulated among Jewish American leaders, in which he stated: 'Israel will
regard this plan as a more serious danger to her existence than all the threats
of the Arab dictators and Kings, than all the Arab armies, than all of
Nasser's missiles and his Soviet MIGs . . . Israel will fight against this
implementation down to the last man." 120
Clearly, then, by this point, Ben-Gurion perceived the American
president's policies to be a very threat to Israel's survival. Ben-Gurion was
vowing to fight, as we have seen, "down to the last man."
KENNEDY'S GESTURE
Despite all of this, the American president remained determined to find a
solution to the potential crisis presented by Ben-Gurion's obstinacy.
Kennedy offered to sell Israel Hawk missiles for defensive purposes—as
Israel had been demanding—but Kennedy continued to drag his feet on the
sale. The president refused to be pushed to the limit by Israel.
Kennedy finally relented and approved the sale, but only after pressure
from Israel and its allies in the American Congress. By then, however, it
was probably too late. The twig had been bent.
ISRAEL RELENTLESS
Even the arms sales to Israel did not assuage Israel and its lobby.
According to Alfred Lilienthal: "Congress continued to maintain pressures
on the White House. The "Israel first" bloc in the Senate attacked the
administration for failing to conclude a defense pact to protect Israel and to
call an embargo on all arms shipments to the Middle East.
"The legislators reechoed the Ben-Gurion contention that Israel had fallen
behind in the arms race. Nasser, they claimed, was ready for a pushbutton
war. Israel [was] easy to pinpoint and destroy and [could not] retaliate against
four or five Arab states at once." 121
By this time—behind the scenes—Kennedy had ordered continuing
surveillance of the Israelis and their push for the nuclear bomb. It was a top
priority for Kennedy, by all estimations. However, to ensure that Israel's
access to intelligence regarding the American spy operation against Israel
was limited, the surveillance was being conducted directly out of then-CIA
Director John McCone's office. 122
(This, of course, still did not guarantee that Israel's friends in the CIA
[whom we will consider in Chapter 8] did not tip off the Israelis to the
hostile operations being conducted.)
Kennedy was still willing, however, to attempt to settle the matter and
requested that Israel permit American inspectors the opportunity to come to
Israel's nuclear operation at Dimona to verify that—as Israel claimed—the
program was peaceful in nature. This was the president's last-ditch effort,
apparently, to pacify Israel and, at the same time, find out precisely what
was going on at Dimona. But Israel would not permit the inspection.