Final_Judgment

727 Final Word? [629]
actually insignificant in the big picture. If anything, JFK's pressure on Israel
intensified.
On page 172 Cohen described a "secret meeting" held in Washington, D
C. eight days before the JFK assassination (November 13-14) between the
Israelis and the Americans, noting that Israel "had a broader agenda . . . than
the United States was willing to discuss." Yet, Cohen notes, on page 173,
"Dimona itself was never mentioned in those talks. Both sides behaved as if the
Dimona issue did not exist."
In short, the nuclear issue was so sensitive that during face-to-face secret
meetings between United States and Israeli officials when they were discussing
other issues between the two nations, the subject of Israel's nuclear bomb
was not discussed. The issue was that inflammatory. It was left on the
table—actually never placed on the table—for future discussion. But JFK was
assassinated eight days later, and the dynamics of the U.S.-Israeli relationship
changed dramatically as a consequence.
Cohen concluded his analysis of the JFK years on page 174 as follows:
In any case, in late 1963 Israel and the United
States, Kennedy and Eshkol, stumbled further down
the path of nuclear opacity. Would the two countries
have continued under Kennedy as it did under
Johnson? What would Kennedy have done with
regard to the Israeli nuclear program had he lived and
been reelected, and to what extent would Israel's
nuclear history have been different? These questions
will never be answered with certainty.
Neither Avner Cohen nor Michael Collins Piper nor the STDL
librarians can answer these questions with certainty. But the reaction in
Israel to Cohen's revelations about JFK's secret war with Israel over the
nuclear question was interesting indeed.
"HAD KENNEDY REMAINED ALIVE . . ."
The Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz, published a review of Cohen's book on
February 5, 1999, calling it "a bombshell of a book." (And this review can
be accessed in English in full on the Internet on Cohen's web site at the
National Security Archive at George Washington University.) The Ha'aretz
review, by Reuven Pedatzur, is quite interesting. It reads in part:
The murder of American President John F.
Kennedy brought to an abrupt end the massive pressure
being applied by the U.S. administration on the
government of Israel to discontinue the nuclear
program.
Cohen demonstrates at length the pressures
applied by Kennedy on Ben-Gurion. He brings the