Final_Judgment

[626] Final Judgment 724
Israel from establishing a nuclear defense system that the nation's leaders
considered critical to the nation's survival.
However, unfortunately, our STDL librarian friends were not finished
on this point just yet. Let's continue with what the librarians have to say . . .
Hersh also points out that "Kennedy's persistent
pressure on Israel stemmed from his belief that Israel had
not yet developed any nuclear weapons. There is
evidence that once Israel actually began
manufacturing bombs—as the French had done—the
President was prepared to be as pragmatic as he
needed to be."
The STDL librarians were engaging in some historical interpretation of
their own at this juncture, quoting one brief passage of Hersh's book out of
context. There is no question, based on all of the massive amount of
material appearing in Hersh's book (and the aforementioned more recent
study by Avner Cohen) that JFK was determined to stop Israel, in
particular, from building a nuclear bomb.
Here the STDL librarians were trying to predict what JFK would have done
had he lived. Essentially what the librarians were saying is that because
JFK was lenient with the French over the nuclear issue that he would
certainly be as lenient with the Israelis once they followed the French in
producing nuclear bombs (against JFK's opposition).
But this is not true, as we shall see.
JFK FOCUSED ON ISRAEL . . .
In Final Judgment I pointed out that JFK had adopted a new policy
toward the French drive for nuclear weapons that was being outlined in a
then-"top secret" memo dated November 22, 1963.
But there is no way that the librarians can suggest that just because JFK
changed his policy toward France that he would also change his policy
toward Israel's nuclear ambitions.
Perhaps JFK would have been "pragmatic" (as Hersh says) but that doesn't
mean that he was not trying to stop Israel from building a nuclear bomb—and
that's what his trouble with Ben-Gurion and Israel was all about in the
first place.
The fact is that any dealings that JFK had with France over the nuclear
issue were insignificant compared to the bitterness between JFK and Israel
over the same issue. By bringing in this matter of the French, the STDL
librarians were trying to cloud the issue.
The fact is that Israel was a special target of JFK insofar as nuclear
proliferation was concerned. On page 99 in his book, Avner Cohen
emphasizes JFK's particular pressure on Israel: