Free Republic

President Obama's efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons threaten to expose and derail a 40-year-old secret U.S. agreement to shield Israel's nuclear weapons from international scrutiny, former and current U.S. and Israeli officials and nuclear specialists say. The issue will likely come to a head when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Mr. Obama on May 18 in Washington. Mr. Netanyahu is expected to seek assurances from Mr. Obama that he will uphold the U.S. commitment and will not trade Israeli nuclear concessions for Iranian ones. Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, speaking Tuesday at a U.N....

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel should prepare for the possibility of a missile attack from Iran, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday. "We are liable to face an Iranian missile attack. The Iranians have said very clearly that if they come under attack, their primary target would be Israel," Rafi Eitan, a member of the decision-making inner cabinet, told Israel Radio. Iran could fire missiles at the Jewish state "therefore we must prepare for what could come, and prepare the entire country for a missile strike attack, to prepare all the civilian systems so they are ready for this," Eitan said....

Israel’s defense industry is booming, with the Merkava tank project and the US Navy’s purchase of Israeli decoy systems. The US Congress has just approved a $17 million budget for the US Navy for further procurement of the Improved Tactical Air-Launched Decoy (ITALD) systems from Israel Military Industries (IMI). Tactical Air-Launched Decoys are intended to confuse and saturate enemies’ air defenses, allowing attacking aircraft a higher probability of penetrating the target. The air-launched decoy appears as a real target on enemy radar screens. By replicating fighter aircraft, ITALDs suppress enemy missile effectiveness and support air-to-surface missions while assuring mission...

JERUSALEM -- The head of Israel's Shin Bet security service on Sunday warned that Jewish extremists are becoming more militant, as some prominent rabbis encouraged settlers to resist evacuation from their homes. Violence continued in the Palestinian territories as an Israeli motorist and a Palestinian gunman were killed in separate shootings in the West Bank, and a Palestinian teenager was shot to death in the Gaza Strip. Also, Israeli border police killed a Palestinian laborer just west of Jerusalem. The warning from Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter came as Israel prepares to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four isolated...

TEL AVIV – Leading strategists in Israel have proposed preemptive strikes against the expanding threat posed by weapons of mass destruction arsenals in the Middle East. A report, entitled "Israel's Strategic Future," called such strikes an option in preventing the formation of a WMD coalition. The report said the Jewish state has been threatened by a biological or nuclear first-strike that seeks to exploit Israel's small space and high population density. "To meet its ultimate deterrence objectives – that is, to deter the most overwhelmingly destructive enemy first-strikes – Israel must seek and achieve a visible second-strike capability to target...