Epstein Secrets

st. DID THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT FINANCE THE ISRAELI NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM? In the 1960s, Israel's interests had moved past conventional arms. Ben- Gurion had entrusted Peres with a highly sensitive project: Operation Samson, named after the Biblical figure who is supposed to have lived at the time wh

an visited Bonn in the fall of 1977, he told then Chancellor Helmut Schmidt about neighboring Egypt's fear "that Israel might use nuclear weapons." Dayan said that he understood the Egyptians' worries, and pointed out that in his opinion the use of the bomb against the Aswan dam would have "devastati

the Israeli Defense Force — also seemed to have lost the cutting edge, or perhaps the desperate motivation, of the pre-state militias. At first, Ben- Gurion relied on young recruits in the new army’s infantry brigades to counter the fedayeen attacks. Nearly 90 reprisal operations were launched in 1952 and

ill alive?” He looked first at Raful, then at me, and added: “When I was 20 years younger than you are, I never waited for someone like Ben-Gurion or Dayan to ask me to plan an operation. I would plan it! Then I’d take it to them and say, you’re the politicians, you decide, but if you say yes, we'll do i

Miliekowsky, as he then was, studied at Hebrew University at the same time as my father, in the early 1930s, and was an impassioned supporter of Ben- Gurion’s main right-wing Zionist rival, Ze’ev Jabotinsky. My father remembered him gathering bemused groups of students during breaks from classes, standing

ns. “A plane has been hijacked,” he said. “It’s heading for Lod. It will land in about 30 minutes. They’ve got hostages. Get to the airport. Dado and Dayan are on their way.” I called Danny Yatom and told him to get whoever was at the sayeret base to Lod as soon as possible. But most of the men were on

the Israeli Defense Force — also seemed to have lost the cutting edge, or perhaps the desperate motivation, of the pre-state militias. At first, Ben- Gurion relied on young recruits in the new army’s infantry brigades to counter the fedayeen attacks. Nearly 90 reprisal operations were launched in 1952 and

ill alive?” He looked first at Raful, then at me, and added: “When I was 20 years younger than you are, I never waited for someone like Ben-Gurion or Dayan to ask me to plan an operation. I would plan it! Then I’d take it to them and say, you’re the politicians, you decide, but if you say yes, we'll do i

Miliekowsky, as he then was, studied at Hebrew University at the same time as my father, in the early 1930s, and was an impassioned supporter of Ben- Gurion's main right-wing Zionist rival, Ze'ev Jabotinsky. My father remembered him gathering bemused groups of students during breaks from classes, standing

ns. "A plane has been hijacked," he said. "It's heading for Lod. It will land in about 30 minutes. They've got hostages. Get to the airport. Dado and Dayan are on their way." I called Danny Yatom and told him to get whoever was at the sayeret base to Lod as soon as possible. But most of the men were on t