Israel's Out of the Closet

So much for the "policy of nuclear ambiguity", eh?

A decades-long silence about Israel's possession of nuclear weapons has been broken in an apparent slip of the tongue by the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, during a visit to Europe.

That's one hell of a slip-up. Maybe you could attribute it to a slip of the tongue, as an aide characterized it, if you were feeling generous. However, when you have the Secretary of Defense making the same admission in the same week, the likely explanation bends towards coordination.

The subject of Israel's nuclear capability was also touched on last week by the next American defence secretary, Robert Gates, who suggested that Israel had atomic weapons.

He told a Senate confirmation committee that Iran might want an atomic bomb because it is "surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf".

We're really ratcheting up the pressure on Iran, aren't we?