John Steinbach of the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee detailed the hidden aspects of Israel’s secret nuclear program during a panel hosted by the Schiller Institute. Steinbach asserted that Israel’s nuclear arsenal is not merely a defensive tool but a mechanism of blackmail, primarily used to coerce other nations, particularly the US, into adopting its preferred policies.

John Steinbach of the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capital Area detailed the history and current status of Israel’s clandestine nuclear weapons program at an online panel organized by the Schiller Institute titled True Citizens of Every Nation Demand Peace.

Steinbach emphasized that Israel’s nuclear arsenal extends beyond the “Samson Option”—a doctrine aimed at global destruction if Israel’s existence is threatened. He described it as an active tool of blackmail used to compel other nations, particularly the US, to act in line with Israeli interests.

Steinbach stated that Israel currently possesses between 100 and 500 advanced thermonuclear and neutron bombs. He also noted that Israel has a sophisticated delivery system, including Jericho 1, 2, and 3 ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US east coast and beyond Moscow, as well as at least six nuclear-capable Dolphin-class submarines supplied by Germany.

‘The real goal is to coerce the US’

Citing author Israel Shahak, Steinbach explained that the primary goal of Israel’s nuclear program is to “freeze the status quo in Israel’s favor,” a policy specifically targeting the US.

Steinbach quoted Francis Perrin, the former director of France’s nuclear program, who said, “We thought the Israeli program was aimed at making the Americans do what they wanted.”

Steinbach noted that this coercive policy was first blatantly applied during the 1973 war. “The Israelis threatened to use nuclear weapons unless the US carried out a massive airlift,” he said. “Kissinger and Nixon reluctantly complied, the airlift took place, and the world was put on nuclear alert.”

Nuclear program origins and French collaboration

Steinbach explained that the foundations of Israel’s nuclear program were laid by David Ben-Gurion with the vision that the Holocaust should never be repeated. A young deputy minister, Shimon Peres, was appointed to lead the program, with Ernst Bergmann serving as its scientific head.

The program gained significant momentum in the mid-1950s with a research reactor acquired from the US, and Steinbach highlighted the collaboration with France that began during the same period.

“Israel was a full partner in the French program. We must understand that the Algerian tests in the 1950s and early ’60s were actually joint Israeli-French tests,” Steinbach assessed. He added that France also assisted in the construction of the Dimona reactor, knowing it was a plutonium production facility despite being publicly presented as a civilian research reactor.

The mock facility that deceived Kennedy

Steinbach mentioned that US Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy were strongly opposed to Israel acquiring nuclear weapons and were highly suspicious of the program. He described the deception Israel employed when Kennedy demanded an inspection:

“Israel took extreme measures. When the inspectors arrived, everything they saw was a complete sham. They were never shown the real parts of the Dimona complex; they were shown a mock-up. The inspectors went back and reported that the facility was for civilian purposes.”

Steinbach added that Kennedy was determined to stop the program but was assassinated shortly thereafter.

US presidents ignore intelligence reports on Iran, says ex-CIA analyst

Vanunu’s revelations changed the game

Steinbach emphasized that while Israel pursued a policy of “nuclear ambiguity” for years, everything changed when Mordecai Vanunu, a technician at Dimona, leaked photographs and documents to the Sunday London Times. The conclusions reached by Manhattan Project bomb designers Frank Barnaby and Ted Taylor, who reviewed the documents, were shocking.

“They estimated at the time that Israel possessed nearly 200 nuclear weapons,” Steinbach said. “More importantly, they determined that Israel had not only atomic bombs but also hydrogen bombs and miniaturized nuclear weapons that could be easily paired with warheads. This was a massive failure for the intelligence community.”

Steinbach also mentioned that joint nuclear tests were conducted with South Africa, that most of the uranium for the program was sourced from South Africa, that yellowcake uranium was supplied by Germany, and that there is strong evidence of enriched uranium being smuggled from the Numec facility in Pennsylvania, US.

‘IAEA has become a nest of spies’

In his concluding remarks, Steinbach sharply criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arguing that the organization has been “hollowed out and become a nest of spies.”

“This situation has fatally undermined the credibility of the IAEA, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and the United Nations,” he stated.

Steinbach claimed that Egyptian diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei was an honest IAEA director, but the US deliberately had him removed, transforming the agency into its current state.

Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern has claimed that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was linked to the president’s opposition to Israel’s nuclear program. McGovern stated that a key figure of the era, James Angleton, spied for Israel to conceal the program and that US intelligence reports confirming “Iran is not developing nuclear weapons” have been ignored by the president.

Speaking at an online panel organized by the Schiller Institute, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern asserted that the assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy was directly connected to his opposition to Israel’s nuclear weapons program. McGovern, who served in the CIA from 1963 to 1990 and chaired the National Intelligence Estimates in the 1980s, described the CIA’s Counterintelligence Chief at the time, James Jesus Angleton, as a spy who covered up Israel’s nuclear activities.

During his speech at the Schiller Institute’s panel, titled True Citizens of Every Nation Demand Peace, McGovern noted that since 2007, the US intelligence community’s reports concluding “Iran is not working on a nuclear weapon” have been deliberately disregarded by the current administration. He emphasized that this situation calls into question the very reason for the CIA’s existence.

The Kennedy assassination and the ‘Potemkin Village’ conspiracy

McGovern recalled that Kennedy was vehemently opposed to Israel’s nuclear program and was determined to stop it. He identified James Jesus Angleton as the individual who controlled all matters related to Israel within the CIA at that time. “His name was James Jesus Angleton. There is concrete evidence of his involvement in the Kennedy assassination,” McGovern said.

McGovern alleged that Angleton assisted in creating a fake “Potemkin village” at Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility to mislead US inspectors. “When the inspectors returned, they said, ‘This place looks quite clean.’ That’s because Angleton and his Israeli comrades had built this Potemkin village,” he explained.

Intelligence community has held the same view since 2007

McGovern stressed that the US intelligence community has reported with “high confidence” every year since 2007 that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons. He pointed out that this view is not limited to analysts; former CIA Director William Burns also confirmed this fact just before leaving his post.

McGovern quoted Burns as saying, “I want to reiterate that Iran is not working on a nuclear weapon. Furthermore, our intelligence-gathering capabilities are so comprehensive that if they were to start working on a nuclear weapon, the West would know about it almost instantly.”

‘The President doesn’t listen to intelligence’

Despite these concrete reports, McGovern stated that the president does not listen to the intelligence. He recalled Donald Trump’s dismissive words regarding his own intelligence chiefs: “I don’t care what they say.”

McGovern urged the public to show Trump over the next two critical weeks that “supporting the Zionist genocide is unacceptable,” calling on people to “do whatever is necessary to ensure Trump doesn’t get caught in this mousetrap.”

‘The CIA’sexistence should be questioned’

McGovern also expressed his own hesitations about the continued existence of the CIA. He said he had resisted calls to dismantle the agency because its analysts, at the very least, stood firm in telling the truth about Iran.

However, he noted that the president’s dismissal of even this single correct stance raises serious doubts about the agency’s future. McGovern concluded, “How will honest analysts feel when the president says, ‘I don’t care what they say’? Perhaps there is no hope left for the CIA.”

The US Department of State has announced that foreign students will be required to unlock their social media profiles, allowing US diplomats to review their online activities before they can obtain educational and exchange visas. Those who fail to comply will face suspicion from US officials for concealing these activities.

The new guidance, released by the State Department on Wednesday, instructs US diplomats to conduct online presence reviews, searching for “any signs of hostility towards US citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.”

In a separate cable obtained by Politico, diplomats are also instructed to flag “advocacy, aid, or support for foreign terrorists and other threats to US national security” and “support for illicit antisemitic harassment or violence.” The screening for “antisemitic” activities aligns with similar directives issued by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, and has been criticized as an effort to suppress opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza.

The State Department’s new checks target students and other visa applicants in the F, M, and J categories, which cover academic, vocational, and cultural exchange programs.

“American citizens expect their government to make every effort to make our country safer, and the Trump administration is doing just that,” a senior State Department official stated, arguing that Marco Rubio “is helping to make America and its universities safer while bringing the State Department into the 21st century.”

The Trump administration had suspended the issuance of new student visas late last month while it considered new social media screening strategies. The US has also subjected Chinese students to special scrutiny amid tense negotiations over tariffs and the supply of rare earth metals and minerals to the United States.

The State Department’s directive has allowed diplomatic missions to resume interview programs for educational and exchange visas but added that consular officers will subject all F, M, and J visa applicants to a “comprehensive and detailed review.”

“To facilitate this review, all applicants for F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas will be asked to change the privacy settings on all their social media profiles to ‘public’,” the official said. “Strengthening the social media review will ensure that we properly screen every individual who wishes to visit our country.”