U.S. foreign aid and the Israeli nuclear weapons program - Grant F. Smith

In 1969, the Department of Defense, intelligence community and Department of State recommended President Richard Nixon uphold the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and pressure the Israelis to stop their nuclear weapons program by withholding U.S. arms. U.S. deliberations considered Israel’s illegal diversion of U.S. weapons grade uranium. However, the Nixon administration adopted Israel’s policy of “ambiguity” toward Israel’s nukes. Why did this happen? How has “ambiguity” been maintained for a half century? What law governs U.S. foreign aid to non-NPT signatory nuclear countries, and how is this law continually subverted? How has the pattern of action leading to “ambiguity” been repeated in other key U.S. policy areas of interest to Israel and its lobby?