Perilous
Times
'Israel confirms that its submarines can carry nuclear
weapons'
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL,
JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
06/04/2012 00:54
BERLIN – The German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Sunday that
German-manufactured Dolphin-class submarines delivered to the
Israel Navy can be equipped with technology for carrying nuclear
warheads.
Over the years there has been a swirl of German media reports
about the nuclear capability of Israel’s submarines, ever since
the shipment of the first Dolphins arrived in the late 1990s.
In an article in Der Spiegel titled “Made in Germany,” experts
from Israel and Germany confirmed that the “ships are armed with
nuclear warheads. And Berlin has long been aware of that.”
The magazine asserts that interviews with Israeli and Western
security officials and intelligence officers “leave no doubt” that
German technology has permitted Israel’s navy to turn underwater
vessels into second-strike capable nucleararmed submarines.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak would not confirm the nuclear
capability of the Dolphin fleet, but told Der Spiegel “Germany
helps to defend Israel’s security.
Germans should be proud that they have secured the existence of
the State of Israel for many years.”
The Merkel administration declined to confirm in the magazine’s
cover story that the Dolphin submarines are armed with nuclear
weapons.
Hans Rühle, who directed the planning department of the German
Defense Ministry from 1982-1988, told Der Spiegel that he assumed
that “the submarines are nuclear capable.”
The magazine wrote that “Popeye turbo SLCM” missile system exists
on the vessels, and the Israeli defense company Rafael Advanced
Defense Systems developed the Popeye system. The submarines can
carry cruise missiles that reach a destination of 1500 km., noted
Der Spiegel. The article added that “missiles can be launched
using a previously secret hydraulic ejection system” on board the
vessels.
If the vessels contain nuclear warheads, the highly advanced
Dolphin and Super-Dolphin submarines can enable Israel to launch a
second-strike attack against an aggressor like the Islamic
Republic of Iran. The deterrent effect, following the logic of the
Cold War nuclear standoff between the former Soviet Union and the
US, would prevent a jingoistic country from attacking Israel.
In short, a hostile country should fear the enormous human loss
and infrastructure damage resulting from a retaliatory Israeli
nuclear strike.
Germany provided the first two submarines to Israel cost free
after the First Gulf War in 1991, largely because German industry
helped the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein develop chemical/gas
weapons, which could be used against the Jewish state. The
administration of then-chancellor Helmut Kohl worried at the time
about the backlash against Germany’s reputation, because the
Federal Republic armed a regime determined to engage in a lethal
gas attack against Jews. Israel and Germany split the cost of the
third submarine.
Three additional Dolphins are slated to be delivered to Israel by
2017. The Defense Ministry may order three more submarines,
resulting in a potential fleet of nine possibly nucleararmed
underwater ships.
Der Spiegel noted that the Merkel administration initially
demanded Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu back off on further
settlement construction in the West Bank in exchange for the sixth
submarine.
According to Der Spiegel, former Israeli ambassador to Germany
Yoram Ben-Ze’ev received a call from National Security Adviser
Ya’acov Amidror in November 2011, while he was in Tel Aviv,
telling him to return to Germany to sign the contract for the
sixth submarine. Merkel ultimately chose not to make Israel’s
security hostage to the settlement policies.
The newly advanced Dolphin submarines can remain submerged as long
as 18 days, in contrast to earlier models that must reemerge after
a few days.
According to some media commentators, the Der Spiegel report noted
no new startling revelations.
However, the article delved into post-Holocaust German- Israeli
military relations. The magazine produced a historical note
documenting a 1961 meeting among the late prime minister David
Ben-Gurion, President Shimon Peres and the late German Christian
Social Union politician Franz Josef Strauss.
According to the note, Ben- Gurion raised a discussion on the
construction of atomic weapons. Der Spiegel noted that there has
only been speculation regarding Ben-Gurion’s talk about nuclear
weapons.
Melody Sucharewicz, a German- Israeli commentator who frequently
appears in the German media, told The Jerusalem Post by email on
Sunday, “This article... is an expression of a new quality of
subtle but effective incitement against Israel.
Stylistically and semantically disguised as neutral journalism,”
she wrote, “they fabricate an image of Israel and German- Israeli
political and diplomatic relations that has little to do with
reality, but promises good quota given the rising trends of Israel
resentment among the German public.
“Germany isn’t ‘largely’ financing the submarine deal as the
article falsely claims at the beginning, but subsidizes a third,
partially in order to save the the Hamburg shipbuilding company
from bankruptcy.”
Sucharewicz added that the Der Spiegel article “falsely creates
the impression that Germany grants Israel the capacity for a
devastating nuclear attack against Iran with help of these
submarines, whereas if at all they would provide Israel
second-strike capacity and thus mainly have a deterrent function
in the face of Ahmadinejad’s nuclear ambitions and corresponding
threats against Israel.”
Sucharewicz noted that “this trend is dangerous not only for the
future of German-Israeli relations, but also for the German people
– euphemizing the Iranian nuclear threat to the Western world and
at the same time forgetting the historic foundations and shared
values of freedom and democracy on which this relationship was
built would be a self-destructive development.”
Tom Gross, a leading political and media commentator, told the
Post on Sunday, “we have seen speculative news reports of this
type before, some stretching back decades, and one might wonder
why Der Spiegel had decided to repeat this recycled ‘news’ in such
a prominent way now.”