Introduction: Amimut as a national nuclear bargain -- Chronology -- The birth of amimut -- The case for amimut -- Israel's nuclear path : the key decisions -- The infrastructure of amimut -- The citizenry : the taboo keepers -- The democratic cost of amimut : the impact on the citizenry -- The democratic cost of amimut : governance -- Domestic reforms -- Iran, the Fissile Materials Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) and beyond -- Toward a new bargain -- Epilogue
Summary
Israel has made a unique contribution to the nuclear age - it has created (with the tacit support of the United States) a special "bargain" with its bomb. Israel is the only nuclear-armed state that keeps its bomb invisible, unacknowledged, opaque. It will only say that it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East. The bomb is Israel's collective ineffable - the nation's last taboo. This bargain has a name: in Hebrew, it is called amimut, or opacity. By adhering to the bargain, which was born in a secret deal between Richard Nixon a
