In late 2013, a former speaker of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, shockingly admitted to the program’s existence, leading to calls by Israeli conservatives that he be tried for treason. Western governments, Borger added, also uphold this air of secrecy:

“In 2009, when a veteran Washington reporter, Helen Thomas, asked Barack Obama in the first month of his presidency if he knew of any country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, he dodged the trapdoor by saying only that he did not wish to ‘speculate.’

UK governments have generally followed suit. Asked in the House of Lords in November about Israeli nuclear weapons, Baroness Warsi answered tangentially. ‘Israel has not declared a nuclear weapons programme.’”