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Originally Posted by furball
Just because they didn't use it doesn't mean they weren't prepared to. Both wars 'turned good' for them, but this could easily not have been the case.
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Of course, but the point is that having nuclear weapons wasn't sufficient to deter attacks.
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Originally Posted by Kurashima
Mordechai Vannunu was abducted and imprisoned by the Israeli Government in 1986 for an interview he gave to the LA Times in which he announced to the world that Israel had a nuclear arsenal. Whilst it may have been suspected by others, it was not proven or even widely acknowledged until the time this was published.
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It's still not 'proven' or even publicly acknowledged by Israel today, but it was well understood long before Vanunu went public.
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Vannunu did not even start working for at Dimona, the Israeli nuclear installation, until 1976, so it is highly unlikely that when planning an attack on Israel, Syria or Egypt had any foreknowledge that they were attacking a nuclear state.
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If the arab states didn't already know that Israel had nuclear weapons in the late sixties then I'm sure the Israelis made sure they knew about them. Nuclear weapons have even less deterrent value if your enemies don't even know you have them.
It is widely believed that the Egyptians and Syrians obtained a nuclear umbrella guarantee from the Soviet Union prior to attacking Israel in 1973 (a service which Iran may soon be providing). Whether such a guarantee was ever made, or if it would ever have been honored, is unknown but the point remains: Israel's nuclear weapons haven't prevented its neighbors from attacking it.
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