This book attracted a lot of attention when it first appeared in the US in May because it apparently showed Israel offering to sell nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa. That happened some time ago, but it is bound to be an embarrassment to present-day Israel, especially on the eve of high-level non-proliferation negotiations focusing on the Middle East. (It is less embarrassing, of course, to the new South Africa.) Hence Shimon Peres's immediate denial of the allegation, and he should know: if there was such an offer, he - as Israel's defence minister at the time, and the architect of the nuclear weapons programme at Dimona - would have been involved.

LRB 24 June 2010 | PDF Download