Some House Democrats press Trump to break silence on Israel’s nuclear arsenal

A group of House Democrats is urging the Trump administration to publicly acknowledge Israel’s undeclared nuclear weapons program, a move that would abandon decades of U.S. policy but confirm what has been an open secret among intelligence officials since the late 1960s.

In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio obtained by The Washington Post, more than two dozen lawmakers, led by Rep. Joaquin Castro (Texas), say Washington’s silence on the program is indefensible amid the war in Iran and the acute threat of military escalation.

“The risks of miscalculation, escalation, and nuclear use in this environment are not theoretical,” the lawmakers wrote. “Congress has a constitutional responsibility to be fully informed about the nuclear balance in the Middle East, the risk of escalation by any party to this conflict, and the administration’s planning and contingencies for such scenarios.”

“We do not believe we have received that information,” the lawmakers wrote.

The concerns about nuclear escalation are shared by some inside the Trump administration, who say Israel’s red lines may not be adequately understood, said U.S. administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Israel does not acknowledge its nuclear weapons program — built in secret beginning in the late 1950s — and has no publicly stated doctrine on how it might use such weapons.

The letter is the latest sign of a shift in the Democratic Party’s approach to Israel amid growing frustration over the country’s killing of civilians in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon and its high-profile lobbying in Washington for the war in Iran.

Avner Cohen, a leading historian on Israel’s nuclear program, said the letter breaks a taboo that has endured for more than half a century.

“This is something that people did not dare do before,” said Cohen, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and author of the book “Israel and the Bomb.”

“Even raising these questions publicly is a departure from a bipartisan norm,” he added.

The origin of U.S.-Israeli silence on the nuclear issue dates back to an informal agreement between President Richard M. Nixon and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1969, when Washington effectively accepted Israel’s policy of nuclear ambiguity and agreed to shield it from international scrutiny, Cohen said.

“Israel alone could not have maintained this policy over decades without the United States,” he said.

The letter’s authors argue the policy now undermines U.S. credibility, as Washington seeks to limit the nuclear programs of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates without acknowledging the nuclear weapons program of their neighbor Israel.

“We cannot develop coherent nonproliferation policy for the Middle East … while maintaining a policy of official silence about the nuclear weapons capabilities of one party central to the ongoing conflict,” the lawmakers wrote.

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment on the policy. The Israeli government also did not respond to a request for comment.

Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the nonprofit Arms Control Association, said Israel’s position is “strongly against changing the status quo.”

“Nonrecognition allows the Israeli government to redirect attention at other countries in the region who are pursuing nuclear activities that could lead to nuclear weapons,” he said.

In March, Castro asked the State Department’s top arms control official, Thomas DiNanno, to describe Israel’s nuclear weapons capability during a public hearing and DiNanno declined. “I can’t comment on that specific question,” he said.

Castro, in an interview with The Post, said the United States “shouldn’t refuse to disclose this information about a foreign nation simply out of courtesy when there’s so much at stake for our own service members, our economy and our country.”

U.S. officials speak candidly about the nuclear weapons programs of Britain, France, India, Pakistan, Russia, North Korea and China, and Israel should be no different, Castro said.

The push for transparency by Democrats reflects a deeper soul-searching on Israel that is happening within the party, said Jeremy Shapiro, a former Obama administration official.

Last month, a record 40 Senate Democrats voted to block weapons transfers to Israel. According to the Pew Research Center, 80 percent of Democrats now view Israel unfavorably up from 53 percent in 2022.

“Many, perhaps most Democrats, at this point want to see fundamental changes in the U.S.-Israeli relationship,” Shapiro said. “The first change that these Democrats want to see is for the U.S. to hold Israel to the same standards as other countries on issues such as nuclear weapons.”

The U.S. executive branch under both political parties has maintained the secrecy policy, but there have been recent discussions among Trump administration officials about what might trigger an Israeli nuclear response and concerns that the threshold may be lower than Washington previously assessed, U.S. officials said.

“There is a low boil of unease about Israel’s nuclear program and what could compel them to use nuclear weapons short of facing a WMD attack,” said an administration official.

A scenario gaining fresh scrutiny among U.S. officials involves Israel’s air defenses becoming overwhelmed by missile or rocket fire from its neighbors. Whether Israel would resort to a nuclear response when faced with an unusually high civilian death toll has been discussed “frequently,” said the administration official.

In March, Iranian missiles hit the cities of Dimona and Arad, near Israel’s main nuclear research facilities, following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear program. The Iranian counterattack did not cause a radioactive incident but exposed gaps in Israel’s vaunted air defense system.

The Democrats’ letter to Rubio requests detailed information about Israel’s nuclear program, including the level of its enrichment capabilities, where fissile material is produced and whether Israel has relayed to the U.S. its red lines for using nuclear weapons in the current conflict.

Castro said that he plans to make the Trump administration’s response public when he receives it. If certain answers can be revealed only in a classified setting, he could be amenable to that, the congressman said, but he won’t relent on the fundamental question of whether Israel has a nuclear weapons program.

“That’s not something that should be kept secret to the world,” he said.