"In the past, the German government has always stuck to the position that it is unaware of nuclear weapons being deployed on the vessels. Now, however, former high-ranking officials from the German Defense Ministry, including former State Secretary Lothar Rühl and former chief of the planning staff Hans Rühle, have told SPIEGEL that they had always assumed that Israel would deploy nuclear weapons on the submarines. Rühl had even discussed the issue with the military in Tel Aviv."
— Spiegel publicly acknowledges Israel’s nuclear arsenal. Cue, in sequence, “OMG Israeli nukes!” hyperbole, retreads of tired Iranian nuclear program debates by those who are treating this as relevant and new information, and then the eventual breakdown of a conversation on nuclear weaponry into the same exhausting an un-illuminating conversation that always gets brought up whenever Israel is mentioned in conversation.
"And yet, deeply pessimistic proliferation forecasts do not have a good track record. The long view usually turns out to be more positive than snapshots of problem cases. A recently declassified State Department cable, courtesy of the Nation Security Archive and the Wilson Center’s Nuclear Proliferation History Project, is illustrative. This cable, dated June 6, 1979, focuses on Pakistan’s determined, clandestine quest for the Bomb, and its likely repercussions for India and beyond. It warns that US nonproliferation policy “could collapse under the weight of two additional nuclear weapon states” – a common projection back then. The NPT regime has managed to survive negative developments on the subcontinent, thanks to the determined efforts of its protectors and positive trends on other fronts."
— Michael Krepon at the Arms Control Wonk discusses fears concerning nonproliferation, and rules ever so slightly in favor of cautious optimism.
