US President Donald Trump’s vacillation over negotiations with Iran—setting harsh conditions and insisting Tehran must never be permitted to pursue nuclear development—necessitates revisiting bitter truths. The nuclear age was born in secrecy, theft and coercion. Paradoxically, the nations that pioneered nuclear weapons through clandestine means—the United States and Israel—are treated as legitimate custodians of atomic power, while Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that has repeatedly declared its opposition to nuclear arms, is vilified for pursuing peaceful nuclear technology. This contradiction exposes the hypocrisy at the heart of global nuclear politics.
The United States’ nuclear program was not a purely domestic achievement. At the close of World War II, Washington launched Operation Paperclip, forcibly relocating German scientists—many of them former Nazi engineers—into American laboratories. These scientists, including Wernher von Braun, advanced missile and nuclear technologies. Even J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb,” had deep academic ties to Germany, studying at Göttingen under Max Born and collaborating with Werner Heisenberg. German physics shaped his leadership of the Manhattan Project. Built on espionage and appropriated European research, the project culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Over 200,000 civilians perished, inaugurating an era where nuclear weapons were justified as instruments of deterrence despite their catastrophic humanitarian consequences.
Israel’s nuclear program followed a similar clandestine trajectory. Determined to acquire nuclear weapons, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, secured covert French assistance to construct the Dimona reactor in the Negev desert. By the mid‑1960s, Israel had the capacity to produce weapons‑grade plutonium. Israeli intelligence agency LEKEM scoured the globe for nuclear materials, while Mossad orchestrated covert uranium shipments under Operation Plumbat. The Apollo Affair in the United States involved uranium surreptitiously diverted to Israel. By the late 1960s, Israel had crossed the nuclear threshold, maintaining “nuclear ambiguity”—possessing an arsenal estimated at nearly 400 warheads—yet rejecting calls to join the NPT.
Israel has not only built its own arsenal but actively sabotaged others. In 1981, the Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq’s Osirak reactor in Operation Opera. In 2007, Operation Orchard targeted Syria’s Al Kibar reactor. Beyond airstrikes, Israel has employed cyber warfare and assassination. The Stuxnet virus, developed jointly with the US, crippled Iranian centrifuges in 2010. Iranian nuclear scientists have reportedly been systematically assassinated by Mossad. Pakistan’s nuclear program too faced sabotage attempts, ranging from infiltration to pressure campaigns and attempted assaults aimed at halting its progress. Thus, Israel monopolizes nuclear capability in the Middle East while denying others the right to peaceful development.
In stark contrast, Iran is an NPT signatory. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa forbidding nuclear weapons, directing Iran’s program toward energy generation, medical isotopes and scientific advancement. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) offered a framework for peaceful enrichment under strict monitoring, but Washington’s unilateral withdrawal undermined trust and escalated tensions. Importantly, if Iran’s current leadership were to decide—under IAEA safeguards—to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent against future attacks by Israel and the United States, that choice should rest with the Iranians themselves, not external protagonists seeking to impose their will.
The hypocrisy is glaring. The US built its arsenal on kidnapped scientists and used nuclear weapons against civilians. Israel secretly developed weapons through theft and clandestine deals, while refusing to join the NPT. Iran, by contrast, declared opposition to nuclear arms, signed the NPT and subjected itself to inspections—yet is treated as a pariah. Nuclear legitimacy, it seems, is not about law or morality but about power politics. Allies of Washington are shielded, while adversaries are demonized.
The irony deepens when one considers the humanitarian rhetoric often invoked by the US and Israel. America justifies its arsenal as a deterrent, despite its historical use against civilians. Israel frames its weapons as existential insurance, invoking the Holocaust to legitimize nuclear secrecy. Iran, meanwhile, raises humanitarian principles, citing religious edicts against weapons of mass destruction. Yet its peaceful program is branded a threat to civilization. The inversion of morality—where aggressors are sanctified and the restrained are punished—underscores the politicization of nuclear discourse.
The global nuclear regime is fractured by hypocrisy. If the NPT is to retain credibility, it must apply equally to all states. Israel’s undeclared arsenal should be brought under international scrutiny and the US must reckon with its historical violations. Iran’s peaceful program, conducted under the treaty’s framework, deserves recognition rather than sabotage. As long as nuclear legitimacy is determined by alliances rather than principles, the spectre of proliferation and conflict will persist.
Albert Einstein, himself a German‑born physicist who foresaw the peril of atomic weapons, warned: “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” His words remain a timeless reminder that unless global nuclear politics abandon double standards and embrace fairness, humanity risks repeating the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—this time on a far greater scale.
As Oppenheimer reflected after witnessing the first atomic test: “In the Council’s work the question of the use of the bomb was never up for discussion… In the debate on the military use of the bomb, I had nothing to say.” His haunting silence underscores how decisions about nuclear weapons have long been driven not by morality or principle, but by raw power and expediency.
—The writer, Retired Group Captain of PAF, is author of several books on China.
