Ex-PM Ehud Barak admits on Twitter: Israel has nuclear weapons

Former prime minister Ehud Barak admits on Twitter that Israel has nuclear weapons — something the Jewish state has never publicly confirmed despite the widespread assumption.

“In conversations between Israelis and Western diplomatic officials there are deep concerns raised of the possibility that if the coup in Israel succeeds, a messianic dictatorship will be established in the heart of the Middle East, which has nuclear weapons, and fanatically wishes for a confrontation with Islam centered on the Temple Mount,” tweets Barak in harsh criticism of the government’s judicial overhaul plans.

The Dimona nuclear research facility, officially called the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, is said to be the home of Israel’s alleged nuclear weapons program. Foreign estimates have claimed that Israel maintains a nuclear weapons cache ranging from dozens of warheads to hundreds.

Israel has never acknowledged that it has a nuclear arsenal, instead maintaining a policy of “nuclear ambiguity.”