Among the guests who traveled to Israel last week to take part in a closed-door Tel Aviv conference on the subject of disarming the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction, I met Wilbert van der Zeijden from the Dutch organization IKV Pax Christi, one of the event’s sponsors. Van der Zeijden is the co-author of a newly issued comprehensive report on funding sources for the production of nuclear weapons.
The Israeli reader will be surprised to learn that no fewer than $2 billion is invested annually in Israel in the nuclear industry. Among other things, the document reports that the Israeli Hapoalim Bank participated in a syndicate of 13 banks who secured credit for the American company Alliant Techsystems, which produces missiles for Britain's nuclear arsenal.
