Babydoc.......let's first get this out of the way, there would be no Israel WITHOUT THE U.S. Ok, now I fully realize that there were alot of jews behind the manhatten project, but what does that have to do with "Israel"?? Israel didn't exist until 1948, the manhatten project was started long before that. Now for some physics for you........DEVELOPING A NUCLEAR PROGRAM REQUIRES MORE THAN JUST A ROOMFUL OF SMART SCIENTISTS!! If all it took were smart people than China would be the leading nuclear power in the world. They have some of the most brilliant physicists on the planet, I know this personally due to my father and my Uncle. Up until a few years ago my Uncle ran THE PREMIER polymer physics program IN THE U.S, and therefore one of the top programs in the world. And both of them are invited to the Gordan conference every year. The reason I bring that up is because they are exposed to THE VERY BEST physicists in the world. So why is it than that China had to steal their program?? the logistics involved in a nuclear program just simply go beyond a few smart mother fuckers, or in China's case, a whole fucking shitload of smart mother fuckers. And of course once the physicists manage to spit a hydrogen atom, it's up to the engineers to deliver it in a feasible fashion. So no, Israel would not have had nuclear capability in such a short time without the U.S.......PERIOD!!
and Matt, I'm no way shape or form doubting the Israeli military. I know damn well how tough they are. But making the six day war as an argument that they could have run over all the arab nations is a bit misleading. Without U.S jets in their arsenal they would not have done what they did. Plus, this was back in the sixties, most arab countries mech divisions consisted of WW2 machinery. So of course the Israeli airforce routed them. But were you honestly implying that Israel could have marched it's ground troops all over the mideast?? Matt, you know better than that. Had Israel moved into Iran, Syria, Iraq...whatever.....every able bodied muslim would have picked up an AK-47 and converged on Israel. The muslim world's own divisiveness and unstability has been Israels very strength. But you simply can't deny that without Nukes and the spector of U.S support......if the major Arab countries decided to get together and send troops into Israel, eventually they WOULD overrun it. I mean c'mon, the israeli army is VERY good, but not THAT good. We're talking about MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of muslims, untrained or not, flooding into a tiny country like Israel. Not only would they have the trained armies of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Egypt to deal with......they'd also have the Jihad folks to deal with. Sorry, but both of you know this to be true.