When JFK Threatened TOTAL ABANDONMENT Of Israel

John F. Kennedy quietly issued the hardest ultimatum any U.S. president ever sent to Israel: allow regular American inspections at the Dimona nuclear site—or risk losing U.S. political backing. In 1963, JFK pressed David Ben-Gurion and then newly sworn-in Prime Minister Levi Eshkol with letters that tied Washington’s support to verifiable inspections at Dimona. This video explains the showdown: why Kennedy feared a Middle East nuclear arms race, how the White House framed “total abandonment” as the consequence, and what Eshkol did next.