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Israel's national scientific-technical R&D capabilities in the BW field are believed to be advanced but the specifics are unknown.
In the absence of any public data, it is difficult to assess the precise nature of Israel's capabilities in the BW field. About a decade ago, a Dutch reporter named Karel Knip conducted the most extensive investigation into the history and research activities of IIBR, where Israel's BW research is undertaken. By searching Internet-based databases of scientific and medical literature, Knip turned up hundreds of scientific publications written by some 140 scientists affiliated with IIBR over nearly 50 years. Aided by eminent world authorities on CBW, Knip reconstructed a rough history of the kind of research that was conducted at IIBR in Ness Ziona.[14]
On the biological side, Knip's survey identified several types of disease agents (pathogens), toxins, and incapacitants studied at IIBR. Since the early to mid-1950s, much of the research activity focused on the causative agents of plague bacterium (Yersinia pestis), Typhus bacterium (Rickettsia prowazekii), and rabies, followed later on by studies on breeding insects that transmit those diseases, such as mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks. Interestingly, Knip noted that he found almost no IIBR publications about the standard biological weapons that Iraq produced, such as Anthrax bacterium and the Botulinum toxin, even though it is "inconceivable" (in his words) that IIBR has not conducted research into these areas. However, a more current literature search adds Anthrax bacterium to the list. It is evident that a large group of IIBR scientists has been working on Anthrax bacterium for some time.[15]
Another central area of study at IIBR since the 1950s has been research on various kinds of toxins: non-living poisons derived from plants, animals, and bacteria. According to Knip's bibliographical review, IIBR has done research on at least 15 different toxins, some of which may have been intended for use in special covert operations. One toxin on the list is Staphylococcus enterotoxin B (SEB), a potent incapacitating toxin produced by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. SEB was one of the toxin agents weaponized by the U.S. offensive BW program.
Knip's overall conclusion is that IIBR, since its establishment in the early 1950s, has been involved in a diverse array of research activities that, when put together, imply the possibility of offensive BW research.[16]
Although a survey of published scientific literature is a good tool to reconstruct some of the institutional research interests at IIBR, it is important to recognize its limitations. Open bibliographical analysis can suggest institutional trends, but it cannot indicate by whether Israel has an offensively oriented BW program. Medical and agricultural research institutions worldwide conduct extensive basic research on disease-causing microorganisms. For this reason, Israel's motivations in the BW field, defensive or offensive, cannot be inferred merely from the existence of research activities involving potential BW agents.
Knip's bibliographical survey confirms what has been presumed all along and what IIBR seems to imply through its own website: that Israel has substantial research capabilities relevant to both defensive and offensive BW. Still, to make judgments about Israeli intentions, motivations, and strategy in the BW area--especially regarding production and weaponization--one needs to know much more.
Lacking hard information, foreign-based publications have made all kinds of claims, from the mundane to the fantastic, about Israel's BW capabilities.[17] As a matter of policy, the Israeli government has refused to comment on these reports. For this reason, any assessment of Israel's BW program and capabilities is inevitably tentative and speculative. Although most analysts believe that Israel has maintained some limited offensive BW capabilities, it is difficult to characterize exactly what those capabilities are and their current status.[18]
The U.S. government has never included Israel in its public list of states with an offensive BW capability, although it has been argued that Israel is one of two unnamed states on the list of 12 nations assessed to have an offensive program. A 1993 report on weapons proliferation by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service included an ambiguous characterization of Israel's BW capability:
There is no direct evidence of the presence of biological weapons in Israel. At the same time, according to various indications, a ramified program of biological research of a general nature, in which elements of a military-applied purpose are present, is being implemented in Israel. Specifically, Israeli research centers are cooperating closely with the American military laboratories within the framework of a US Defense Department program for protection against biological weapons. As a whole, Israel possesses a strong civilian biotechnology base, which, if necessary, could be redirected fairly easily to the production of biological weapons.[19]
Key Sources:
[14] Karel Knip's detailed expose, "Biologie in Ness Ziona," was published on February 27, 1999 in the Dutch (Rotterdam) daily newspaper, NRC Handelsband. The articles in Dutch can be found on the NRC website, <www.nrc.nl/w2/Lab/Ziona/>. Karel Knip generously provided the author a nine-page English translation of his article under the title "Biology in Ness Ziona." All of the quotes that appear here are from the English document that Knip provided the author.
[15] Ibid.
[16] In Knip's words, "The many hundreds of articles prove beyond doubt that the IIBR is Israel's main center for research into both chemical and biological weapons. The research conducted at the Institute consists of a bizarre combination of activities which acquire significance within one specific context, that of chemical and biological warfare." [cite for this quote?]
[17] Many of these sensationalist stories appeared in the London Sunday Times. One cites a biologist, who once held a senior post in the Israeli intelligence, stating that "there is hardly a single known or unknown form of chemical or biological weapon that is not manufactured at the Institute." Uzi Mahnaimi, "Israeli Jets Equipped for Chemical Warfare," London Sunday Times, October 4, 1998, <http://www.sunday-times.co.uk>.. See also, "Israel's Secret Institute," Foreign Report, August 20, 1998; "Israel's Ness Ziona Mystery," Foreign Report, February 5, 1998.
[18] US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Assessing the Risk, Report No. OTA-ISC-559 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1993), pp. 65, 80. The OTA report cites 11 public sources (government and NGO arms control experts as well as media). As to the BW issue, the report cites six public sources of which four (67 percent) refer to Israel as "having undeclared offensive biological warfare programs" (Table 2-B-1, p. 82).
[19] Russian Federation's Foreign Intelligence Service, "A New Challenge After the Cold War: Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction," January 28, 1993; translated into English by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FIBS), March 5, 1993, and published in US Senate, Committee on Government Affairs, "Proliferation Threats of the 1990s"
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Updated February 2006 |
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