ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the universal connection between the Holocaust and nuclear weapons and proceeds to the Israeli nuclear option. Naturally, the genesis of the State of Israel, three years after the end of World War II, was associated with the Holocaust. With the formation of the State of Israel, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion started thinking about, and even took the first steps toward, a nuclear option. German Jewish scientists, especially physicists including Hungarian Jews who had received their academic education in Germany, and had been expelled, contributed significantly to the knowledge that ultimately led to the development of the atomic bomb by the United States. The United State–Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) dialogue was halted by the Iraq–Kuwait crisis of 1990. Yasser Arafat's support for the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, took the pressure off Israel from America as far as the West Bank was concerned.
