CNN: 60 years of denial about Israel’s nuclear weapons program confronts a new reality

By Davis Winkie

 

Nov 7, 2026

 

Illustration by Leah Abucayan/Getty/Courtesy of National Security Archive

A group of American diplomats was riding in an Israeli helicopter in early 1960 when one of them spotted a construction site rising out of the Negev desert about 20 miles west of the Dead Sea.

The US official pointed and asked the party’s Israeli escort, Addy Cohen from the country’s Finance Ministry, what it might be.

A “textile factory,” Cohen told the Americans, one of whom was US ambassador to Israel Ogden Reid.

What the passenger had spotted was the building of the Dimona nuclear facility, now known as the birthplace of the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal. It would be several months before Ogden demanded a meeting with Cohen after US intelligence had deciphered the true nature of the construction site.

“Cohen at first treated the matter with levity, (but the) impression came through that he believed (the) reactor could be used eventually for weapons purposes,” said a secret US diplomatic telegram, part of a trove of declassified documents collected by the National Security Archive that also include details of the helicopter ride.

Five years later, US nuclear officials realized a Pennsylvania uranium plant was missing hundreds of pounds of weapons-grade enriched uranium, which some US intelligence officials argued and a recent documentary suggested was diverted for use in the Israeli program... READ MORE  https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/07/politics/israels-nuclear-weapons-program

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For 2,000 years, Christians have called the Holy Land home. CNN’s Clarissa Ward travels from Jerusalem to the occupied West Bank to examine how Israeli ultranationalist extremism is reshaping that reality.

 The quiet erosion of Christian life in the Holy Land

0:00 Losing Ground: Christians in the Holy Land  

3:32 Anti-Christian Incidents in Jerusalem are rising  

8:01 Christian Palestininans are leaving faster than most

13:24 A confrontation with the Israeli army

‘We are reliving the Nakba’: A Palestinian community says it’s being erased as Israeli settler violence intensifies

 CNN

By Zeena Saifi, Jeremy Diamond, Cyril Theophilos

 

Ras Ein al-Auja, West Bank  —  PUBLISHED Jan 28, 2026

Suleiman Ghawanmeh is tired of talking. For over 10 years, he talked himself hoarse until he realized his words could not save his community from being driven out. After his final appeal for help came to nothing, he, too, left.

“I am angry with the world… nobody listens to us… it’s as if we are not human beings,” he told CNN.

His village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the occupied West Bank has now been erased – emptied of its Palestinian residents after a years-long campaign of relentless settler harassment that has intensified over the past two years.

The ongoing violence against what was once the largest shepherding community in the West Bank increased markedly this month, forcing families to abandon their homes, according to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

Armed and masked settlers, many of them teenagers, descended on the Ras Ein al-Auja daily, residents and activists say, terrorizing the nearly 120 extended families – more than 800 people in total – who lived there. By the end of January, that harassment forced them all to leave. 

Ghawanmeh, 44, and his family were the last to go on Sunday.

“We didn’t get displaced because a shepherd or a settler attacked us. No. The issue is bigger than that. The shepherd is a tool – a means of the occupation,” he said.

Ras Ein al-Auja is the 46th shepherding community in the West Bank to be forcibly displaced since October 7th 2023, according to B’Tselem, which calls this a form of “ethnic cleansing.”... READ MORE  https://www.cnn.com/world/middleeast/palestinians-west-bank-erasure-israel

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Carrying the hope of Christmas ... the children of Palestine

Saturday, December 20, 2025, Photos from the second day of the pastoral visit to Gaza, where His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, accompanied by His Excellency Archbishop William Shomali, presided over the Divine Mass in the parish, followed by the presentation of a Christmas play by the children of the parish, and concluded with the distribution of Christmas gifts to them, carrying the hope of Christmas   

Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

@LPJerusalem

Palestine's Children of Gaza Nativity 2025

Palestine's Children of Gaza Nativity 2025

Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem issue a Christmas Message for their congregations and the to Christians around the world, 2025

  https://x.com/LPJerusalem/status/2003050636691317182/photo/2

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A baptism in Gaza today. Welcome the Holy Land’s newest Christian son

https://x.com/chunguskitten/status/2002766202427654609

Sunday, 21 December 2025, photos from the third and final day of the Christmas pastoral visit to Gaza, during which His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa presided over the Christmas Mass at the Holy Family Church. During the Mass, he administered First Communion to nine parishioners and the Sacrament of Baptism to a child  https://x.com/LPJerusalem/status/2002763147787030836/photo/3

 

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa celebrated First Communion and a Baptism in Gaza City this morning. Sunday, December 21, 2025. Day 807  https://x.com/chunguskitten/status/2002733600358429176/photo/1

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https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/21/middleeast/catholic-patriarch-gaza-church-christmas-mass-intl 

"At least 401 people have been killed since the ceasefire on October 11, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported on Saturday. In total, 70,925 Palestinians have been killed and 171,185 people injured since October 7, 2023, when Hamas and other militant groups launched an attack on Israel, the health ministry said.  

CNN footage from Gaza City on Sunday showed loud bells chiming over the parish, where a baby, Mario, was baptized to mark “new life” and “new hope,” according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Red and gold baubles, green wreaths and ribbons were dotted around the Holy Family Church, and a tall Christmas tree draped in tinsel was erected in the corner. "  

CNN News: ‘We are still here.’ Catholic patriarch leads Christmas Mass at Gaza church bombed by Israel during the war 

"It’s not a “project” and it’s not “controversial.” It’s land theft and it’s ILLEGAL UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW" ... Deftly, time & time again, Assal Rad points out how our media has been writing it wrong, rather than righting a wrong:

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

"What Israel is doing to Palestinians:

 

 -Genocide 

-Ethnic cleansing 

-Occupation 

-Annexation 

-War crimes

 -Starvation 

 

What the media calls it: 

 

-Military operation 

-Relocation plan 

-Offensive 

-Settlement project 

-Takeover plan 

-Hunger crisis 

 

 This is complicity, not journalism."

 

 ~~~

.... " “Israel says” is not journalism. “Israel escalates genocide, forcibly displacing Palestinians under threat of death,” that’s your headline." Assal Rad

 

~~~

 

Assal Rad: "They’ve normalized daily massacres, but nothing is normal about this."  BREAKING: At least 64 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn on Wednesday, including 19 aid seekers, medical sources tell Al Jazeera.

 

~~~

 

Assal Rad: “Moves” They could have said land theft, annex, occupation, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, genocide… But NYT went with “Moves.”

 

~~~ 

Assal Rad:

": Completes land-grab, annexes territory

 : Approves a controversial project"

"Also look at the striking difference in the image they use. For Russia, Putin looks like a cartoon villain. For Israel, Smotrich just looks at a map." Assal Rad

~~~

 

Assal Rad: "It’s not a “project” and it’s not “controversial.” It’s land theft and it’s ILLEGAL UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW."

 

 ~~~

 

"“An exhausted military”

@CNN

is more concerned with how tired Israeli soldiers are from committing genocide than the state of their Palestinian victims." Assal Rad

"“The Middle East conflict”… what a ridiculous way to frame Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands." Assal Rad

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

“The Middle East conflict”… what a ridiculous way to frame Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.

 

If you’re not writing the truth about crimes against humanity, you’re culpable in them.

The Economist

@TheEconomist

The Economist: The killing of journalists in Gaza

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

: Illegally annexes : Announces settlement

 

 

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

Would the New York Times run this headline?

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

It’s not “controversial,” the word you’re looking for is ILLEGAL @CNN

 

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

“Netanyahu says” Framing ETHNIC CLEANSING like it’s a kindness. What are you doing  @AP?