UK cable in 1980 said Israel ready to use bomb

A British ambassador to Israel warned as early as 1980 that Israel would detonate a nuclear bomb in case of a new war with the Arabs, according to previously secret state documents released on Thursday.

"If they (Israelis) are to be destroyed, they will go down fighting this time. They will be ready to use their atomic weapon," Ambassador John Robinson wrote in a cable to the Foreign Office on May 4, 1980. (Reuters)