Myer Feldman, also known as Mike Feldman, served as President [[John F. Kennedy]]'s presidential point man for Jewish and Israeli affairs. Kennedy viewed Feldman, whose strong support for [[Israel]] was widely known, as a necessary evil and a political debt that had to be paid. Feldman was authorized to monitor all [[State Department]] and White House cable traffic on the [[Middle East]], which created bureaucratic chaos due to his strong bias towards [[Israel]].[^1] Feldman had no illusions about the backbiting within the White House, but his obvious influence made it tolerable. He continued to operate as Kennedy's special envoy to the Israeli government on sensitive issues, including nuclear weapons. He was allowed to visit [[Dimona]] in 1962 and knew firsthand that [[Israel]] was intent on building the bomb.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 8.