Levi Eshkol

Levi Eshkol was an Israeli politician who served as Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 to 1969. He had spent eleven years as finance minister, much of it in a struggle against funding for Dimona, and was far less committed emotionally than David Ben-Gurion to the concept of spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually on nuclear activity. Eshkol prioritized better weapons and training for the army and air force, which he and his supporters saw as Israel's most immediate need.¹

Eshkol was more democratic in his politics and personality than Ben-Gurion, and the notion of compromise returned to the leadership of the government and the Mapai Party under his tenure. He moved quickly to lighten government control of the press and set up an independent broadcasting authority, reforms that Ben-Gurion had resisted.¹

Eshkol's apprehension about committing Israel to the mass production of nuclear weapons did not impede the steady progress at Dimona. By mid-1964, the reactor had been in operation for almost two years, and the reprocessing plant was essentially completed and ready to begin producing weapons-grade plutonium.¹