When a nuclear monopoly exists between two states, and their opponent does not, there is a greater chance of war.

For the four years that the United States had a nuclear monopoly, it could afford the luxury of visionary ideas.

Nobody should want an Iraqi bomb, but Israel cannot hope to keep a nuclear monopoly for ever.

He convinces the President and Cabinet that the only solution is to use the American nuclear monopoly while it still exists.

Two months ago, the five official nuclear weapons states got the rest of the world to agree to extend their nuclear monopoly indefinitely.

"Our hope is that those nations that want to continue their nuclear monopoly will accept that the same rules should apply to all," he said.

"Ultimately this is a fight over the Israeli nuclear monopoly in the region," Cohen said.

The announcement shocked a nation that had come to view its nuclear monopoly as the ultimate defense against Communist aggression.

The United States' short-lived nuclear monopoly was over, and the cold war suddenly shifted into high gear.

More frightening yet, Israel's presumed nuclear monopoly in the Middle East may disappear.