Menachem Begin Heritage Center, Bulletin Vol. 6, No. 33 | June 10, 2010
29 YEARS SINCE THE ATTACK ON OSIRAK
This week marks 29 years since the bombing of the nuclear reactor Tammuz at Osirak, outside of Baghdad, Iraq. In 1981, Prime Minister Menachem Begin took the decision to use whatever means necessary to defend the security of the State of Israel. On Sunday morning, June 7, 1981, when the facility was to have been empty and before it went "hot", the Israel Air Force flew a squadron on what seemed to be a "mission impossible" flying below radar over enemy territory and bombed the nuclear facility.
Israel was internationally condemned, but history has since redeemed Israel for its courageous, daring and ultimately heroic mission.
Here is an excerpt from the press conference with Menachem Begin on June 8, 1981:
Tell so your friends, tell anybody you will meet, we shall defend our people with all the means at our disposal. We shall not allow any enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction turned against us. I hope that in the days to come all men and women of good will, wherever they live, will understand our motives: it was an act of supreme, legitimate self-defense. And in vain do they seek in the capital of our ally and friend the United States, reasons to complain that we perhaps misused the weapons we got from the United States. They were given to us for the purpose of self-defense. I would like to repeat my statement: And in this case it was an act of supreme, a morally supreme act of national self-defense. No fault whatsoever on our side. If there will be a debate, we shall clarify every point.
I mentioned during my statement, Egypt. I would like to explain to you why. In the morning, I sent a private letter to President Sadat, as I sent yesterday evening a letter to President Reagan, explaining to President Sadat as well what our motives were in acting when we decided to send our pilots against that Iraqi reactor called "Ossiraq". I hope the president of Egypt will understand. I just explained in simple words the danger, the necessity and the action. I am sure that President Reagan, who got my letter yesterday, will understand fully our motives.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude my introductory remarks with a word of praise for our soldiers, for our fighting men, for our chief-of-staff, for the commander of the Air Force, for the head of our Army intelligence, and for our pilots. Lieut.-General Eitan, Maj.-General Ivri, Major-General Saguy will agree with me, if I send from here our greetings and expressions of our gratitude above all to our pilots. I don't think that since Dunkirk, since Winston Churchill used his famous saying, about the many who owe so much to the few - that saying applies more today to our pilots - the few ones who went out, covered the distances of more than 1,800 kms., without any possibility of forced landing - all over enemy territory, in order to carry out the mission, and the target was surrounded by antiaircraft guns, by land-to-air missiles and by fighter-planes, and yet they went there, into the lions' den, in order to defend their people. God bless them all.
To read the full text of his speech and the press conference go
HERE.
For those who are interested in more details, Youtube has a 5 minute video of Lt. Col. (ret.) Ze'ev Raz, squadron leader, talking about his part in Operation Opera, as the mission was called. (In ENGLISH.) Please go
HERE
IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
Richard Allen wrote a opinion piece in the New York Times about the US reaction to the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Iraq:
I ordered the officer to get the president off the helicopter and to the phone without delay, but he demurred, indicating that the president might not like to be recalled. I suggested that if he wasn’t immediately brought to the phone, there would be consequences. I could hear the whirring of the helicopter blades in the background.
In what seemed an eternity but was only two minutes or so, President Reagan was on the line, a slight note of irritation in his voice: “Yes, Dick, what is it?” I quickly recited what happened, and he asked me to repeat the message. After pausing for a few seconds, he asked, “Why do you suppose they did that?” My answer was something to the effect that the Israelis clearly did not want that reactor to become operational.
He went silent, and the phone line again filled with the churning of the copter. With characteristic aplomb, he suddenly asked: “Well, you know what?” I said, “What, Mr. President?” His retort was classic: “Boys will be boys!”
For the full text of this article go
HERE.
BOOK WEEK IN ISRAEL
This week is Book Week in Israel. The Begin Center with our various publications has a booth at three locations in Israel. In Jerusalem, the book fair is across the street from the Begin Center in Liberty Bell Park. The two other book fairs where we are also represented are in Be'er Sheva and in Haifa.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Sunday, June 13, 2010, at 7:30pm an event will take place at the Begin Center commemorating 70 years since the start of the Lehi in the presence of the Speaker of the Knesset Reuven Rivlin, Minister of Culture Limor Livnat and Lt. General (res) Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon. Speakers will include Yair Stern, head of the Lehi Veterans' Association; Prof. Ayeh Eldad, Dr. Natan Bron, Shlomo Nakdimon and Nehemiah Ben Tor. Geula Cohen will read the poem "Yair".