Osirak bombing

Osirak bombing refers to the Israeli air strike on the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak, twelve miles southeast of Baghdad, on June 7, 1981. The raid was carried out by Israeli F-16s, which had been authorized for purchase by Israel in 1975 for "defensive purposes only."¹

Upon learning of the bombing, U.S. President Ronald Reagan privately expressed delight, remarking, "Well. Boys will be boys." Despite this, the State Department formally condemned the bombing, and some of Reagan's high command, including Caspar Weinberger and George H.W. Bush, proposed sanctions against Israel. However, the suspension of F-16 deliveries was lifted two months later.¹

Within Israel, the bombing was controversial. Yitzhak Hofi, the director of Mossad, and Major General Yehoshua Saguy, chief of military intelligence, both opposed the attack, primarily because there was no evidence that Iraq was yet capable of building a bomb. Yigael Yadin, the deputy prime minister, also dissented. Saguy argued that the adverse reaction in Washington, D.C. would be a more serious national security threat to Israel than the Iraqi reactor. Prime Minister Menachem Begin, however, was buoyed by the success and unilaterally announced the Israeli coup, defending the operation by stating that another Holocaust would have occurred if the reactor had not been destroyed.¹

Begin also made a controversial statement at a British diplomatic reception, claiming that the Israeli planes had destroyed a secret underground facility at Osirak intended for the assembly of Iraqi nuclear bombs. Israeli officials knew this description was not of a facility in Iraq, but rather of a secret underground facility in Israel at Dimona. They attempted to downplay his remarks by stating he had misspoken and that the facility was only four meters deep.¹

Following the bombing, Ariel Sharon concluded that the United States was not a reliable strategic ally. He then turned to a clandestine Israeli intelligence agency under his defense ministry, which began intercepting intelligence on the Middle East and Soviet Union from sensitive American agencies.¹