Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Nuclear War Threats Against Israel and USA

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                           
Syria's Nuclear Plant
The Iraqis and Syrians threatened nuclear bombing against Israel in 1981.  Major Yadlin and 7 other Israeli pilots bombed Osirak, an Iraqi nuclear reactor built for them by the French.  I was living in Safed, Israel at that time teaching English to junior high students there. 
                                                       
Syrians at Deir ez Zor fighting ISIS
Think what would happen if they had taken over a nuclear reactor.   

 Major Yadlin of the IDF went on to become chief of military intelligence in 2007.  He was in charge of collecting intelligence on the North Korean-built Syrian nuclear reactor in Deir ez Zor. This reactor was on the outskirts of Baghdad and seemed impossible to bomb.  At that time, it was too far from Israel to fly to and bomb.  But they dared, and it happened on June 7, 1981.  The 8 bombers felt they had just prevented another 2nd Holocaust.  In 2004, Yadlin thought they had failed to detect a Libyan nuclear project.  That's when his men discovered in 2006 a huge cement structure in Deir ez Zor hiding a North Korean plutonium reactor.  He shared this knowledge with the PM Ehud Olmert and an American intelligence chief, and both pooh-poohed his worries.  They had been following Aluf (General)  Meir Dagon, head of Mossad and was an Israel Defense Forces Major General who said that there was no Syrian reactor.  By March 2007, intelligence changed their position.  Dagon demanded immediate reaction before the reactor could be started up and before the Syrians found out that Israel knew of their secret.  Yadlin helped with Operation Orchard which was designed to also help Syria's President Assad save face:  no core, no war.  

It went this way:  on September 5, 2007, 4 bombers, escorted by 4 other planes,  These 8 planes dropped 17 tons of explosives on the plutonium plant and flattened it.  Previously, the world had failed to prevent an Arab dictatorship from going nuclear.  The USA failed to act.  Israel was forced to take the initiative and do the job.  

Between 2006 and 2010 Yadlin was the main man in Israeli operations against the Iranian nuclear project.  

There was the Begin Doctrine by Menachem Begin, Prime Minister in June 1981, saying that Israel will not allow any enemy nation to acquire a nuclear weapon, and  Yadlin was following it.   Begin said after bombing in Osirak in Operation Opera, "We chose this moment: now, not later, because later may be too late, perhaps forever. And if we stood by idly, two, three years, at the most four years, and Saddam Hussein would have produced his three, four, five bombs. ... Then, this country and this people would have been lost, after the Holocaust. Another Holocaust would have happened in the history of the Jewish people. Never again, never again! Tell so your friends, tell anyone you 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."                                                     
Bushehr Nuclear Plant
Iran's testing of the Shahab missiles
The Shahab-3 represents Iran's first successful acquisition and development of a medium-range ballistic missile that give it the capability to threaten targets (such as Israel) which lie beyond its immediate borders.

The biggest and constant threats of destruction of Israel have been coming from Iran, which is further away from Israel than Iraq or Syria.  They are taking their time building such a bomb by doing it safely, whereas the others were in a hurry.  They built a reactor in Bushehr, another one in Arak, one at a military complex in Parchin, a uranium enriching facility in  Nataz, and an underground bunker in Fordow.  That's 5 different sites!   They are trying to do most of their work with international legitimacy.  Back in 2006 when Yadlin was the IDF's intelligence man, the Iranians had already started to enrich uranium in Natanz.  
                                                        

By November 2007, all 16 American spy agencies called the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) said that there was no good evidence that Iran was trying to build a nuclear weapon.  The NIE didn't want George W. Bush from acting against Iran and starting a 3rd World War.  Yet, 4 different Israeli teams in Mossad and in their military intelligence said Iran was advancing towards military nuclear capabilities and the Americans grossly underestimated the state of the Iranian program. 
                                                          
Iran's Fajr 5, a long distance,  missile heading toward Israel 
Former Iranian President Ahmadinejad

 Israel saw how much Iran wanted to be leader in the Middle East where Saudi Arabia held that title at the time.  It had much to do with being leader in Islamic thinking as much as anything else.  Today, even the Middle Eastern Arab nations are expecting Israel to protect them from Iran who threatens them all.  

As for other nations, France and Britain seem to understand Iran's motivation.  China, Russia and India had been partially collaborating with Iran.  Many countries in Europe were continuing to trade with Iran.  

Israel itself was tied up politically and not quite focused on Iran as it should have been.  In the meantime, Iran's centrifuges have been multiplying and their uranium has been piling up.  
                                                        
PM Netanyahu at UN explaining how close Iran Was to Nuclear Capability
The Democrats walked out when he spoke to the Senate about it.
This is the famous red-line speech  done in 2012.  He asked for international action.  The critical benchmark was 2013-14.  The destiny of Israel was
in Obama's hands.  

In 2009 Benjamin Netanyahu became Prime Minister in April and his feelings were that Iran would be another Nazi Germany of the 21st Century.  To him, the West of the 2000s were more like the West of the 1930s as far as Jews were concerned.  He was determined not to let Jews be led again to some sort of nuclear Auschwitz.  He knew his life's mission was to prevent Iran from going nuclear.  Netanyahu's speech may have had an impact on those who listened in the UN. There was international pressure afterwards.  
                                                                
President  Rouhani of Iran
Hassan Rouhani is an Iranian politician serving as the current and seventh President of Iran since 3 August 2013. He was also a lawyer, academic, former diplomat and Islamic cleric
. 

That brought about Iranian political change of 2013.  
                                                        

 Several of our heads had left for a luncheon that was more important to them.  Now Iran has passed the point of stopping them.  Israel will be forced to choose between being hit by the bomb or bombing the plant.  

What they did not understand is the mindset of the Syrians and how their religion sees things differently.  They are deadly serious but very impressive.  To the Israelis, they were also a more distant problem with the Palestinians taking up all their attention.  Americans had their hands full with al-Qaeda and Afghanistan and Iraq.  

Dimona is Israel's nuclear reactor.  That one reactor has been keeping Israel protected from all the Muslim nations that surround her.  There's always that possibility that Israel will get fed up and use it.  


Resource: MY PROMISED LAND by Ari Shavit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begin_Doctrine