Ariel Sharon - Biography Chapters

1981 Israel attack on Iraq's nuclear plant

June 1981. Election Day is close. Menachem Begin trails in the polls. Two weeks before Election Day Menachem Begin's government decides to bomb the nuclear reactor in Iraq. Sharon actively promotes this operation. Israeli Air Force sends eight fighters to Iraq. They bomb and destroy the Iraqi nuclear plant and return home safely.
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Many years later Sharon writes: "As a member of the Security Affairs Ministers Committee, now known as the Small Cabinet, I was of the opinion that we face a grave danger, and therefore was among those who pushed to strike the nuclear plant in Iraq. I kept talking about it in a small forum. Maybe I was the first to suggest this, but I want to be cautious – maybe there were others too. I raised this issue in the Small Cabinet meetings, in consultations with ministers, some of them were kept confidential for a long time. There were long months of deliberations. From time to time I used to remind Menachem Begin of this issue, stressing how severe it was that an Arab state had a nuclear weapon. I did not concur with the opinion, which was expressed then by Shimon Peres, I think, that if both parties would have nuclear weapon, there would be a reciprocal deterrence. I said that I couldn’t rely on the discretion of Arab states if they had nuclear weapons. Soviet Union or the Unites States have a different set of considerations, and they are more responsible, even though the balance of terror always seemed dangerous to me. But I don’t trust Arab states, I have no idea how they would assess a given situation or what would bring them to use these weapons. I also explained that there was a danger that an Arab nuclear ‘umbrella’ would lead to an escalation of smaller scale actions against Israel, because Israel would refrain from responding to such actions in fear of the nuclear threat.

"As preparations for bombing Saddam’s nuclear reactor went into high gear, news of it inevitably leaked. The Labor Party also began making waves. There was a great danger that the whole operation would be disclosed, which would risk the life of the pilots and lead to calling it off. As for the extent to which I influenced in favor of this operation, I can only say that I have influenced. We were in Prime Minister Begin’s house in Jerusalem when we received the news that the fighters returned safely and that they have bombed and destroyed the nuclear reactor. It was in Shavuot eve, June 1981. Joy and elation overwhelmed the ministers who were there with the Prime Minister.

We left; Begin approached me, embraced me and said something in the lines of, 'I want to thank you. The position you took had a great influence on my decision.'
"In my opinion this is one of the most daring decisions any government ever took. It is something in the scale of the decisions Ben Gurion used to take."

On May 1981, Only a month before the strike on the Iraqi nuclear plant, Ariel Sharon went to Egypt to prepare a summit meeting between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The summit was held in Sharm El Sheikh on June 4, 1981, two days before the bombing of the Iraqi nuclear plant.
Sharon: "It was a difficult situation. The nuclear reactor in Baghdad was rapidly becoming ‘hot’, an operative reactor about to produce fissile material. We had a great interest in the summit between Begin and Sadat. This summit was very important. After Defense Minister Ezer Weizman resigned, the relations with Egypt were maintained mostly by the Agriculture Ministers, me and my colleague, the late Dr. Daud. In my visit to Egypt on May 1981, in a private conversation with President Sadat, I told him that Begin is interested in meeting him. He immediately agreed. We faced a dilemma. We had to decide what to do. It was clear to us that if we strike the nuclear plant right there and then, there would be no summit. And if we destroy the nuclear plant right after the Begin-Sadat summit it would seem as if the two leaders had conspired, which could have severely harm Sadat. We did not want to harm him, of course. Therefore it was evident that the summit should take place first and as soon as possible. Secondly, that there should be a time gap between these two events. Eventually the famous summit was set to be held in Sharm El Sheikh… When we finally sat with Begin and Sadat for lunch in Sharm El Sheikh… I felt uneasy. I knew that in a few days time we were about to attack the nuclear reactor. Begin-Sadat summit was in Thursday and the bombing of the nuclear plant was scheduled for the following Sunday, and this is when it was in fact carried out."

The daring and successful operation of the Israeli air force is hailed in Israel and the Likud Party wins the elections. At last, Ariel Sharon achieves his goal and is appointed defense minister.

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