WarSclerotic

Source: IDF chief: Reactor strike showed Israel will not tolerate existential threats – Israel Hayom

The message from the strike on the Syrian nuclear reactor is clear: Israel will not tolerate existential threats, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot said Wednesday, after the Israeli military confirmed it carried out the 2007 airstrike that destroyed a nuclear reactor b eing built in eastern Syria.

Although Israel was widely believed to have been behind the airstrike on the Deir ez-Zor facility on  Sept. 6, 2007, it has never before commented publicly on it.

Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz suggested Wednesday that the timing of the revelation meant to send a message to Iran.

“The operation and its success made clear that Israel will never allow nuclear weaponry to be in the hands of those who threaten its existence – Syria then, and Iran today,” he wrote on Twitter.

A statement by Eizenkot said, “The message from the attack on the nuclear reactor in 2007 is that the State of Israel will not allow the development of capabilities that threaten its very existence. That was our message in 2007, this remains our message today, and it will remain our message to the enemy in the future.”

The chief of staff described the attack as “the most significant strike in Syria since the [1973] Yom Kippur War.”

Eizenkot, who was GOC Northen Command at the time, recalled learning of the reactor’s existence from a Military Intelligence official.

“I understood this was an unusual matter because he didn’t want to discuss it over the phone. When we met, he laid out the intelligence and all the details, the big picture, if you will, and I knew this was a significant event,” Eizenkot said.

“As a result, we adjusted the training program in the Northern Command. It was agreed that the only people who would be looped in would be me and the command’s intelligence officer, while the official story as far as the other senior commanders are concerned would be ‘improving war readiness.’

“In the summer of 2007, I briefed the senior commanders. I gave them a general overview of the intelligence on hand – nothing specific about the target and its nature – but I told them that there was going to be a very significant strike in the next 24 to 48 hours, and that there was a chance, albeit a low one, that it could lead to war.”

Eizenkot stressed that “the message was that the IDF had to be prepared for rapid escalation that could result in war. The past concept, that there is a ‘window’ during which the military can catch up – I don’t think that exists anymore in our neighborhood.

“Israel has been blessed with an outstanding intelligence community. The integration of forces is a multiplier of power with respect to our capabilities. This was clear then and I think that it has intensified since.

“There is always room for improvement, but this is a great example of intelligence cooperation that starts in one organization, moves to another organization and demonstrate an effort by the entire intelligence community to provide the military with the best intelligence in order to enable an optimal execution of the mission,” he said.

Gideon Markowicz

Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin said the current turmoil in Syria has further vindicated the strike, particularly since the reactor was in an area later captured by Islamic State militants.

“Marking 10 years since that operation and looking at the Middle East, we fully understand how much it has affected reality,” he said.

“Imagine what situation we would be in today if there was a nuclear reactor in Syria. In historic hindsight, I think Israel’s decision to destroy the reactor is one of the most important decisions taken here in the last 70 years.”

Norkin said the operation “began as a mission that could have dragged Israel into war, and culminated in a low-signature method of action that expressed the power and precision of the air force.

“This was a complex nighttime mission that required the type of courage and creativity we weren’t accustomed to before, especially considering that we were using fight jets that were only declared operational a few years prior. All these things combined – the cooperation within the IDF, the advanced technology used by the IAF at the time, the skill of the fighters and the decisions made within the military – led to a situation in which, at the moment of truth, it was possible for us to receive the green light and carry out the strike.”

Norkin said that “we focused our work on two axes: preparing all the scenarios for the strike, and preparing the IAF for a potential subsequent war. Only a handful of individuals were privy to the actual intelligence and many others were part of the preparation, but had no knowledge of the target. In each squadron, there was only one pilot who was the point man – the rest of the crews learned of the target only a few hours before the operation.

“Some of the fighters that led this mission currently man high-ranking positions in the military and air force, which attests to the quality of these individuals. To a certain extent, this was a double journey in terms of the inherent secrecy and the sense of national responsibility,” he said.

March 21, 2018

Israel lifted the censorship gag on details surrounding the daring operation that destroyed a Syrian nuclear threat. 

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

An IAF F-15 (IAF)

A decade after the crucial secret operation, Israel officially acknowledged that it attacked and destroyed the Al-Kibar nuclear facility in Syria, which was in its last stages of construction at the time.

During the night between September 5 and 6, 2007, Israel secretly bombed the nuclear reactor, in accordance with the Begin Doctrine, which states that no Israeli adversary in the Middle East would be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.

In a secret mission known as operation “Out Of The Box,” authorized by then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, eight Israeli Air Force (IAF) aircraft flew along the Syrian-Turkish border shortly before 1 a.m. and destroyed the Syrian nuclear facility.

The Syrian nuclear project operated under a heavy cloak of secrecy for about six years prior to its destruction. The Al Kibar reactor was situated 900 yards from the Euphrates River and halfway between the borders with Turkey and Iraq, far from Syria’s biggest cities, in the Deir ez-Zor region, 280 miles northeast of Damascus.

For two years prior to the attack, officials in the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate were monitoring the Syrian nuclear project. Their intelligence suggested that the facility would become active toward the end of 2007, which prompted the IDF to initiate an attack.

In March 2007, the Mossad – Israel’s national intelligence agency – raided the home of the head of Syria’s atomic energy commission in Vienna, where they discovered conclusive information about the reactor.

The information recovered by the Mossad operatives included some three dozen color photographs taken from inside the Syrian building, indicating that it was a top-secret plutonium nuclear reactor. The photographs obtained by the Mossad also showed workers from North Korea at the site. The sole purpose of this kind of plutonium reactor, in the Mossad’s analysis, was to produce an atomic bomb.

Olmert: With or without US support

The attack was launched after intense discussions between the American administration, under the leadership of President George W. Bush, and the Israelis.

At a meeting in Washington on June 19 that year, Olmert told Bush that if the US did not destroy the reactor, Israel would do it, even if it lacked US support. Finally, the US declined to participate but did not prevent the Israelis from carrying through with the raid.

The IAF had very little time to prepare for the attack or to account for possible contingencies, such as retaliation by the Syrian forces. Once the attack plan was ready, however, it was possible to execute it within 12 hours from the moment the order would be given.

Prior to the attack, then-IAF Commander, Maj. Gen. (Res’) Eliezer Shkedi personally addressed the combat crews, feeling it was of operational significance, in order to emphasize the transition from routine security measures to a strategic operation while stressing the pilots’ responsibility. At around 7 p.m., hours before the attack commenced, the target was revealed to the aircrews.

“Combatants, today you will be sent to participate in a mission of great importance to the State of Israel and the Jewish people. The mission is to destroy the target and disengage without aircraft losses, as stealthily as possible. The mission is kept under the highest secrecy, both before and after execution, until further notice. I trust you, believe in you, and am convinced of your capabilities. Good luck, Eliezer Shkedi”

The attack

Shortly after midnight, Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni, Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, the deputy Chief of the General Staff, the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate and the head of the Operations Directorate assembled in the aerial war room, the Bor, in the heart of Tel Aviv. From there, they followed all aircrafts’ aerial locations and the communication systems.

The “Ra’am” (F-15I) formation that led the assault took off from Hatzerim Air Force Base in the south at around 10 p.m. The second formation left two minutes later, joined by the rest of the “Sufa” (F-16I) fighter jets, and they refueled together in the air. The aircraft took off in radio silence.

The jets flew low to remain undetected. The entire operation took four hours. At around midnight, the leading formation had reached the necessary distance from the target and began ascending in preparation for the attack maneuver. The ordnance drop occurred minutes later. The aircraft broke contact, and the next formations followed in order to attack. After all the munitions were dropped, the final “Sufa” fighter pilot radioed “Arizona from all of us,” meaning that all of the bombs hit their target and exploded as planned.

The Military Intelligence Directorate estimated that the nuclear facility was damaged beyond repair. As the IDF was preparing for Syrian retaliation, it decided that information about the operation should not be disclosed to the general public at the time.

The operation was deemed a success. The nuclear facility was destroyed and an escalation in the region was prevented.

Only a few years later, the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group captured the Deir ez-Zor region. One can only imagine how much havoc they could have wreaked with a nuclear facility in their hands. The scenarios range from an existential threat to the Jewish state to the disruption of the area’s strategic balance.

‘One of the best decisions made in Israel’

The destruction of the Syrian reactor was an historic operation of great significance for the State of Israel and the Jewish People and one of the most important military operations in the IAF’s history.

“When faced with today’s reality, the decision to destroy the reactor is one of the best decisions made in Israel over the past 70 years”, declared Lt. Gen. Amikam Norkin, current commander of the IAF. “The principles according to which the IAF prepared for the attack are also the IAF’s principles today. They help the air force maintain its relevance.”

Two months after the operation, Olmert concluded: “There were many disputes regarding all sorts of alternatives, but in the end, we all know one thing – the strategic force, which makes the difference in Israel’s international strength, is the aerial force. Our aerial force will be the determining factor in all possible confrontations that we will possibly – hopefully not – deal with in the future.”

Lifting of censorship coincided with the publication of Olmert’s memoirs and follows a petition to the High Court of Justice by Israel’s Channel 10, which is now permitted to air an interview with Olmert and the then-Mossad chief, the late Meir Dagan, on the bombing of the reactor.

Current Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, OC Northern Command at the time of the operation, said the message that should be taken from the incident is that “Israel will never accept an existential threat against it. That was the message in 2007, and that is the message to our enemies in both the near and distant future.”

Video added by JK