Two Minutes Over Baghdad: The True Story of the Daring Destruction of the Iraqi Nuclear Plant - Told for the First Time

by Amos Perlmutter, Michael I. Handel, Uri Bar-Joseph

A detailed account of the way Israel dealt with the Iraqi nuclear buildup between its launch in 1974 and the destruction of the Tamuz I reactor on 7 June 1981. This updated account includes formerly classified information and photographs taken during the mission and from US spy satellites.

Genres: Military Fiction, History

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1982

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with "Vulcan 607", which I reviewed unfavourably a few weeks ago, this account of an extraordinary episode in recent military and political history is hampered by repetition, stilted writing, and an inability to decide exactly what genre it wishes to occupy. Some of this is probably down to the fact that it was co-authored by three people, all of them eminent academics, none of them - on this evidence - with much idea how to tell a story (admittedly, a complex and controversial one) in a straightforward, accessible manner. One would have imagined that the publisher would insist on a decent editing job, and had such a process taken place it would certainly have greatly reduced the length of the narrative while probably making it more readable. But we will never know.

In short, the tale goes thus. In the late 1970s, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein found a remarkably compliant set of collaborators in the French and Italian governments and industry, willing to help him build nuclear reactors which, plainly, he intended to use for developing nuclear weapons. The Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin, understandably objected to this, and ordered steps to be taken to sabotage the project. Said steps, since they involved the security service Mossad, probably included assassinations and bombings in Italy and France. When none of this dissuaded Saddam's national and corporate suppliers from taking his petrodollars, Begin badgered, bullied, and ultimately persuaded his Cabinet to approve a direct attack on the reactor complex itself. This took the form of a long-range air attack in June 1981, by 14 fighters and attack planes, which managed to overfly and avoid the radar defences of three of Israel's Arab enemies, totally destroying the reactors and returning to base without loss. The Iraqis - at the time in a war they had recently provoked with neighbouring Iran - did not even know who had done it until Israel claimed responsibility the following day. There followed a great deal of outraged hopping up and down - a transcript of the vainglorious and furious official Iraqi rant that ensued probably justifies this book on its own - and even the government of the USA, which had sold the planes to Israel, pretended embarrassment, even embargoing further deliveries for... two whole months. Begin used the raid as a tool in his reelection campaign, ironically angering the military pilots involved, who were all supporters of the Opposition. But the fact is that the operation removed nuclear weapons from the hands of Saddam - who, it should be remembered, was quite willing to fire missiles at non-combatant Israel during the 1991 Gulf War - and he was never able to regain them. For that, I suggest - as does the one author (Bar-Joseph) who lived to see his downfall - we should all be grateful.

[Natan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good and interesting description of one the most important events in recent MIddle East history. In 1981 Israel successfully bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor designed to produce an atomic bomb, basically endng Saddam Hussein's quest for such a weapon.

[Stuart Killbourn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is interesting from the point of view that it tells the story behind an important military and political event: the acquisition of nuclear warhead technology by Israel and Israeli prevention of nuclear proliferation by neighbouring Arab states - primarily Iraq in the early 1980s. It lays the blame for nuclear proliferation in the Arab States squarely with France and Italy for exporting the technology in exchange for oil with no consideration of what the consequences would be. Israel deemed it necessary to take action and bomb the Iraqi nuclear facility before it could become operational.

This is a theme close to my first novel, The Nephilim Protocol.

It is not a well-told story. There is a bit of repetition and passing reference to events that maybe were common knowledge at the time, but no longer. As might be implied by the names of the authors, I could not help but feel this was a part explanation of the Israeli point of view - as a PR exercise to explain what they did and why it was necessary. In reading the official statements released at the time by Israel and Iraq, it is shocking how rational and logical the Israeli one is and how bizarre and fanciful the Iraqi one is. It serves to demonstrate how far apart the mindsets of both governments were (and still are). The authors were, however, fairly critical of how the Israeli government handled the international relations and political aspects of the ensuing debate.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be very interesting in parts, but also extremely dated in others. It's not really the book's fault, it was written about current events and covers them in detail, but a lot of that information is now very dated.

I was also expecting more of a narrative account of the actual mission instead of a geo-political overview of the situation. So I was a bit disappointed, again no fault of the book, it covers it from a different angle and does a good job explaining much of what happened.

If this is an area that interests you I'd recommend reading only the technical parts of this book and skipping most of the dated political sections.

[Mm · Rating 5 out of 5]

, Very nice