Israel’s 2007 Decision to Attack a Syrian Nuclear Facility is Both History & Warning
Published
4 months ago
on
By
Edwin Black
Katz’s mastery of the facts and his relentless assemblage of puzzle pieces, together with his knowledge of the players and the potentialities, make Shadow Strike a powerful read.
Jerusalem Post editor Yaakov Katz
probably had no way of knowing that this would be a perfect time to release his
briskly-selling Shadow Strike—Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate
Syrian Nuclear Power (St. Martin’s Press). Or did he?
The
world’s attention is once again and inevitably riveted to the nuclear threat
from Iran, generating kaleidoscopic theories about a potential military strike
to disable Tehran’s program. So, Katz’s case study of the run-up and run-down
to the Jewish state’s clandestine destruction of Syria’s nuclear attempt in
2007 is now an imperative read.
Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Katz
flexes both his editorial sinews and his prior government connections (as a
former senior policy advisor) to deliver a suspenseful chronicle, bolstered by
rapid-fire precision and continuous in-room details. Understandably, this
volume will be consulted time and time again by military theorists and
diplomatic observers, wondering how it might be done—just in case it must be
done again.
From the
first “you are there” opening scene that details Mossad Chief Meir Dagan’s
White House presentation on the Syrian threat, the reader is put on notice to
pay close attention. Never failing to paint in the details, Katz skillfully
surrounds each personality in the story with a rich biography and a functioning
profile in the time frame.
For
example, in Chapter 3, when introducing Israeli security cabinet official Rafi
Eitan, the author ensures we know Eitan is more than just a security
functionary taking notes. We are told that Eitan is a man who did a few other
things, such as capture Adolf Eichmann. He was also the man who visited an
American reactor when 200 kilograms of highly enriched uranium disappeared and perhaps,
who-knows, found their way to Israel’s ambiguous nuclear program in
Dimona. Eitan also worked ground operations against the PLO in Lebanon. He also
happened to be the man who recruited and managed Israel’s infamous spy in the
American naval establishment, Jonathan Pollard.
This type
of in-depth storytelling and character building travels from page to page in
Katz’ superb volume. Hence, readers are enveloped in more than the historical
facts. They are transported to the tense, unfolding world of personalities,
events, clashes, countdowns, and decision-making that resulted in the
successful Syrian takedown.
So intense
is the detailing of the decision process that the actual bombing of Syria’s
reactor is but briefly reported in a few paragraphs as an ipso
facto of the narrative.
It might
be easy to conflate the 2007 Syrian challenge to the current Iranian crisis.
Syria was only taking preliminary steps toward nuclearization. Iran now has the
essentials for a nuclear bomb that can be assembled and deployed within weeks,
according to many experts.
Tehran’s
endless centrifuge arrays have spun off enough kilograms of 99 percent Highly
Enriched Uranium that can be compressed into an unstable and dense core encased
in an R-265 Shock Generator configured in a bifurcated sphere lined with 5mm
grooves filled with PETN explosive that can be ignited with microsecond
precision to create the synchronous implosion that will absorbed by an
exploding bridgewire, sturdy enough to transduce and focus the massive
implosion force triggering a neutron initiator to fire one particle into the
warhead core to create the atomic chain reaction that will clap forth a
murderous mushroom cloud.
Additionally,
Iran has developed a fleet of mobile Shahab-3 missiles derived from the North
Korean No Dong, each with a nosecone large enough to carry the nuclear warhead.
Tehran also possesses the flight guidance and ignition control to detonate such
a warhead precisely 550 meters above the ground—mimicking the bombing of
Hiroshima—thus unleashing a ferocious nuclear inferno. In fact, Iran
recently test-fired such a Shahab-3 as a reminder that it still knows
how to pull the trigger.
As an
added factor, Iran wields a Russian S-300 missile defense
system fully capable of protecting its nuclear program and strike assets.
All this just raises the stakes on decision-making and decisions.
When
reading Katz’s book, remember that as complex and difficult was the Syrian
strike, any similar decision on Iran’s nuclear capability will be infinitely
more daunting and riskier. If such a decision is made, the men and women who
make it will stand on the shoulders of those who knocked down Syria’s
facility—but reach for a perilously higher bar.
Katz’s
mastery of the facts and his relentless assemblage of puzzle pieces, together
with his knowledge of the players and the potentialities, make Shadow
Strike a powerful read. The volume also demands that Katz write another.
No one knows if such a sequel will chronicle yet another shadow strike upon
another nation to the north.
Edwin Black is the
award-winning New York Times bestselling author of IBM and the Holocaust and
the journalist who revealed the design specifics of Iran’s nuclear warhead.
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