[Opinion] No Nukes: From the Begin Doctrine to the war with Iran
[Excerpts]
In 1981, then-prime minister Menachem Begin sent the Israel Air Force on an unprecedented mission to bomb and destroy Saddam Hussein’s Osiraq “peaceful” French-built nuclear reactor, which was about to start making plutonium for nuclear weapons. The attack was successful, and shocked the Iraqi leader and the world.
This was the origin of the Begin Doctrine, which declared that “we shall defend our people with all the means at our disposal. We will not allow any enemy to obtain weapons of mass destruction that can be turned against us.”
On Friday morning at 2 a.m., Israel time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu applied the Begin Doctrine, authorizing the air force to launch a full-scale attack against Iran’s military leadership, nuclear experts, and main facilities.
