The occupation prime minister will not pass Benjamin Netanyahu In the collective Israeli memory, the man who recorded himself as the longest-serving prime minister and the most controversial is associated with the greatest defeat in Israel’s history on October 7, 2023. In an attempt to escape from this, he is accumulating existential risks to Israel by continuing the war, and in the future he may become known in their eyes as the “father of the Iranian nuclear bomb.”
Between two memories
This September marks the 17th anniversary of the destruction of the Syrian nuclear reactor in Deir ez-Zor, which Israel considers one of its most prominent strategic achievements, during the era of the former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (2006-2009).
Olmert was branded as the first Israeli prime minister to go to prison (in 2016) on corruption charges. He is one of Netanyahu’s fiercest opponents, and believes that he is working to destroy Israel. However, he is credited – in the Israeli collective memory – with having saved Israel from an imminent nuclear threat.
Yossi Melman, an Israeli military analyst and writer, says in an article in Haaretz that much of the credit for destroying Syria's nuclear reactor goes to the firm leadership of then-Prime Minister Olmert.
By comparison, Melman believes that the 17 years that have passed since the destruction of the Syrian reactor reveal the depth of the gap between the image that Netanyahu tries to present of himself as a historic leader in the style of the British leader Winston Churchill, and the reality that shows him as a hesitant and weak leader who lacks the courage required to deal with the threat of the Iranian nuclear program.
Troy in London
In 2007, the Israeli Mossad obtained “conclusive evidence” that complemented information accumulated over the previous years, indicating that Syria had secretly built a nuclear reactor in the desert area of Al-Kibar in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, in the northeast of the country. The isolated site is located 160 kilometers from the Iraqi border, and not far from the Turkish border.
In July of the same year, a senior Syrian official arrived at a hotel in Kensington, London, and in the evening hours, the man headed to the city centre for an interview.
The moment he left the hotel, two people sitting in the reception hall went up to his room and searched it thoroughly. They didn’t have to make much of an effort; the guest’s laptop was on the table. They installed a Trojan horse on his computer (spyware that allows the intruder to track the computer and copy whatever they want from it) and within minutes were out of the room.
Shocking information
The Mossad obtained invaluable information from the computer, and revealed – for the first time – a secret Syrian nuclear project. The information found was astonishing and shocking, as neither American nor Israeli intelligence knew anything about it. The documents revealed:
- A program to build a nuclear reactor in the Deir ez-Zor region.
- Correspondence with North Korean government officials.
- Images of a nuclear reactor that appears to be covered in concrete.
- An Asian person was identified as a senior official in North Korea's nuclear program, and the other was an Arab, who was later identified as Ibrahim Othman, head of the Syrian Nuclear Energy Commission.
The surprising information for Tel Aviv – according to the authors Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mashal in their book “Mossad and the Great Operations” – was that the Syrian reactor was built with Iranian funding and the help of experts from North Korea. They pointed out that the relationship between Damascus andPyongyang It started during the era of the former president. Hafez al-Assad (1970-2000)
The visits between the two countries resulted in the signing of a military and technological cooperation agreement. Although the nuclear issue was on the table, Assad decided to postpone it and focus on developing chemical and biological weapons.
In February 1991, the first shipment of missiles from North Korea arrived in Syria, and then-Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens refused to take action to stop the shipment in order to avoid a regional crisis.
Secret relations with Pyongyang
On the sidelines of his father's funeral, the current president met Bashar al-Assad With members of the North Korean delegation, the two sides began secretly discussing the Syrian nuclear project with the Syrian Scientific Research Agency.
In July 2002, a secret meeting was held in Damascus between Syrian, Iranian and Korean representatives, where a deal was agreed upon to build the nuclear reactor. It turned out that the Americans and Israelis had not known for 5 years that the Syrians were secretly building a nuclear reactor.
He was Mossad Military Intelligence Division (safetyThey believe that Syria is not interested in obtaining nuclear weapons and does not have the capability to do so, despite all the indications and reports that arrived in the years preceding the disclosure of its nuclear reactor.
In 2005, a ship carrying cement from North Korea sank off the coast of Nahariya, and in 2006, Cypriot authorities seized a cargo ship also coming from North Korea and carrying cement in addition to a mobile radar device.
At the end of 2006, Iranian nuclear experts visited Syria, and the Americans and Israelis saw all that evidence, but they did not conclude that it was about building a nuclear reactor.
Ram Ben-Barak, head of one of the Mossad's divisions at the time, says: “Anyone who tells you they knew Syria was building a nuclear reactor is lying.”
Syrian anesthesia
The book “Mossad: Major Operations” explains that the Syrians used a method to anesthetize Tel Aviv and Washington. They imposed a complete communications ban on all workers and employees of the reactor, and prohibited the carrying of mobile phones, or the use of any satellite phones. All communications were made through people who transmitted the required data and messages. No party was able to discover the work at the site, although American and Israeli spy satellites were taking pictures non-stop.
But after the Mossad discovered the data related to the nuclear reactor on the computer of the Syrian official in London, the file was placed on the desk of Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, and the Israeli agency was also able to access pictures from inside the building, and the pictures included a cylindrical building with well-supported walls.
Supports also appeared to reinforce the walls, as well as another building smaller than the first with many fuel pumps and trucks around it, and near it a third building appeared to provide the required water, and the Israeli spy unit “8200” obtained calls between Syrian scientists and Korean experts, according to what was published by the Israeli Mossad.
American frequency
Israel was keen to update the Americans with all information immediately, including the talks between Pyongyang and Damascus.
Olmert traveled to the United States, carrying all the information, and at the end of a conversation with the former president George W. BushHe informed him that he intended to attack the Syrian reactor, but the Americans hesitated, and Olmert demanded that a strike be launched against the project, but the Americans refused.
According to Israeli sources, quoting American sources, the White House was not enthusiastic about the attack, and both the then Secretary of State, Condalesa Rice And the Minister of Defense Robert Gates Convincing the Israelis to “confront the Syrians, but not attack them,” President Bush expressed initial support for the attack, but asked for a delay.
Journalist Yossi Melman points out that Bush made it clear to Olmert that the United States was already mired in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and could not afford to open a third front.
The Americans wanted more conclusive evidence that the building was going to be used as a nuclear reactor, and that nuclear materials were actually there, and Israel decided to provide the evidence to the Americans.
Israeli aircraft flew over the Syrian site, according to the Mossad, and obtained images from a spy satellite documenting the activities taking place at the reactor. American and Israeli experts analyzed the images and confirmed that Syria was building a nuclear reactor based on the North Korean model. Some of the images also revealed the faces of North Korean workers building the reactor.
In August 2007, Israel presented what it called the conclusive evidence requested by the United States, claiming that the Syrians were indeed building a nuclear reactor. It did so by obtaining soil samples containing traces of radioactive material, which it considered evidence of the presence of nuclear material at the site.
Implementation of “Operation Orchard”
The new material was quickly passed on to then-National Security Advisor Steve Hadley, who seemed stunned. He quickly called in experts and informed President Bush of the results. After examining the matter, Hadley was convinced that the case was very serious. He held lengthy talks with the heads of the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Mossad, which led him to reach a firm decision that the reactor posed a real threat. The United States was convinced that the reactor had to be destroyed, and the Americans called their file on the Syrian nuclear reactor “Al-Bustan.”
Prime Minister Olmert held a meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and in the presence of the heads of the security services, they discussed the data and expected dimensions of the attack against Syria, and the date of the operation was set for September 5, 2007.
On September 4, Israel sent fighters from the Shaldag unit (an elite air force unit) into the Deir ez-Zor area, with the aim of marking targets with lasers so that aircraft could see them, according to author Michael Bar-Zohar.
The next day, 10 planes took off at 11:00 p.m. from the Ramat David Air Force Base towards the Mediterranean Sea. Half an hour later, 3 of them received orders to return to base, while the other 7 F-15s continued flying towards the Syrian-Turkish border, and from there they infiltrated towards the nuclear reactor.
On their way to the target, the planes bombed a radar to disable the Syrian ability to detect intruding aircraft. A few minutes later, the planes were over Deir ez-Zor, and launched air-to-ground Maverick missiles and half-ton bombs, which accurately hit the target. Thus, within minutes, the Syrian nuclear reactor that could have developed nuclear bombs that would threaten Israel's existence, according to the Israeli narrative, was destroyed.
Assassination of “Syria's Singer”
In April 2008, seven months after the bombing of the reactor, the United States announced that the facility bombed in Syria was a nuclear reactor built with North Korean assistance, and that the reactor was not intended for peaceful purposes. US security officials presented what they described as evidence to members of Congress to highlight the similarities between the North Korean reactor and the Syrian reactor.
The bombing of the nuclear reactor was a difficult blow for Syrian General Mohammed Suleiman (advisor to President Assad), but it was not fatal according to the assessment of the Israeli Mossad, and he knew that he was now a target for Israeli and American intelligence. Suleiman, who was previously unknown to the Mossad, took a few days’ leave and headed to his home in Tartus.
According to the book “The Major Operations,” on July 2, 2008, 11 months after the incident, Suleiman held a dinner party off the Golden Sands beach north of the Syrian Mediterranean city. Suleiman was watching the sea from his seat, but he did not see the two snipers who were in the water 150 meters away from his position after an Israeli ship had dropped them two kilometers away from where Suleiman was.
The Israeli army snipers received accurate information about the location of the man whom Israel accuses of being responsible for relations with Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as coordination with North Korea.
The two snipers aimed their weapons at Suleiman's head as he sat among his guests. They were given the signal and opened fire at the same moment.
With the arrival of information in the Arab, Western and Hebrew press about the assassination of Muhammad Suleiman, Damascus confirmed the news without referring to his status as anything more than “an officer in the Syrian army,” noting that “a crime occurred and investigations are ongoing to find out who committed this crime.”
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported at the time that officials in Tel Aviv, most likely from intelligence, were calling Brigadier General Mohammed Suleiman “Syria’s Singer,” in reference to the military leader of Hezbollah. Imad Mughniyeh Who was assassinated by the Israeli occupation on February 12, 2008 in Syria.
According to Haaretz, Suleiman was responsible for transferring weapons from Iran to Hezbollah through Syrian territory, especially long-range missiles manufactured in Syria, a number of which the party fired towards Israel during the aggression on Lebanon in 2006.
Netanyahu.. The King of Showmanship
After the destruction of the Syrian nuclear reactor, Israel maintained its complete silence for two weeks, during which it did not acknowledge the bombing of the reactor. However, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the opposition at the time, gave an interview to Israeli television, and in response to a journalist’s question about the matter, he said, “When the government works for the security of Israel, I support it. I have been a partner in this issue from the first moment and have provided the necessary support for it.”
Olmert's associates responded angrily to these statements: “We are extremely surprised by what this man said. He is irresponsible and thoughtless. This is the real Netanyahu.”
A former Mossad agent tells Haaretz that Iran's nuclear sites are spread throughout the country, some of them well protected underground, “and Israel cannot act alone. Nor can it prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear bombs.”
For the Israelis, Olmert made a decisive decision to destroy the Syrian nuclear reactor, and analysts see him as “a brave leader who prevented hostile Arab states from possessing nuclear weapons,” in their estimation, as did Menachem Begin, who ordered the destruction of the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981.
As for Benjamin Netanyahu, he will remain in the collective memory of Israelis only as a “failed leader with empty slogans.” He is responsible for the defeat in the Palestinian attack on October 7, and he may be the “father of the Iranian nuclear bomb,” after Tehran became on the threshold of nuclear weapons, despite his recent statement, “I am here to prevent nuclear bombs from falling on our heads.”