Israeli Astronaut Bombed Iraqi Nuclear Reactor in 1981
Julie Stahl
Jerusalem Bureau Chief
The bombing of the primarily French-built Osiraq nuclear reactor near Baghdad brought world outrage and censure on Israel in 1981.
But 10 years later in 1991, when a U.S.-allied coalition faced Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein - who had no nuclear weapons - the West was forced to admit that Israel had done them a great favor.
"They built the reactor with French and Italian help. They were about to start the radioactive process there," said Col. Yoash Tsiddon-Chatto, a member of the Israel Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics and former Chief of Planning and Operational Requirements in the Israel Air Force.
"If we were to bomb it after it became 'hot' it would have been like a nuclear disaster [like in the Ukraine]," Tsiddon-Chatto said. "[Israel] tried to prevent nuclear fallout."
According to Tsiddon-Chatto, Israel waited until the last possible moment to make the decision to attack the reactor and then - despite an international dispute - Israel took action.
"Ten years later, everybody praised us," he said. "The people woke up and said, '[what] if they wouldn't have done this?'" In his opinion, Ramon could "absolutely" be considered an American hero, he said.
\sb100\sa100"Ramon isn't actually American, but we'll honor him anyway by calling him an American hero," wrote James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.
"Imagine how much more serious would be the threat from Saddam Hussein were it not for him and his fellow pilots," Taranto added.
An unnamed senior Israeli official called the attack on the reactor "a milestone in Israeli aviation history." The planes managed to fly over Arab territory for hours without being detected, the official was quoted as saying in Friday's Jerusalem Post.
The planes flew in a tight formation in order to give off a radar signal like a large commercial plane.
Ramon is one of seven astronauts orbiting earth right now on a 16-day micro-gravity research mission in the Columbia space shuttle, which blasted off on Thursday.
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