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Israel's Begin Doctrine: We Will Not Allow Any Enemy to Obtain Weapons of Mass Destruction that Can Be Turned Against Us

(Jerusalem Post) Gerald M. Steinberg - In 1981, then-prime minister Menachem Begin sent the Israel Air Force to bomb and destroy Saddam Hussein's "peaceful," French-built, Osiraq nuclear reactor, which was about to start making plutonium for nuclear weapons. 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, 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. In contrast to Osiraq, a single undefended target destroyed by eight F-16s, the scale in Iran is very different, but the objective is the same. Now, as then, Netanyahu and other Israeli officials devoted years in trying to convince world political leaders to stop Iran's march toward the ultimate weapon of genocide and mass destruction, and this also failed. The pretense of negotiations bought Iran over 20 years of time to almost cross the nuclear finish line. In 1981, many pundits declared that Israel's action would not stop Iraq from becoming an atomic power, and might accelerate the process. They were wrong, and 44 years later, Saddam is long gone and Iraq has no nuclear facilities. The writer is founder and president of NGO Monitor and professor emeritus of political studies at Bar-Ilan University.
2025-06-19 00:00:00
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