On June 9, 1981, after the bombing of the Osirak reactor in Iraq, prime minister Menachem Begin convened a press conference to address the world.
Two days earlier, Israel had surprised the world, sending a formation of F-16 fighter jets to Iraq to destroy Saddam Hussein’s prized nuclear reactor, named Osirak. The Americans were upset and in about 10 days they would vote in favor of UN Security Council Resolution 487, condemning Israel’s unilateral strike.
But then, just two days after the bombing, Begin and the rest of Israel were still rejoicing in the military success.
“If we stood by idly, two, three years, at the most four years, and Saddam Hussein would have produced his three, four, five bombs then, this country and this people would have been lost, after the Holocaust,” Begin said at the dramatic press conference in Tel Aviv.
“Another Holocaust would have happened in the history of the Jewish people. Never again, never again! Tell so [to] your friends, tell anyone you meet, we shall defend our people with all the means at our disposal. We shall not allow any enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction turned against us.” READ MORE
