Download Raid on the Sun: Inside Israel's Secret Campaign that Denied Saddam the Bomb AudioBook Free
From the earliest days of his dictatorship, Saddam Hussein had vowed to destroy Israel. So when France sold Iraq a top-of-the-line nuclear reactor in 1975, the Israelis were justifiably concerned. The reactor formed the heart of an enormous nuclear plant situated twelve miles from Baghdad, 1,100 kilometers from Tel Aviv. By 1981, the reactor was on the verge of becoming "hot," and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin knew he'd have to confront its deadly potential. He turned to Israeli Air Force commander General David Ivry to secretly plan a daring surgical strike on the reactor -- a never-before-contemplated mission that could end up being one of the very most remarkable military functions of all time.
Written with the full and exclusive cooperation of Israeli Air Force high command, General Ivry (ret.), and every one of the eight mission pilots, Raid on the Sun tells the extraordinary story of how Israel plotted the unthinkable: defying its U.S. and European allies to get rid of Iraq's nuclear threat. Claire recreates a gripping tale of personal sacrifice and survival, of young pilots who faced a almost unsurmountable challenge: how to fly the 1,000-plus-kilometer mission to Baghdad and back using one tank of fuel. He recounts Israeli intelligence's incredible "black ops" to sabotage constructions on the French reactor and eliminate Iraqi nuclear scientists, and he offers a pilot's eye-eye view of the action on June 7, 1981, when the planes roared off a runway on the Sinai Peninsula for the first successful destruction of a nuclear reactor in history.
