jerusalem | Former President George W. Bush confirms in his memoir that the target of a 2007 Israeli airstrike was a Syrian nuclear reactor and suggests he quietly approved the airstrike — a revelation with relevance at a time when Israel is calling for a “military option” against Iran’s nuclear program.
Offering insight into how high-stakes diplomacy can play out very differently in private, Bush says the raid showed Israel would go it alone and “made up for the confidence I had lost in the Israelis” because of the indecisive war in Lebanon a year before. In public, by contrast, the United States certainly did not offer praise.
He also revealed that Israel first asked the U.S. to bomb the site, but the Bush administration refused.
The section on Syria is just a small part of “Decision Points,” a memoir that is generating buzz around the world.
In Israel, the reaction has been mostly positive as Israeli media have focused on Bush’s warm praise for ex–Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, his support for Israel’s tough crackdown on Palestinian militants in the last decade and his animosity toward the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.
The September 2007 airstrike in Syria remains one of Israel’s deepest secrets of recent times. Syria announced at the time that its airspace had been invaded but gave no details. Israel has never commented on the operation.
But in his memoir, published this week, Bush provides the strongest confirmation yet of reports, citing experts and unidentified U.S. intelligence officials, that Israel hit a nuclear reactor being built with North Korean assistance.
Bush writes that in spring 2007 U.S. officials strongly suspected that Syria, a bitter enemy of Israel, had been caught “red-handed trying to develop a nuclear weapons capability with North Korean help.” This was based on photos obtained by a foreign intelligence partner of a suspicious building in eastern Syria.
Then–Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked the president “to bomb the compound,” Bush writes. The U.S. refused, saying it had only “low confidence” that Syria was
developing nuclear weapons. Bush wrote that Olmert was disappointed.
The Israeli strike occurred about a year after Israel’s inconclusive war against Hezbollah, in which Lebanese guerrillas battled Israel’s powerful army to a stalemate. The poor
performance raised questions about Israel’s deterrent capabilities.
“Prime Minister Olmert’s execution of the strike made up for the confidence I had lost in the Israelis during the Lebanon war,” Bush wrote, adding that the Israeli leader rejected a suggestion to go public with the operation.
“Olmert told me he wanted total secrecy. He wanted to avoid anything that might back Syria into a corner and force (Syrian President Bashar) Assad to retaliate. This was his operation, and I felt an obligation to respect his wishes,” Bush wrote.
In comments that could have implications for Iran, Bush noted that the Syrian operation was conducted without coordination with the Americans.
“The bombing demonstrated Israel’s willingness to act alone. Prime Minister Olmert hadn’t asked for a green light, and I hadn’t given one,” Bush wrote. “He had done what he believed was necessary to protect Israel.”
Through a spokesman, Olmert declined comment, as did the Israeli military and Syrian officials. Syria denies it has any nuclear ambitions and claims the site was an unused military installation.
Bush’s account does not necessarily mean that Israel will strike Iran, especially as Bush and Olmert are both out of office.
Nonetheless, Eldad Pardo, an analyst at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said the Syrian reactor bombing is “an interesting model” that could offer lessons on Iran.
Pardo said there is a strong “cultural code” in Israel to protect itself from existential threats as a last resort — a fear rooted in the experience of the Holocaust.
“Israel will try as hard as possible not to act alone,” he said. But “when matters of nuclear [threats] and possible genocide are concerned, Israel will act alone as a last resort.” In such cases, Israel wouldn’t tell the U.S. ahead of time because “you don’t embarrass your allies.”
But Ephraim Kam, a strategist at Tel Aviv University, noted that attacking Iran would be far more complicated than neighboring Syria — and would have deeper implications, given Iran’s influence and military capabilities. And under the more dovish President Barack Obama, the U.S. has warned Israel against any “surprises,.”
In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed a nuclear reactor being built in Iraq, and Israeli leaders have warned that “all options are on the table” with Iran.