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Revealed: Alexander Haig only cabinet member to defend Israel after Osirak bombing
At a ceremony commemorating the life of Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson zt"l (May the Memory of the Righteous be a Blessing), whose yahrtzeit (anniversary of the date of his death) is this coming Tuesday, Sherwood "Woody" Goldberg, who was Alexander Haig's Chief of Staff, discloses that Haig was the only Reagan cabinet member to defend Israel after it destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor (32 years ago today on the Gregorian calendar).
In a surprise raid On June 7, 1981 -- 32 years ago today -- Israeli F-16s and F-15s bombed and destroyed a nascent nuclear reactor in Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
As Goldberg told it, President Reagan and his staff were furious at Israel. Not only did she attack Iraq without consulting Washington, seek permission nor give any warning about the attack - but Israel used American fighter jets to get the job done.
When the Americans learned of the strike, Reagan called an emergency cabinet meeting the next day to determine how the administration would respond.
Goldberg related that, one-by-one, President Reagan polled Vice President George H.W. Bush and his cabinet. To a man, the reaction was harsh: "Crush Israel!" was the response from the President's men.
That is, until it was Haig's turn to weigh-in.
"One day you will get down on your knees and thank Israel for doing that," Haig said according to Goldberg, making him the lone dissenter.
Needless to say, America did not "crush" Israel although there were tensions in the immediate aftermath. Less than 10 years later America was at war with Iraq to defend Kuwait in the Gulf War, a k a "Operation Desert Storm."
While we may never know if President Reagan ever did kneel in gratitude to Israel, a nuclear-armed Iraq may have deterred America from that obligation to our ally or cost a great many more American lives.
Yes, time proved Haig prescient.
It is well known that in June 1991, after the first Gulf War, George H.W. Bush's Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney, presented Israel's Air Force Commander David Ivri with a satellite photo of the Iraqi reactor:
"For General David Ivri," Cheney wrote on the photo, "with thanks and appreciation for the outstanding job he did on the Iraqi Nuclear Program in 1981, which made our job much easier in Desert Storm." Ivri, when he was Israeli ambassador to Washington a few years ago, liked the photo so much he had it hanging in his office.
At a ceremony commemorating the life of Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson zt"l (May the Memory of the Righteous be a Blessing), whose yahrtzeit (anniversary of the date of his death) is this coming Tuesday, Sherwood "Woody" Goldberg, who was Alexander Haig's Chief of Staff, discloses that Haig was the only Reagan cabinet member to defend Israel after it destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor (32 years ago today on the Gregorian calendar).
In a surprise raid On June 7, 1981 -- 32 years ago today -- Israeli F-16s and F-15s bombed and destroyed a nascent nuclear reactor in Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
As Goldberg told it, President Reagan and his staff were furious at Israel. Not only did she attack Iraq without consulting Washington, seek permission nor give any warning about the attack - but Israel used American fighter jets to get the job done.
When the Americans learned of the strike, Reagan called an emergency cabinet meeting the next day to determine how the administration would respond.
Goldberg related that, one-by-one, President Reagan polled Vice President George H.W. Bush and his cabinet. To a man, the reaction was harsh: "Crush Israel!" was the response from the President's men.
That is, until it was Haig's turn to weigh-in.
"One day you will get down on your knees and thank Israel for doing that," Haig said according to Goldberg, making him the lone dissenter.
Needless to say, America did not "crush" Israel although there were tensions in the immediate aftermath. Less than 10 years later America was at war with Iraq to defend Kuwait in the Gulf War, a k a "Operation Desert Storm."
While we may never know if President Reagan ever did kneel in gratitude to Israel, a nuclear-armed Iraq may have deterred America from that obligation to our ally or cost a great many more American lives.
Yes, time proved Haig prescient.
It is well known that in June 1991, after the first Gulf War, George H.W. Bush's Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney, presented Israel's Air Force Commander David Ivri with a satellite photo of the Iraqi reactor:
"For General David Ivri," Cheney wrote on the photo, "with thanks and appreciation for the outstanding job he did on the Iraqi Nuclear Program in 1981, which made our job much easier in Desert Storm." Ivri, when he was Israeli ambassador to Washington a few years ago, liked the photo so much he had it hanging in his office.
