Wow. This may be the single stupidest question I've seen a major media organization ask in a long time - not to mention biased, as Yitzchak already noted.
What is heartwarming to see are all the responses the question is getting. The first [most recent] page of comments (15 of them) are all pro-Israel or incredulous that the BBC could even ask such a question. On the page before that, 13/15 are. As I write this, the most recent comment is by someone named American Jewess:Was Israel's destruction of Iraq's nuclear reactor 25 years ago justified?
Israeli warplanes set back Saddam Hussein's nuclear programme when they bombed his main reactor in 1981.
The UN Security Council condemned the attack and called on Israel to account for its own undeclared nuclear programme - a demand Israel still ignores.
Do you think Israel was justified in bombing Iraq's nuclear reactor? Is it right for any state in the Middle East to have nuclear weapons when the region is so unstable?
It was wrong to bomb Iraq's nuclear reactors. The Jews have no right to self-defense. In fact, they have no right to exist. A nation 3,500 years old has already overstayed its welcome on this earth -- just ask the Muslims and other enlightened people, and they will tell you as much. As for the historic claim to the land, that is absurd. Jews have been in the region for only 3,500 years, while the Muslims have been in that region for 1,200 years . . . oh, wait, um . . . .Heh. Or, as someone named Jack pointed out:
Surely, one of the dumbest questions ever asked by any media anywhere. As anyone with the slightest glimmer of intelligence has agreed since then, a nuclear Saddam would have been a complete disaster. Leave it to the BBC never to miss an opportunity to stir the pot of antisemitism.Well put. This BBC post is just plain sickening.
Why shouldn't the BBC ask the question. Deputy PM Peres does: "Begin wanted to wait until he had cabinet unity. Ministers Yosef Burg, Yigael Yadin and Ezer Weizman initially did not agree, they did not think it would do any good," Raz told The Jerusalem Post. 'Shimon Peres, to this day, still says it was a big mistake, but in the end, Chief of General Staff Rafael Eitan, Air Force general David Ivry, and Begin himself persuaded the other ministers to go along with the raid."
ReplyDeletePeres even pulled a stunt that almost scuttled the mission. It had the effect of delaying it for a few weeks.
And if you think it is sheer moonbattery (yes I'm using that term too much) read this.
Yes the BBC is asking the question from a legalistic standpoint and Peres's argument is utilitarian or strategic. But that he asks the question emboldens others.
(I recently completed Raid on the Sun about the mission.)