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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JUNE 12, 1981
PAGE 10
"The goal for these bombs was Israel. This was explicitly stated by the
Iraqi ruler.
After the Iranians (last September) slightly damaged the
reactor, (Iraqi President) Sadam Hussein remarked that it was pointless for
the Iranians to attack the reactor because it was being built against
Israel alone.••.
"Two European governments (France and Italy) were helping the Iraqi dic
tator, in return for oil, to manufacture nuclear weapons. Once again we
call on them to desist from this terrible and inhuman act.
"On no account shall we permit an enemy to develop weapons of mass de
struction against the people of Israel. We shall defend the citizens of
Israel in good time and with all the means at our disposal."
Worldwide reaction to the surprise raid was expected: Jerusalem was
condemned around the world, even by the United States. To all the denun
ciations, Prime Minister Begin replied, "We are not afraid of any reactions
in the world. I say that with complete openness."
The Soviet Union, of course, implicated Washington in the operation. But,
as one American jokester commented:
"We know the U.S. wasn't involved
because the raid was a success."
While Iraq, bogged down in its war with Iran, is not expected to retaliate,
there will certainly be widespread ramifications to the raid.
The attack will further isolate Israel in the world, if that be possible.
Islamic states are likely to step up their pressure to have Israel--to a
large degree a creation of the United Nations--expelled from the world body
(where it is already the number one polecat).
The raid also severely damages U.S. credibility in the Middle East. It
certainly sets back the attempt to negotiate a diplomatic settlement to the
ongoing Lebanon crisis. The U.S. will be on the Arab world hot seat if it
permits further deliveries of American aircraft to Israel.
Also hampered is Washington's design to "wean" the Arab world away from
Moscow and bring it closer to the West.
Arab nations, including Saudi
Arabia, have asserted that the real threat to peace in the Middle East was
Israel, not the Soviet Union, as the U.S. contends. This assertion seemed
far-fetched at first, but not so much now, at least from the Arab point of
view.
Egypt's President Sadat has been left dangling more precariously in
isolation within the Arab world. The raid came only three days after his
summit talks with Mr. Begin, talks which the Israeli Prime Minister had
asked for. Radical Arabs will certainly claim that Sadat knew what was
corning.
Lastly, Israel will find herself more estranged than ever before from the
nations of Western Europe. The Osirak project was being built by the French
and the Italians, whose leaders naturally denounced the destruction of
their work.
For a while it appeared that relations between Israel and
France would improve, with the possibility of an official visit to Israel
by France's new president Francois Mitterrand, the first visit ever by a
French head-of-state. Though not called off, the visit looks remote now.