In 1981, Israeli pilots covertly flew into Iraq and blew up the Tammuz nuclear reactor in what Israelis proudly call Operation Opera. The overnight mission prevented Saddam Hussein’s regime from acquiring the technology to build a nuclear weapon.
While most of the world silently approved of Israel’s unilateral action, the Iraqis were not too happy about their expensive new toy being destroyed. Today, they want Israel to pay for it, 29 years later.
Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has his foreign ministry researching whether United Nation’s resolution 487, approved in the years after the strike, would allow Iraq to extract monetary damages from Israel.
I would put my money down that Israel never pays Iraq a cent, shekel, or dinar for the defensive act carried out against an enemy recently involved in attacks against Israel as recently as 1973 and has attacked since in 1991.
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