Operation Babylon

Israeli Air Force F-16A Netz 243, flown by Colonel Ilan Ramon in Operation Opera.¹

"Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon." (Joshua 10:12). Once more Israel prevailed over her enemy.

On 7 June 1981, the lead F-16 Falcon lumbered forth from its subterranean vault onto the tarmac, spewing fire and smoke. 2,000-pound Mark-84s were positioned under each wing. The plane listed side to side as each munition was alternatively secured to the under-carriage. Improvised twin auxiliary fuel tanks hung pendent between the munitions. Seven more similarly configured Fighting Falcons soon completed the wedge formation and were joined by a contingency of six flanking F-15 Eagles.

Colonel Ze'ev Raz could not help but glace overhead as he applied the throttle of the lead Falcon leaving reminder of his squadron exposed and vulnerable on the tarmac. The Pratt & Whitney F100 roared to life that late desert afternoon in June. It raced down the airstrip, but could not lift off in the heat rarified air. Each Falcon was so overloaded with munitions and auxiliary fuel, every structural specification was far exceeded. The required F100 thrust could only be achieved by transgression of the potentially catastrophic turbine’s RPM red-line.

The lead Falcon strained and screamed and shuttered in convulsive agony as it struggled to break the chains that bound it to earth, until at last it was free! Then, two by two, the remainder of the squadron coalesced into the confluence of Raz's contrail. Then each Son of Israel began his dance of death with the late afternoon shadow his plane projected on the rolling desert sand, may they never meet at 1000 feet under radar, on that caravan to Bagdad.

Before sunset, Saddam Hussain’s burgeoning nuclear program and the French constructed Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad were no more.² 

Having completed the mission without a single causality, the squadron quickly retreated into the setting sun, traveling at the "tangential velocity" of the earth. After it became obvious that they had out distanced any pursuit, each pilot started to relax, transfixed by the sun "suspended" in the sky above the horizon. 

Then came a cascade of the breaking of radio silence with each pilot reciting the same exact verse in Hebrew one to another – "Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and moon, over the Valley of Ayalon!" Once more Israel prevailed over her enemy.

"Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies." (cf. Joshua 10:12-13)

A quarter century after Operation Babylon, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert requested that the U.S. bomb Syria's clandestine North Korean constructed and equipped nuclear facility, but Bush refused. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, also trying to preempt the operation, withheld U.S. approval of Operation Orchard, another Israeli “mission impossible,” until Israel had no option, fearing leaks to the media.


Israeli electronic warfare capabilities took control of Syrian airspace, creating a false sky-picture during the preemptive attack on Syria’s covert nuclear program. Israeli F-15Is & F-16Is, again equipped with extended range external fuel tanks, crossed much of Syria without resistance, bombed the nuclear facility totally destroying it and returned without incident. An ELINT (Electronic signals intelligence) aircraft also accompanied the squadron. Israeli special-forces commandos deployed the previous day to highlight the target with laser designators, were also successfully extracted. The only causalities were 10 North Korean technicians presumably extracted in lead-encased coffins, and Iran's 1-2 billion investment in the North Korean constructed and equipped nuclear facility.


In 2014, as an Iran-U.S. secret agreement over Iran’s nuclear program was about to be signed, preparations for another Israeli "mission impossible" military response against an existential threat -- Iran’s nuclear facilities were complete; Israeli fighter jets reportedly making incursions into Iranian airspace without contest. However when President Obama then threatened to shoot down the Israeli jets before they could reach their targets in Iran, Prime Minister Netanyahu had no option but to abort the Iranian sanction, which was also a North Korean sanction considering Iranian-North Korean co-development and exchange of nuclear technology.



¹By KGyST - Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3556262

²Israel consistent with the, "eye for eye, tooth for tooth," Law of Moses always reserves "the right of response!" Such was the case with the "belated" 1981 response for the Babylonian provocation of 586 B.C.