Foxbats over Dimona: The Soviets' Nuclear Gamble in the Six-Day War

by Isabella Ginor, Gideon Remez

Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez’s groundbreaking history of the Six-Day War in 1967 radically changes our understanding of that conflict, casting it as a crucial arena of Cold War intrigue that has shaped the Middle East to this day. The authors, award-winning Israeli journalists and historians, have investigated newly available documents and testimonies from the former Soviet Union, cross-checked them against Israeli and Western sources, and arrived at fresh and startling conclusions.

 

Contrary to previous interpretations, Ginor and Remez’s book shows that the Six-Day War was the result of a joint Soviet-Arab gambit to provoke Israel into a preemptive attack. The authors reveal how the Soviets received a secret Israeli message indicating that Israel, despite its official ambiguity, was about to acquire nuclear weapons. Determined to destroy Israel’s nuclear program before it could produce an atomic bomb, the Soviets then began preparing for war--well before Moscow accused Israel of offensive intent, the overt trigger of the crisis.

 

Ginor and Remez’s startling account details how the Soviet-Arab onslaught was to be unleashed once Israel had been drawn into action and was branded as the aggressor. The Soviets had submarine-based nuclear missiles poised for use against Israel in case it already possessed and tried to use an atomic device, and the USSR prepared and actually began a marine landing on Israel’s shores backed by strategic bombers and fighter squadrons. They sent their most advanced, still-secret aircraft, the MiG-25 Foxbat, on provocative sorties over Israel’s Dimona nuclear complex to prepare the planned attack on it, and to scare Israel into making the first strike. It was only the unpredicted devastation of Israel’s response that narrowly thwarted the Soviet design.

Genres: Middle East, Israel, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2007

Reviews

[Raj Agrawal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ginor and Remez provide an alternative theory on how the Six-Day War started: that the Soviets orchestrated a crisis between Israel and Egypt/Jordan/Syria to achieve USSR strategic interests in the region and to balance against further US influence. Their three main claims are: “that the USSR deliberately instigated the crisis and war of 1967; that it did so in the context of blocking Israel’s nuclear program; and that it committed Soviet personnel and weapons for a direct military intervention” (121).

While this book is presented as a work of history, it reads more as a conspiracy novel – filled with uncorroborated evidence, probabilities instead of facts, and an overriding framework of a bias of centralization (see Khaneman; Jervis). While the authors initially offer that the Soviets had as much an interest in Israel’s viability as the US did, they build an argument that the Soviets not only orchestrated an Israeli initial response, but also pre-planned a cover up of their involvement.

After some small amount of reading over the past several months, I believe very much in reading history through alternative perspectives. These types of hypotheses tend to bring new evidence to light that otherwise might have been discarded by more conventional approaches. I am now more apt to believe that there was more to instigation of the Six-Day War than I originally understood; however, I do not believe it is as clear-cut as Ginor and Remez propose. Hypothetically, much of this evidence could be used to prove the involvement of yet another great power with covert ISR resources, yet the authors do not consider this possibility. The authors might have been more credible if they couched their “probabilities of truth” in more humble terms, and if they had not built entire story lines on these probabilities.

This is a fun book to read, and I learned quite a bit about some of the strategic concerns of all involved. I found this to be more educated version of a Dan Brown novel than an actual work of history, but I very much appreciated the opportunity to include this book in my education.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book at a used bookstore & it is exactly why I haunt such places. I never know what I’ll find. Here I found an intriguing story of the Cold War in 1967 that uses the Mig-25 as a core of a narrative (plus the copy I found had a signed book plate!).

I knew the outlines of the Six Day War, that it was the big breakout moment for the Israeli military. What I didn’t realize was just how much the Soviets were involved in formenting it, along with direct action.

Dimona is where Israel had its primary nuclear reactor for producing plutonium. Everyone knew where it was, but couldn’t prove it was the source of bomb material for nuclear weapons. The Soviets didn’t want to have a nuclear power nearby, so they helped push a conflict that would allow them to invade Israel. The Soviets had ships ready to deploy & nuclear armed submarines off shore. The array of naval assets puts the conflict into a clearer perspective. (It is similar to how the Soviet navy loaded nuclear torpedos on the subs around Cuba during the standoff in 1962)

I didn’t know the Mig-25 Foxbat was used for surveillance over Israel before the conflict. At the time it wasn’t known to the USA military. It was Mach 3 capable, flying higher and faster than anything known at the time. Using it to capture image intelligence over the most sensitive locations in Israel makes operational sense, though maybe not political sense. Only Soviet pilots would have been in the cockpit of an aircraft that was still a prototype at the time. It adds to the story that the Soviets were directly involved.

The Mig-25 was created to counter the USA XB-70, a Mach 3 bomber, a project that was eventually cancelled. The USA, once learning about the very capable Mig-25, produced the F-15 to counter it. Once the USA got their hands on a Mig-25, they learned it wasn’t as capable as they had thought. F-15 was designed to standup to a plane that the intelligence services had played up as being more than it really was. History seems to have many such stories.

I found the book informative, providing a new perspective to the Six Day War. It was a turning point for the region during the 1960’s. Israel kept its nuclear arsenal & became the most formidable military in the region.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read assorted books over the years on the Israeli-Arab conflicts and this was the first time that I have read about this level of Soviet involvement. Over the years, it has been acknowledged more and more that the Soviet Union through its "advisors" had a more active role than originally believed but this book takes it to a whole new level by putting forth that the USSR actually premeditated the war.

The book throws a lot of information at you and sometimes it was not easy to follow as topics in the first couple of chapters bounced around a bit. There is a quite a bit of ground-laying background and the book starts to enter a more time-line blow in the third chapter.

By the end of the book, it is fairly clear that the Soviet Union played a major role in the starting the conflict and the authors present enough evidence to support their claim. Unfortunately, the Russian government, realizing a major dirty secret was about to get out, cutoff access to those records.

For anyone that is interested in the Middle East conflicts of the 1960's and 1970's, this book is a good read to get a better understanding of who complex and convoluted the happenings were of this time period. This was definitely one of those Cold War flashpoints that as these details emerge, we found out we were closer to a monumental crisis than we knew.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok so I read and reread this book at least 5x and it still scares the crap out of me. The source of information is directly from Russia and the majority of the new information has not been challenged. I was raised on the stories of the Bay of Pigs, but with this being Israel it became extremely intriguing to me. Obviously we know the outcome was not a nuclear blast, yet it still read as an unbelievable post action report.
I strongly recommend this book to people who like backstory. The book did an incredible job of presenting The Who What Where & Why of what would have become a World War

[Beakerkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book that reads is easy in style on the reader. It should be read when dealing with various types of antisemitic clowns who still are obsessed with the USS Liberty.
It is also good to read when dealing with far left types who know zero about the actual events behind the Six Day War including a planned Soviet Amphibious landing.

[daniel dirnfeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great subject from six day war