Foxbats over Dimona : the Soviets' nuclear gamble in the Six-Day War / Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ginor, Isabella.

Contributor:

Remez, Gideon, 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Israel-Arab War, 1967--Diplomatic history.

Israel-Arab War, 1967.

Israel-Arab War, 1967--Causes.

Soviet Union--Foreign relations--Israel.

Soviet Union.

Israel--Foreign relations--Soviet Union.

Israel.

Soviet Union--Foreign relations--Arab countries.

Arab countries--Foreign relations--Soviet Union.

Arab countries.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (304 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Maps

1. Historiography as Investigative Journalism

2. Threat or Bluster

3. Antecedents and Motivations

4. The Nuclear Context

5. The Spymaster and the Communist

6. A Nuclear Umbrella for Egypt

7. Converging Timelines

8. The "Conqueror" and "Victor" Plans

9. The Naval and Aerial Buildup

10. Mid-May

11. Escalation and Denial

12. The Badran Talks

13. Foxbats over Dimona

14. Poised for a Desant

15. Un-Finnished Business

16. Debates, Delays, and Ditherings

17. The Liberty Incident

18. Offense Becomes Deterrence

19. Aftermath

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-273) and index.

ISBN:

9780300135046

0300135041

OCLC:

1013946057