Raid on the Sun

Inside Israel's secret campaign that denied Saddam the bomb

By: Rodger Claire

Narrated by: Adam Grupper

From the earliest days of his dictatorship, Saddam Hussein had vowed to destroy Israel. So when France sold Iraq a top-of-the-line nuclear reactor in 1975, the Israelis were justifiably concerned. The reactor formed the heart of a huge nuclear plant situated twelve miles from Baghdad, 1,100 kilometers from Tel Aviv. By 1981, the reactor was on the verge of becoming "hot," and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin knew he would have to confront its deadly potential. He turned to Israeli Air Force commander General David Ivry to secretly plan a daring surgical strike on the reactor -- a never-before-contemplated mission that would prove to be one of the most remarkable military operations of all time.
Written with the full and exclusive cooperation of Israeli Air Force high command, General Ivry (ret.), and all of the eight mission pilots, Raid on the Sun tells the extraordinary story of how Israel plotted the unthinkable: defying its U.S. and European allies to eliminate Iraq's nuclear threat. Claire recreates a gripping tale of personal sacrifice and survival, of young pilots who faced a nearly unsurmountable challenge: how to fly the 1,000-plus-kilometer mission to Baghdad and back on one tank of fuel. He recounts Israeli intelligence's incredible "black ops" to sabotage constructions on the French reactor and eliminate Iraqi nuclear scientists, and he offers a pilot's eye-eye view of the action on June 7, 1981, when the planes roared off a runway on the Sinai Peninsula for the first successful destruction of a nuclear reactor in history.©2004 Rodger W. Claire; (P)2004 Simon & Schuster, Inc. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Amazing story and background information

Really very good story , easy to listen to, fast moving and great brackground information on this historic event

Historical techno-thriller

This has been my favorite audible book. It has historical detail, adventure, technical details and has excellent narration and sound quality. It's also a good length for an audio book--not overly wordy.

Fascinating detail of a historic strike

Is it hypocritical for Israel to have its own nuclear weapons and deny the Arab world the same, as they did when they destroyed the Osirak nuclear center in the early 1980's? Only through the lens of moral relativism. This strike was an early blow in the global war on terror, a wildly brave tooth-pulling of a brutal dictator by the region's only liberal democracy, an absolute victory of right over wrong.

Still, it was harshly condemned at the time. All that is here, along with the details of the mission preparation and an inside look at the political to-and-fro that accompanied it within Israel. Great reading.

Great Book

Totally grasps your attention and keeps you listening, you may find yourself listening for the entire length of the book in one sitting (I did).

Short, but what a story!

What did you love best about Raid on the Sun?

It's hard to believe this is a true story. It reads like a cloak and dagger / action movie. The book is well written, and it plays back and forth between the day of the mission and the events of years earlier leading up to that point.

Any additional comments?

After reading this book, I thought this would be a great premise for a movie. It's exciting and amazing enough that they wouldn't (and shouldn't) need to embellish any part of it.

Then I realized that they did make a move out of it... in a way. One of the pilots recorded extended segments in his HUD camera during the mission. This and the video from the other pilots during the raid are available online. It was really interesting to read the book, then later see the actual footage (including the one pilot who missed).