Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said he and his Cabinet ministers "almost fell off our chairs" when President Bush decided to end the 1991 gulf war before Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was toppled.
In interviews marking the fourth anniversary of the war's outbreak, Shamir and his air force commander described secret Israeli reconnaissance flights over Iraq, clandestine contacts with Jordan's King Hussein and tough bargaining with the Americans, who wanted to keep Israel out of the fighting at any price.Former air force commander Avihu Bin-Nun said a senior U.S. delegation came to Israel just days before the outbreak of hostilities and offered the Israelis four Patriot missile batteries as defense against Iraq's Scud missiles.
The Americans said they would get the Patriots "on condition that we promise that we will not act against Saddam in case he fires the missiles," Bin-Nun said in an interview with Israel army radio broadcast Saturday.
The Americans feared that Israeli involvement would break up the broad Arab coalition against Iraq, which fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel in hopes of drawing Israel into the war. Two Israelis were killed in missile attacks.
Bin-Nun, a major general in the reserves, said Israel opposed any conditions, and got the Patriots unconditionally when the first missiles started falling on Israel in mid-January 1991.
However, Shamir said he decided not to attack Iraq because of the risk of flying bombing missions without coordination with the U.S.-led coalition and because of the high political price Israel would have had to pay in Washington.
In advocating restraint, Shamir was at odds with his defense minister Moshe Arens, who wrote in recently published memoir excerpts that on Feb. 1, 1991, almost two weeks after the first missiles fell on Tel Aviv, he approved a massive air strike against Iraq. Shamir delayed the assault, Arens wrote.
Shamir said restraint was difficult for the Israelis, whose military doctrine was based on swift retaliation.
"There were Americans who told me that in the White House . . . they were certain we will act, and that they want to prevent us from doing this at any price," Shamir told army radio.
But he said that if there had been heavy losses or if non-conventional weapons had been used, "we would have had to respond." Sad-dam initially had threatened to use chemical weapons against Israel.
Shamir said that when he and his Cabinet were informed of Bush's decision to end the war before Saddam was overthrown, "we almost fell off our chairs."
"This was a big surprise. We were certain that the defeat of Iraq will bring an end to the rule of this crazy man, Saddam Hussein," he said.
Shamir wasn't asked in the interview whether Israel received U.S. assurances that Saddam would be toppled. But he said Israel had never considered overthrowing Saddam itself.