Questions about "Foxbats Over Dimona."
Reader comment on item: The Soviets' Six-Day War

Submitted by Dr. Steve Carol (United States), May 30, 2007 at 17:53

Dear Dr. Pipes:

Thank you for your recent work about this new book. I am having problems with several items stated in the piece. First, the Soviet role in precipitating the Six Day War is known and documented. In fact, if you go back into the Middle East Radio Forum archives

Secondly, the Soviets had no fear of Israel – Existing Soviet IRBMS (let alone ICBMS) could annihilate Israel almost immediately.

Lastly, according to Janes's All the World's Aircraft – the MiG 25 only had a test flight in April 1965. Additional testing came later in the year. I am not certain when "mass production" began. Thus if indeed (according to the authors) a MiG 25 flew over Dimona in 1967 it would seem that the Soviets were prepared to risk losing a brand new aircraft with all of its new technology for what purpose? They knew from the Sinai-Suez War that whatever Soviet equipment lost in conflict in the Middle East, would turn up in U.S. and Western hands. So why risk a brand new aircraft, especially when their photo-reconnaissance satellites could pretty much do the same thing.

I know the Soviets did use MiG-25s for reconnaissance in preparation for the Yom Kippur (Ramadan) War of 1973 – flying over Israeli-held territory on Oct. 10, 1971, Nov. 6, 1971, March 10, 1972, and May 16, 1972, according to my records and notes.

Thus I wait have to await "seeing" (I am legally blind - so have difficulty in getting through a text) the book to give a full response to it, but at this moment I have my doubts. As I have said in the past, when a subject has been written about many, many -- did I say many? -- times, new authors have to find an "angle" in order to get their work into print and to get it publicity. "Foxbats Over Dimona" may be such a work.

Regards Dr. Steve Carol

Associate Producer and Official Historian of the Middle East Radio Forum Middle East Analyst for Salem Radio Network News. www.middleeastradioforum.org , I covered it in one or two shows when I discussed the prelude to that conflict.

There was more to this than just the Israeli reactor at Dimona. The key Soviet motive was to "redress" the balance caused by U.S. "gains from the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic, South Vietnam, the Congo. Additionally the Soviets "lost" ground with the overthrow of "progressive leaders" in Greece, Ghana, Mali, and Indonesia. There was even fear within the Soviet Politburo of the West toppling Nasser and the Syrian regime. The Soviets were desperate for a "win." Hence the machinery was put into motion to enable Nasser to bait Israel into a war and defeat/destroy it in the counter-attack. As I said, I outlined all of this on the radio show.

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Daniel Pipes replies:

On the second point, your reasoning suggests that the U.S. government has no concerns these days with Iran - clearly not true, and for roughly analogous reasons as the USSR vis-à-vis Israel.