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But even then the Israelis were not relying solely on diplomatic maneuvering to avert a nuclear problem. Israeli agents were gathering information on the Iraqi project so successfully that one Israeli official boasts they were "almost ahead of the Iraqis themselves." Among other things, the Israelis managed to obtain engineering blueprints for the entire reactor. On April 5, 1979, three days before the reactor's core was to be shipped to the Iraqis, a group of unidentified men managed to penetrate the high-security French nuclear production facility at La Seyne-sur-Mer, near Toulon. They attached explosive charges to the reactor core and fled. The resulting damage delayed the reactor's delivery for two years. The French thought that the attack was the work of MOSSAD, the Israeli intelligence organization. French sources also believe that Israelis warned French scientists and technicians to stay out of Iraq. On June 14,1980, the Egyptian-born head of Iraq's nuclear program, Yahia El-Meshad, was bludgeoned to death at the Hotel Méridien in Paris. No assailant was arrested, but again, the French suspected MOSSAD.
In the winter of 1979, the Israelis began to assemble a "combat file" on the proposed reactor site at El-Tuwaitha. Using the engineering blueprints, Israeli experts pinpointed the exact location of the reactor core within its sheltering cupola. They also measured the size and strength of the cupola and the precise location of a computer installation that would eventually control the reactor's operation. In June 1980, the armed forces asked Prime Minister Begin to authorize a clandestine, infrared survey of the site at El-Tuwaitha. Before the mission, Begin was given an aerial photograph of the area. He did not hesitate. With a flourish, he signed the bottom of the photograph: "With the salutations of Zion. Menachem Begin."
In September 1980, the Israelis received additional intelligence. Taking advantage of the confusion at the start of the Iraq-Iran war, unmarked Israeli planes flew over the reactor site, gathering valuable data. It was during this period that two Iranian warplanes made a bumbling attack on the reactor, causing little damage. Iraq charged that Israel was involved. Israel's acting Defense Minister, Mordechai Zipori, labeled the accusation an "anti-Semitic blood libel."
But discussions about attacking the reactor were indeed being conducted at that time by Begin's Ministerial Defense Committee on Security Affairs. The meetings were in part spurred by an intelligence report that the Iraqis might be able to start manufacturing two or three small nuclear weapons within a year. Despite that, not all of the committee's Cabinet-level members were in favor of a pre-emptive raid. Among those opposed were Deputy Prime Minister Yigael Yadin, Interior Minister Yosef Burg and Education Minister Zevulun Hammer, who felt that the attack would damage relations with the U.S. But Begin prevailed with the support of such Israeli hawks as Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir. In October 1980, the raid plan was given the go-ahead. Thereafter, Begin took complete personal control of the operation.
In all, five different dates were set for the attack. The first, in November 1980, was canceled because of the Iran-Iraq fighting: the French had