Israeli news organizations speculated on Wednesday about why the government lifted the secrecy about the operation.

The release also prompted a frenzied, if belated, public fight over who was responsible for the operation — chiefly between former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his defense minister at the time, Ehud Barak.

Increasingly urgent appeals by Israeli journalists had forced military censors to reconsider the ban. And former officials pointed to the publication this week of Mr. Olmert’s memoir, which includes his account of the operation. Mr. Barak’s memoir is expected to come out in May.

Revisiting the episode may help rehabilitate the reputations of some of the protagonists, particularly Mr. Olmert, who resigned from office in 2008 in disgrace. Already blamed for what many Israelis saw as an unsuccessful war in Lebanon in 2006, he left under a cloud of criminal investigations and was later convicted of corruption charges. He served 16 months in jail before his release last year.

In excerpts from his book published in the newspaper Yediot Ahronot on Wednesday, Mr. Olmert accused Mr. Barak, who became defense minister in June 2007, of seeking to delay the attack on the reactor even if that meant waiting until after it had become “hot,” or operational. At that point, any strike could have led to radioactive contamination of a large area.

Mr. Olmert contended that Mr. Barak believed Mr. Olmert would soon have to resign, and that Mr. Barak could then carry out the strike himself and reap all the glory. Yediot Ahronot’s publishing house is publishing Mr. Olmert’s book.

Mr. Barak denied any such motivation in Israeli media interviews. Describing the atmosphere in Mr. Olmert’s security cabinet as one of “hysteria,” he said his interest had been in making sure the operation was properly planned and that contingencies were in place in case war broke out.