Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin gave the go-ahead for Operation Bramble Bush, a military mission to assassinate Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and instructed the Israel Defense Force to advance preparations preceding the mission, according to secret protocols of the operation that are currently being revealed.

An investigation by the television series "Uvda", or "Fact", which will air on Channel 2 on Monday, reveals the internal debates that took place between the Israeli military and government on the matter. Rabin's military secretary, Brigadier General Azriel Nevo, wrote in the debate that took place in October 1992 with the prime minister and defense minister that Rabin concluded that he "approves of the target."

"This is an operation that must be undergone while the likelihood of success is very high, and as such a military capability must be built in the best possible way, and preparations must continue," wrote Nevo. Rabin is quoted later on in the document as saying that Saddam Hussein is "a meaningful target concerning Israel's internal security. I do not see anyone like him in the Arab world."

The report that will be aired on Monday also lays out the differences of opinion among senior officials of the Israel Defense Forces concerning the operation – between the former IDF Chief of Staff Ehud Barak, the former head of Military Intelligence Uri Sagi and other officers who were recruited from the original plan. In one of the protocols it was even written that "there is a contradiction between the demands of the commander in chief to be ready on October 1 and the position of the Military Intelligence chief regarding the operation."

The Israel Defense Forces' plans to assassinate Hussein were interrupted 20 years ago, on the morning of November 5, 1992. The concluding military exercise of the elite commando unit Sayeret Matkal, which was performed before senior IDF officials, among them then Chief of Staff Ehud Barak, ended with a tragedy: two Tamuz anti-tank missiles were accidently fired toward a group of Sayeret Matkal soldiers who were playing the role of Saddam Hussein's entourage. Five soldiers were killed in the incident: Aryeh Cohen, Shimri Shafran, Elad Shilo, Sharon Tamir and Aran Weichselbaum. Six other soldiers were seriously wounded.



Open gallery view Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Credit: Yaron Kaminsky