Israel’s leadership came to be part by never forgetting the principal of “when one comes to kill you, rise early and kill first.” Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s 1981 bombing of the Iraqi reactor Osirak on the distant banks of the Tigris gave birth to the “Begin doctrine” of absolute opposition to enemy possession of nuclear weapons – which is still being questioned today. Without doubt Begin’s rising to strike first in Iraq was a testimony to the power of adhering to first principles.

Learn the inside story of Operation Opera, the involvement of Ilan Ramon, later to become Israel’s first astronaut, the rise of Saddam Hussein, US Operation Eagle Claw, the Islamic Revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini, and the reaction of US President Ronald Reagan.