Found an interesting journal article while googling. Michael Oren’s book “Six Days of War” mentions an incident in May 1967 where two Egyption MiG-21 fighters overflew Israel’s Dimona nuclear complex. It looks like pilots of the MiGs were Russians.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/israel_studies/toc/is11.2.html
Israel Studies
Volume 11, Number 2, Summer 2006
Ginor, Isabella.
Remez, Gideon.
The Spymaster, the Communist, and Foxbats over Dimona: the USSR’s Motive for Instigating the Six-Day War
Subjects:
Israel-Arab War, 1967 — Causes.
Soviet Union — Military relations — Israel.
Israel — Military relations — Soviet Union.
Nuclear weapons — Israel.
Abstract:
The paper will argue that a central motive for the Soviet move was to halt and destroy Israel’s nuclear development before it could attain operational atomic weapons; that this Soviet effort was accelerated by a direct message from Israel that despite its official ambiguity, it was bent on acquiring such weapons; that Soviet nuclear weapons were readied for use against Israel in case it already possessed, and tried to use, any nuclear device; and that the direct Soviet military intervention actually began with overflights of Israel’s main nuclear facility by Soviet aircraft and pilots, in preparation for the planned attack on this target and/or in order to create such concern in Israel that would ensure its launch of a first strike.
Cheers,
Sunho
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July 3, 2006 at 1:24 am