"The 'spiral' does not look to me to be a sign of a 'failed missile test' — it has been a common visual feature of Russian missile launches for more than 30 years and seems associated with a roll maneuver to 'dump' unwanted surplus thrust for short-range test flights. Since you can't shut down a solid fuel rocket early, you need to find a way to dump thrust so you don't overshoot a target.
"One way is to open portals on the sides of the rocket as it burns — sending much of the thrust out to the sides. Two opposite facing portals are usually installed, to counterbalance the thrust and not knock it off course.
"A careful analysis of the infamous 'Norway spiral' several years ago shows twin plumes emerging from the central object, in opposite directions. An alternate method is just to pitch the rocket off 'straight ahead' and then corkscrew, so as to spray some of the thrust off to the sides and keep your speed down to what you really need. Otherwise you'll overshoot your intended target.
"This launch was from the Volga River Kapustin Yar test range, active since 1947, but ICBM tests are infrequent. Direction was east, headed for the Sary Shagan impact zone in Kazakhstan, normally used only for testing anti-missile radars and interceptor missiles. That's hardly more than 2,000 kilometers away, so the test clearly wasn't of the missile itself but of its warhead's 'penaids' — penetration aids to frustrate tracking and targeting by U.S. anti-missile systems. This would result in a very unusual trajectory to get up to full ICBM speed without overshooting the target zone — probably lofted a lot higher than normal and then headed back down towards the target zone while still thrusting.
"The range from Kazakhstan to Israel isn't that great — the missile got 'above the horizon' from Israel pretty quickly, even with Earth's curvature.
"Another contributing factor: It's June — near the time of the 'midnight sun' in northern latitudes. That means sunlight is streaming over the pole, throughout the night. Something in the northern sky above the atmosphere over Kazakhstan would be backlit by that sunlight.
"These 'accidental' factors combined to make this show possible. And the widespread availability of pocket camcorders made recording it much more common than in the past."
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/08/12114090-ufo-widely-seen-in-middle-east-skies-linked-to-russian-missile-test?lite