Israeli censorship strikes again. Despite several instances in which Rechavia Berman has successfully violated Israeli gag orders and reported on security matters mentioned here as well, this time the censor didn’t take too kindly to the naming of Yitzhak Ilan as director-designate of the Shabak. After he published the name, he was forced to remove it. He added the statement:
The editor decided to accede to a request from the military censor, after it acknowledged our site and turned to it with a request to remove the explicit name [in Hebrew shem ham’forash, a satiric reference to God’s name] of the next Shabak director until the official announcement of his appointment, which will be made in the coming months. Whoever read it, read it. Whoever could not, let his mouse do the walking [an illusion to a link to my blog in the following sentence].
Hey, maybe we should publish the information so widely in Israel and outside that we will make the thought police shudder and give up on their efforts to shield from the public information that is rightly theirs, since the appointment is being made in their name.
Screenshot h/t Uri Breitman.
Just a question, Richard..
Would you support revealing the names, pictures, and backgrounds of all the CIA, DEA, NSA, or whoever is basically out there to protect you, in the name of transparency?
You know.. Because its supposed to be a democratic country, and the public has the right to know who are those mystery guys, right?
Please answer, thanks.
In fact, the names of all U.S. intelligence who are not covert is relatively open. THere is absolutely no secrecy concerning this. It’s diff. of course w. the covert services & I’d have no problem w. someone in the Israeli intelligence who needed to have deep cover & retain their anonymity (unless they were planning to assassinate someone in a foreign country).
The question is not about “all of the CIA, DEA, NSA” — or Shabak, for that matter. The question is about the identity of the head of the service. The heads of the relevant intelligence services in the US are all approved by the Senate, in a public vote. The head of the Shabak is approved by the Israeli government; but why the hell should the publication of his name be banned during and after the vote?
There are several things which can endanger my security, as an Israeli. I fail to understand why publishing the identity of the approved Shabak head is one of them. Anyway, I don’t think that in the current situation his identity is a big issue.
It never stops at publishing the identity of the secret services heads, as this blog has shown.
Sometimes there are things which the normal citizen should not know. Whether its for his own personal security or for the society’ as a whole security.
This very blog has published the identities of numerous people which their identities should be kept secret.
For example, the head of the Shabak’ Jewish Unit, and his co-agents.
This is just one case, that shouldn’t have been published.
Now for this case.. The identity of the Shabak’s head and even the Mossad’s head isn’t secret. Its certain that when it’ll be official, everyone will know who he is.
Revealing his name when the choice hasn’t been made yet, officially at least.. Puts the whole process at risk. And thus puts the personal/national security at risk.
@ Roy
“Sometimes there are things which the normal citizen should not know. Whether it’s for his own personal security or for the society’ as a whole security”.
Wauw, that sounds like a statement from a Comintern-meeting during Brezniew’s reign.
What is a ‘normal’ citizen in Israel ? Are Palestinians ‘normal’ citizens ? Do you think the Palestinians consider themselves ‘normal’ citizens in the Jewish state ?
Do you think that Jewish and Palestinian Israelis have the same interests, and that what is good for the Jewish state’s security is also good for the indigenous Palestinian population ?
Maybe Mr. Silverstein does not see as his mission in life and on this blog to protect what you call “society’s interests” but what really is the political Zionist agenda’s interests. Maybe he wants to serve universal human interests.
Do you understand what I’m trying to say or are you too indoctrinated by collective ethnocentric navel-gazing ?
YOu’d rather let Big Brother decide what is good for you to know. I’d rather trust the ordinary citizen to be the judge of this. That’s why you can’t call Israel a democracy in the traditional western sense. It has accepted, & willingly so in many cases, infringements on citizen rights & democratic values. The things that the Israeli secret police doesn’t want you to know…most of this is readily known to AMerican citizens. And such transparency hasn’t destroyed the Republic–yet. Nor would it destroy Israel if it were more so.
According to whom & for what reason?
Thanks for letting us know yr view of the matter. Now, we’ll resume our regularly scheduled program. Are you for real? How can this possibly put anyone at risk, let alone the entire state? Will it even put Ilan in danger? How? He’s already protected. How can he be in any greater danger than he already is?
Please, if you want to be taken seriously attempt to raise arguments that can be taken halfway seriously.