10 thoughts on “Israeli Secret Security Sites Revealed – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. ” I believe that almost everything that is currently secret in the Israeli military-intelligence field (with certain exceptions) should be transparent. These places and what they do should be known and accountable to the people, which they are not now.”

    What could be your possible motivation for such an opinion?

    1. Neither are “free democracy” but Israel is not free by definition because exclusivity requires that others be shackled, blocked or killed. In the US, the absence of true freedom is most attributable to the political process and a tradition of advantaging one group and not another. By definition, the US is a “free democracy”, the US is not reserved for one ethnicity.

    2. @ Jim: The difference between Israel & the U.S. is that we have a free press and activist network which works to uncover such abuses and rein them in. Israel has no such networks. Activists are weak, unprotected & unempowered. There is no constitution or bill of rights. No checks & balances among branches of government. Here in the U.S. we are by no means perfect. But we are on much firmer democratic ground.

      How long has it been since an Israeli newspaper has exposed the location of top secret intelligence/security facilities as The Intercept did?

      In Israel, you have been ruled mainly by the political equivalent of Donald Trump since 1977. We, hopefully, will only have to endure four years of this monster.

      1. Israel is not that bad, and the USA is not that good….
        Shamai Leibowitz, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning can attest to what happens to Americans that try and “uncover abuses” by branched of the USA government by leaking them to the free press. Hard to have a really free press when potential whistleblowers face a threat of substantial prison sentences.

        1. Amico: Please use only one nickname/handle for comments so that readers know who you are.

          Israel is just as bad as I’ve made out. Nor have I ever said the U.S. is all-good.

          For every whistleblower arrested or imprisoned in the U.S. I can name five or ten treated far worse in Israel. Not to mention that NONE of the journalists reporting material leaked to them by these whistleblower’s has been imprisoned (with the single exception of Judith Miller–and her case was ambiguous). Israel has actually suspended the license of publications which have defied censorship. It has also sent journalists to prison for doing their job.

          Our press, while under threat, is far freer than yours. And our press will fight far harder than yours to retain its rights.

          1. I apologize for not using my nickname. A technical error. In fact I would appreciate if you could change the email to the nickname as I don’t really want anyone to use my email. If you can’t- that’s o.k. as that was my fault.
            In my previous response I referred to the USA but now I will refer to the Israeli part of the equation and why its not that bad-
            The reality is that Journalists in Israel have been responsible for the resignation of two prime-ministers by exposing that they broke the law. I refer of course to Rabin (in 1977) and Olmert (few years ago). The press in Israel also just exposed a nasty corruption of the Netanyahu government regarding ac certain submarine deal, which is the last of a series of corruption scandals the press uncovered regarding Netanyahu since his first term as a prime-minister. In fact to me the problem in Israel seems to be that the press is taking the job that the judicial system fails (or is not motivated) to do. Which is of course better than nothing but far from being the way things should work in a functioning democracy.
            I can’t think of a journalist in Israel that was imprisoned or even charged in the last decade aside from Uri Blau that was convicted for holding secret martials but was not sentenced for imprisonment.
            People who gave Journalists secret information were handled more harshly and the extreme example is Vanunu, even though even he got a shorter prison Time than Manning. Anat kam got 4 years for a similar offence. I can’t think of anyone else that got to spend time in prison for giving secret information to journalists in the decade, but I admit I rely on my memory and it might deceive me.

            So, I would say that the press in Israel is quite effective as a guard dog. There is always room for improvements but the situation is reasonable

            And to quaote Forest Gamp: “and that is all I have to say about that….”. I am done in this thread 🙂

      2. The intercept? Who cares about a website launched two years ago? Even this blog has been around longer.

        No point of arguing with a man who is preaching himself as a choir.

        Moving to the next thread

        1. @Jim: That’s right. No point reading Glenn Greenwald or the other important journalists featured at the site run by those who published the most important intelligence trove in a generation.

          You are welcome to make of yourself an ass. No skin off my back. But I’d recommend against it.

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