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Mordechai Vanunu is Israel’s only nuclear Whistle-blower, who once worked at Dimona, and became disenchanted with the country’s nuclear war doctrine. He left Israel with photographs of the internal equipment in the reactor, which the Times of London published.
The Mossad then mounted a honeypot operation using an attractive woman as bait. She lured him to Rome, where agents kidnapped and drugged him, forcibly returning him to Israel, where he was tried and convicted of treason. The Mossad Mata Hari, Cheryl Hanin (Ben Tov), eventually left the agency, emigrated to the US, where she married and has enjoyed a comfortable life ever since. One that she doesn’t deserve after the role she played in Vanunu’s subsequent torment.
He served 18 years in prison. When he completed his sentence, Israel exploited 1945 British Mandatory emergency regulations to impose further draconian restrictions on Vanunu: he may not be interviewed by the media, he may not leave Israel even though he has a Norwegian wife and that country has agreed to accept him. He lives under quasi-house arrest despite there being no genuine legal basis for it. Vanunu has lived with these restrictions for 17 years, almost as long as the original prison sentence.
The pretense for these measures? That the former nuclear engineer knows secrets he didn’t reveal to the Times, and could spill the beans now. The State has made the even more preposterous claims that there may be secrets Vanunu isn’t even aware that he knows, which could somehow be exposed.
Further proof that this is State-sponsored revenge rather than any semblance of justice is that Dimona of the year 1986 has no resemblance to Dimona today. The machinery, nuclear protocols and procedures, are radically different. There isn’t a shred of similarity between the secrets he “stole’ and Israel’s current nuclear infrastructure. I would liken it to a Stone Age man who develops the first slingshot being charged with treason in 2021 because he might still harbor a secret that would give away current military weapons systems.
Thanks to this Twitter user who contrasted the treatment of Vanunu with that of Jonathan Pollard, the American Jewish master-spy who betrayed his country just as Israelis view Vanunu as betraying theirs. But Pollard is treated as a hero. Israel’s leaders worked tirelessly for decades to break down the opposition of US political leaders to freeing him. Till finally Trump, who never met an Israeli demand he didn’t like, finally did the deed. Now, my only surprise is that Pollard hasn’t been drafted for the next Likud Party Knesset list, and slated to become a future minister.
Yossi Melman reports that after Vanunu’s lawyer, Avigdor Feldman appeared eighteen times to the Supreme Court Justice for relief from the parole restrictions, a justice urged the defense ministry to meet the former prisoner. Under pressure to appear reasonable, the current Malmab boss agreed to the suggestion.
Feldman asked the ministry to permit him, Vanunu’s lawyer, to attend the meeting. It refused, saying that the lawyer might hear a secret that could endanger national security. Keep in mind that the attorney has the highest security clearance, permitting him to see even the most highly classified Israeli security documents in representing his clients.
Feldman then appealed to the Court to permit his participation. A majority of the justices (including the one who originally suggested the meeting) agreed with the State that Feldman should not attend. The lawyer had even stipulated that he would not say a word during the meeting, nor influence it in any way. He merely wanted to be there as a witness to attest to what the parties said. The ministry wanted no witnesses so anything that was said would be a matter of he-said/he-said and no one would afterward be able to know what was said.
All this proves that Israel is not a state with the minimum requirements of a democracy. Rule of law is a joke. The only justice that’s available is reserved for the wealthy and powerful, with the State itself primary among them.
And worst of all, the very institution charged with upholding standards of justice and rule of law, the Supreme Court, is a rubber stamp for the excesses of the national security state. Justice Israel-style is a sham.
Richard, do you believe that the Iranian nuclear scientists who are helping to scuttle Iran’s nuclear program are also ‘hero’s and whistleblowers’?
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/report-israel-recruited-10-iranian-nuclear-scientists-to-sabotage-natanz-facility/
@ Kareem: OMG, you’re bringing that shmatteh, Jewish Chronicle into my timeline? The one whose editor has been sued numerous times for libel and paid major financial settlements while apologizing publicly? The one who routinely publishes hoaxes and lies? That Jewish Chronicle? And you’re taking even a word of what it publishes as truth? Really? Can’t you do better? Or this the best that Hasbara Central has to offer? I also note you didn’t bother to link to the original source, but used the TOI instead. Trying to hide the source? Or did you think I wouldn’t check? Don’t ever use the JC as a source here again. It is persona non grata.
And as for the claim that the Mossad may have recruited Iranians to betray their country–of course it does. Every intelligence agency does the same. They do it with money or blackmail or whatever it takes. BTW, with Pollard, it was a combination of pro-Israel fanaticism mixed in with a lot of money. With Vanunu, it was nothing of the sort. It was his conviction that nuclear weapons were wrong and he was engaged in a deeply flawed enterprise. Did any of these Iranian Mossad spies feel such righteousness in their actions? Did they act out of principle? Well, I think you already know the answer to that. BTW, out of the tens of thousands of Iranians engaged in its nuclear program, am I surprised the Mossad could turn a few of them? No.
So were they heroes or whistleblowers? Nah.
Don’t publish again in this thread.
The article said that the scientists thought that they were working for an Iranian dissident group.
Richard said:
“Did any of these Iranian Mossad spies feel such righteousness in their actions?”
Apparently they did feel such righteousness because they were motivated by the ideology of an anti-clerical Iranian dissident group.
Why is anti-nuclear Vannunu a hero and these anti-nuclear Iranians less than heros?
@ Sasha: No. The MeK is a terror cult. There is no righteousness in a terror cult in which people lose their individuality and give up their agency on behalf of the cult master. The MeK murdered thousands including Americans in their heyday. Now they seek a bloody vengeful overthrow of the current regime. They have no support in Iran. The MeK is not “anti-nuclear.” It is anti-regime. If the MeK assume control in Iran, after murdering tens of thousands, they would continue the nuclear program and amplify it. Remember your ally today will be your enemy tomorrow. Then Israel, which now relies on MeK for mass murder and assassination, will become the MeK’s worst foe. What goes around, comes around.
But the fact that you endorse MeK tells us so much about you.
No more comments in this thread.
@ Nate Depp: The MeK serves as hired killers and saboteurs for Israel inside Iran.
MEK was removed from the list of terror groups back in 2012.
https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations/
@Nate: it paid handsomely to buy goodwill fr US decision makers with Saudi lucre.
But the leopard never changes its spots. Once a leopard always a. Leopard. MeK was Terror cult and remains one.
Is the IRA still a terrorist organization? Richard.
BTW, the EU and Great Britain took MEK off the terror list well before Hillary did.
@ Nate: The IRA doesn’t continue to Assassinate British soldiers today. In fact, it announced a truce, respected it, and joined the elected Northern Irish government. Much more than one can say for MeK, which continues to collaborate with the Mossad to wreak as much murder and violence on Iran as it can. Again, it was, is and continues to be a terror cult. Council for Foreign Relations (only one of many sources documenting MeK’s continuing violent, cultish nature):
By collaborating with MeK in engaging in acts of terror inside Iran, Israel itself is implicated in MeK’s ugly, tyrranical nature. It becomes that much easier to say Israel’s behavior too is that of a thuggish, murderous cult. And those like you who justify MeK are siding with tyrants, dictators, and cults. Not a nice look.
More accounts of MeK’s ugly, thuggish, cultish behavior post delisting.
As for its removal from terror lists, Saudi lucre goes a long way to greasing those skids.
I’m disappointed in the quality of hasbaroid Hasbara Central is sending our way. C’mon, you can do better, can’t you? Do not post again in this thread.
The message is clear. Vanunu’s mumified and silent head on a pike at the gates to the city keep potential Edward Snowdens in Israel shtum. Sadly, it works.