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ýýUri Avnery
ý
ý24.4.04
ý
ý Vanunu: The Terrible Secret
ý
ý In the darkness of a cinema, a woman's voice: "Hey! Take your hands off! ýýNot you! YOU!"ý
ý This old joke illustrates the American policy regarding nuclear armaments ýýin the Middle East. "Hey, you there, Iraq and Iran and Libya, stop it! Not YOU, ýýIsrael!"
ý
ý The danger of nuclear arms was the main pretext for the invasion of Iraq. ýýIran is threatened in order to compel it to stop its nuclear efforts. Libya has ýýsurrendered and is dismantling its nuclear installations.ý
ý So what about Israel?
ý
ý This week it became clear that the Americans are full partners in the ýýcreation of Israel's "nuclear option".
ý
ý How was this exposed? With the help of Mordecai Vanunu, of course.ý
ý Throughout the week, a festival was being celebrated around the prisoner, ýýwho was released on Wednesday. ý
ý The Security Establishment has not stopped harassing him even after he ýýhas sat in prison for 18 years, 11 of them in complete solitary confinement - a ýýtreatment he himself described on leaving the prison as "cruel and barbaric". ýýAfter he was "set free", far-reaching restrictions were imposed on him (e.g. he ýýis forbidden to leave the country, is restricted to one town, cannot go near any ýýembassy or consulate, may not talk with foreign citizens). All this under the ýýcolonial British emergency regulations that were condemned at the time by ýýthe leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine, as "worse then the Nazi ýýlaws".
ý
ý Not, God forbid, because of any desire for revenge!
ý
ý The security people declared from every podium that this is not revenge for ýýall the shame Vanunu caused the security services, and is by no means just ýýmore persecution, but an essential security requirement. He must not be ýýallowed to leave the country or to speak with foreigners and journalists, ýýbecause he is in possession of secrets vital to the security of the state.
ý
ý Everybody understands that he has no more secrets. What can a ýýtechnician know after 18 years in jail, during which technology has advanced ýýwith giant steps?ý
ý But gradually it becomes clear what the security establishment is really ýýafraid of. Vanunu is in a position to expose the close partnership with the ýýUnited States in the development of Israel's nuclear armaments.
ý
ý This worries Washington so much, that the man responsible in the State ýýDepartment for "arms control", Under Secretary John Bolton, has come to ýýIsrael in person for the occasion. Vanunu, it appears, can cause severe ýýdamage to the mighty super-power. The Americans are afraid of sounding like ýýthe lady in the dark cinema.
ý
ý (By the way, this John Bolton is an avid supporter of the group of Zionists ýýneo-cons who play a central role in the Bush theater. He opposes arms ýýcontrol for the United States and its satellites, and was installed in the State ýýDepartment against the wishes of the Secretary of State himself.)
ý
ý In the short address Vanunu was able to make to the media immediately ýýon his release, he made a strange remark: that the young woman who served ýýas bait for his kidnapping, some 18 years ago, was not a Mossad agent, as ýýgenerally assumed, but an agent of the FBI or CIA. Why was it so urgent for ýýhim to convey this?
ý
ý From the first moment, there was something odd about the Vanunu affair.ý
ý At the beginning, my first thought was that he was a Mossad agent. ýýEverything pointed in that direction.ý
ý How else can one explain a simple technician's success in smuggling a ýýcamera into the most secret and best guarded installation in Israel? And in ýýtaking photos apparently without hindrance? How else to explain the career of ýýthat person who, as a student at Beer-Sheva University, was well-known as ýýbelonging to the extreme left and spending his time in the company of Arab ýýfellow-students? How was he allowed to leave the country with hundreds of ýýphotos? How was he able to approach a British paper and to turn over to ýýBritish scientists material that convinced them that Israel had 200 nuclear ýýbombs?
ý
ý Absurd, isn't it? But it all fits , if one assumes that Vanunu acted from the ýýbeginning on a mission for the Mossad. His disclosures in the British ýýnewspaper not only caused no damage to the Israeli government, but on the ýýcontrary, strengthened the Israeli deterrent without committing the ýýgovernment, which was free to deny everything.ý
ý What happened next only reinforced this assumption. While in London, in ýýthe middle of his campaign of exposures, knowing that half a dozen ýýintelligence services are tracking his every movement, he starts an affair with ýýa strange women, is seduced into following her to Rome, where he is ýýkidnapped and shipped back to Israel. How naive can you get? Is it credible ýýfor a reasonable person to fall into such a primitive trap? It is not. Meaning ýýthat the whole affair was nothing but a classic cover story.
ý
ý But when the affair went on, and details of the year-long daily mistreatment ýýof the man became public, I had to give up this initial theory. I had to face the ýýfact that our security services are even more stupid than I had assumed ýý(which I wouldn't have believed possible) and that all these things actually had ýýhappened, and that Mordecai Vanunu was an honest and idealistic, if ýýextremely naive, person.
ý
ý I have no doubt that his personality was shaped by his background. He is ýýthe son of a family with many children, who were quite well-to-do in Morocco ýýbut lived in a primitive "transition camp" in Israel, before moving to ýýBe'er-Sheva, where they lived in poverty. In spite of this, he succeeded in ýýgetting into university and got a master's degree, quite an achievement, but ýýsuffered, so it seems, from the overbearing attitude and prejudices of his ýýAshkenazi peers. Undoubtedly, that pushed him towards the company of the ýýextreme left, where such prejudices were not prevalent.
ý
ý The bunch of "security correspondents" and other commentators who are ýýattached to the udders of the security establishment have already spread ýýstories about Vanunu "imagining things", his long stay in solitary confinement ýýcausing him to "convince himself of all kinds of fantasies" and to "invent all ýýkinds of fabrications". Meaning: the American connection.
ý
ý Against this background one can suddenly understand all these severe ýýrestrictions, which, at first sight, look absolutely idiotic. The Americans, it ýýseems, are very worried. The Israeli security services have to dance to their ýýtune. The world must be prevented by all available means from hearing, from ýýthe lips of a credible witness, that the Americans are full partners in Israel's ýýnuclear arms program, while pretending to be the world's sheriff for the ýýprevention of nuclear proliferation.ý
ý "And the lady cried: "Not you! YOU!"ý
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