Rethinking Ariel Sharon & Chris Christie

Ever since Ariel Sharon began rising up through the ranks of Israeli neo-con politics by hook or by crook, I’ve always viewed him as a Bad Guy.  But maybe he wasn’t all that bad after all — at least not within the time-frame right before his sudden stroke.  According to former IGF officer Roi Tov, Sharon might have finally seen the light and started actually implementing some of the few hopeful features of GWB’s ill-conceived “Road Map,” now a document as long-forgotten as Mr. Bush himself.

Tov is an Israeli journalist who I always love to read because he always seems to have juicy insider knowledge of all the latest hot gossip about what is going on in the highest Israeli neo-con circles.  And according to Tov, Sharon had been taking the Peace Process a little bit too seriously right before his sudden stroke and, like Rabin, needed to be stopped.  

Sharon himself must have constantly been aware, like all good neo-cons everywhere have known since way back in JFK’s day, that when you play in neo-con Big Leagues, you gotta toe the current party line or else.  But at least Sharon, there toward the end, might possibly have tried at long last to do the Right Thing toward establishing peace with Palestine — perhaps knowing full well that doing so would cause him to tangle with the Shin Beth.  Perhaps I should give Sharon snaps for that.  Taking on the Shin Beth is not for the timid of heart.

Perhaps Sharon finally wanted to atone for being the Butcher of Sabra and Shatila.  Hey, it could happen.
But, if so, Sharon must have also forgotten the Number One neo-con rule:  “Cross us and you are a dead man.  We eat our young.”  Sucks to be you, Ariel Sharon!

Anyway.  We may never know the whole story.  Neither Sharon nor Rabin are talking.  And neither is the Shin Beth.

Israeli politics are so much fun to watch — almost as much fun as watching American politics.  Which brings me to the subject of Chris Christie.  “What did he know and when did he know it?” seems to be the big question on everyone’s lips.  But, for me, the real question here should be, “Why the freak do Americans continue to passively put up with all of America’s constant and soul-killing traffic jams in the first place?”

If Christie and/or his loyal staff hadn’t caused the Fort Lee traffic jam, then something else would have caused it.

There are traffic jams all over America right now, night and day.  24/7.  And nobody seems to even notice or care.  We all just passively endure wasting hours and hours of our life each day that we will never get back.

For instance, the new San Francisco bay bridge is awesome to look at, but as a vehicle-mover, it sadly fails.  The old bridge handled up to one-third more cars-per-hour than this new, spectacular one.

But all these new bridges and old bridges and freeways and rush-hour traffic jams all beg the huge major question, which is:  “What kind of harsh air-pollution hazards are all these idling, gridlocked vehicles creating?  And when are we going to finally take climate change seriously and start eliminating the use of pollution-causing motor vehicles entirely?”

This new scandal regarding Governor Christie and Fort Lee might be offering us a really good opportunity to start a national dialogue with regard to, first, the development of more public transportation options in order to alleviate traffic jams and save the air, and, second, finally doing something about the limited safety and diminishing returns of using cars themselves in this disastrous day and age of life-threatening climate change.

Palestinian Prisoners And Israel’s Shin Bet

After a 30-year-old Palestinian died while in custody and a hunger strike by four other inmates sparked a week of West Bank protests, Palestinians are calling for an international investigation of Israel’s treatment of detained Palestinians.

The death of Arafat Jaradat on Saturday raised recurrent questions about Israel’s Shin Bet [Internal Security Service] because Jaradat was healthy at the time of his arrest last week.

Israeli officials claim Jaradat died of an apparent heart attack and has denied he was beaten or subjected to any treatment that could have led to his death.

In protest, several thousand Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons observed a one-day fast on Sunday which is expected to spur more Palestinian demonstrations that will shine a light on Israeli SECURITY and Prison System.

The AP reported that the Shin Bet arrested Jaradat last Monday because residents in his village of Saeer said he was involved in a rock-throwing attack that injured an Israeli. The Shin Bet claim Jaradat admitted to the charge, as well as to another West Bank rock-throwing incident last year.

The Shin Bet also claims that during Jaradat’s interrogation, he was examined several times by a doctor who detected no health problems.

On Saturday, Jaradat was in his cell and after lunch felt unwell and an official statement claims thay “Rescue services and a doctor were alerted and treated him, they didn’t succeed in saving his life.” [1]

Israel’s main forensics institute is to perform an autopsy with a Palestinian physician in attendance.

Issa Karake, a Palestinian official who handles prisoner issues has called for an independent international investigation of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian detainees.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has also demanded an investigation, including how Jaradat was questioned.

The Shin Bet routinely holds detainees in isolation for extended periods during interrogation, keeps them in cells that are lit around the clock and denies them access to lawyers.

Around 700 complaints have been filed about mistreatment by Shin Bet agents over the past decade, but none have led to a criminal investigation.

Current Number of Political Prisoners and Detainees
	0 Israelis are being held prisoner by Palestinians, while4,656 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel. (View Sources & More Information)

 

On January 5, 2006, I traveled to Ramallah to the Headquarters of ADAMEER [Arabic for conscience] and met with spokesmen, Ala Jaradat a slightly built man who delivered a powerful message in a soft spoken voice:

“Since 1967, 650,000 to 700,000 Palestinians have been arrested and detained. That totals 20% of the total population and 80% of all adult Palestinian males have been arrested.

“Most of these arrests occur after midnight when large numbers of IDF storm into neighborhoods or refugee camps, horrifying everyone and arresting anyone 14 years or older. Sometimes they storm into business offices and arrest the breadwinners of the families without any charges.

“These arrests and detentions are based on military orders; we live under a kind of Marshall Law which rules every aspect of Palestinian life: where we live, our license plates that restrict our movement and limited voting rights. Under these military orders the Israeli government is free to hold anyone eight days without accusations or charges. They can hold anyone up to 180 days for interrogation and up to 60 days without benefit of a lawyer.

“The Israeli government never agreed to the Second Geneva Convention, the Knesset never ratified it, and when it comes to the Occupied Territories they totally ignore it. Israel is the only State that approved torture of detainees. I know there are dictators who use torture, but Israel is the only State that supported torture until 1999. That is when International, Israeli and Palestinian pressure groups forced the issue and Barack was confronted about it when he visited the United States.

“The IDF will round up and arrest family members and use threats against their relatives to force confessions. The interrogations lead to Military Trials which is theoretically like court with three Judges presiding but only one is required to have an education and a law degree is not at all necessary. The Military Commander appoints the translators, issues all orders, assigns the judges, and has total control. One appeal is allowed, but if the judges are settlers the Palestinian is in deep SH#T!

“Administrative Detentions are issued by the Military Commander for a period of six months and the reason is always labeled ‘Security’ and the charges can be renewed indefinitely.

“One Palestinian spent eight years under Administrative detention and hundreds have endured four or more years. Today fifty are being held for the past four years. They may be released for a day or two and then they are rearrested because they are social or political activists but reasons are not given by the Israeli government.

“At any given moment 10% of those in prison are under Administrative Detention. There are currently 8,000 prisoners and 800 of them are under Administrative Detention. The government does not have to inform anyone about these arrests except the Red Cross and only if they are imprisoned over two weeks, but most arrests go unreported.

“Any Palestinian under the age of 16 is tried as an adult, but for an Israeli Jew it is 18 years of age. Under 12 years old the child can be arrested but not detained. Over 12 they can be arrested, detained, interrogated, prosecuted and sentenced for throwing stones.

“Most of the Israeli Jews that are imprisoned are in for violent crimes against society and they are mixed in with the Palestinian population. The guards encourage them to do what ever they want to do against the Palestinian population. This is an open invitation by the Israeli government to incite violence and terror in the prison system. We have sworn affidavits from Palestinians claiming it was the guards who encouraged the violence inflicted upon them.

“In August 2004 the Palestinians went on a hunger strike to raise awareness of this problem and the Minister of Health who is responsible for them stated publicly: ‘Our hospitals are off limits to them They can all starve themselves to death.’

“No human rights organizations are allowed access to the prisoners. Only lawyers and the Red Cross can visit them but have no access to the facilities where they are detained.

“The methods and photos from Abu Grahib and Guantanamo were no shock to any Palestinian who had been in prison between 1967 and the ‘80’s. All the methods used in Abu Grahib were normal procedures against Palestinians. In 1999 Internationals, Palestinians and Israelis for human rights threatened a boycott against Israel and that is what forced the Supreme Court to address the torture issue. They did not ban torture and the General Prosecutor can choose not to prosecute those who still use it.” [2]

 

1. 

2. THIRD INTIFADA: NONVIOLENT But With Words Sharper Than a Two-Edged Sword by Eileen Fleming

Did Israel Nuke Arafat?

Since we now have conclusive evidence that Arafat was poisoned by radioactive polonium 210 and since Israel is the prime suspect in Arafat’s 2004 assassination, surely it is time to point the finger at Israel and its leadership and to demand explanations.

Already in 2004, Silvan Shalom, at the time Israeli Foreign Minister, rejected as “scandalous and false” the idea that his country had a role in Arafat’s death. However, this is despite the facts that Israel had earlier threatened Arafat, blaming him for Palestinian violence and, after losing 15 citizens to suicide bombings in September 2003 and had decided to “remove” Arafat – though without elaborating publicly precisely how this might be achieved. As if this were not enough, an Israeli newspaper quoted Avi Dichter, at the time Shin Bet director as saying that ‘it would be better to kill Arafat than exile him.

This week we learned that a Swiss institute, which recently examined Arafat’s clothing, had found “surprisingly” high levels traces of polonium-210, the same substance which killed former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. Surely such findings should also encourage MI5 to re-examine Litvinenko’s death and his close ties with Israel and the Russian Oligarchs. Is it possible that polonium -210 was, at the time, the lethal method of choice amongst Israeli assassins?

But a positive answer to this question leaves me only confused. What could have led Israel to the peculiar decision to nuke its prime enemies by planting polonium in their food? What could they have in mind when they decided to use a substance that can be provided by only a very few states and would leave radioactive traces forever?  Do they really think that the Goyim and the Arabs are that stupid? I am afraid that the answer may as well be in the affirmative. Israel knows, and exults in the fact, that it gets away with murder – and quite easily too.

Still, we must here note that Israel has all along denied any involvement in Arafat’s death. On Wednesday, Avi Dichter, said that it was for Palestinians to investigate:

The body is in their hands. It is in Ramallah, and really, all the keys are in their hands.

Meanwhile Israel Army Radio confirmed that introducing polonium into food was the only way to kill someone with that particular poison and asked Dichter, whose agency had overall responsibility for monitoring the Palestinians, whether it would have been possible with Arafat.

 You’re asking me as his cook?

was Dichter’s jocular answer.

Actually, it’s no joke. Israel certainly wasn’t the cook but is clearly in the frame for being the chef in this gastronomic debacle. Dichter continued: “We were focused on more serious things. Arafat’s food did not interest us. I think it interested those around him, in order, really, to keep his health up, as he was indeed known to be unwell. But the Shin Bet, or the State of Israel, was not involved in Yasser Arafat’s food.”

I agree with Dichter. It is more than likely that Israel wasn’t directly involved in the preparation Arafat’s final hummus, but we, nonetheless, should be concerned here with the strong possibility that Israel may have, probably thorough a third party, found a way to pepper Arafat’s food with the radioactive substance.

Pressed on the poisoning scenario, Ditcher said:

Yasser Arafat had many enemies, domestically and abroad. But let them investigate … The Palestinians know well how to investigate what goes on in their house. Let them investigate and find out.

Dichter is obviously correct, Arafat indeed had many enemies, but the obvious question here is how any of his enemies could put their hands on a radioactive substance available to just a few states. And I guess that we all know of one possible suspect – and so does Dichter.

Israel Under Intelligence Fire Over Iran

Producing from his pocket a sheet of paper which contained a biblical quote from the Prophet Zachariah, former Shin Bet chief said, “I will tell you things that might be harsh. I cannot trust Netanyahu and Barak at the wheel in confronting Iran. They are infected with messianic feelings over Iran,” thereby dealing a heavy blow to the Israeli regime.

A rift the size of a potential coup is taking shape between the Israeli government and the military-intelligence men over Iran, a fact which threatens the ruling Israeli political apparat on the one hand and exonerates Iran of a ll year-long groundless allegations on the other.

In fact,Iran has become a recent obsession with the present and past Israeli intelligence men in so far as the very mention of the name is enough to cause anger in Israeli officials.

In point of fact, the fire started when Israel’s Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said he does not believe Iran will pursue nuclear weapons after years of efforts made by Tel Aviv and its allies to convince the world otherwise and swept through the Zionist barley. In an interview with the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, he described Iran’s leadership as “very rational” who would not make such a decision.

Also speaking at the Majdi Forum in Kfar Saba, a Tel Aviv suburb on Friday, former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Yuval Diskin said Barak and Netanyahu are deluded into believing that they have “messianic” missions and added that they lie about the projected effectiveness of an Israeli strike on Iran.

“There’s a false image being presented to the public and that’s what bothers me. They [Netanyahu and Barak] are giving the sense that if Israel doesn’t act,Iran will have nuclear weapons. This part of the sentence apparently has an element of truth. But in the second part of the sentence, they turn to the – sorry for the expression – the ‘stupid public’ or the layman public… and tell them if Israel acts, there won’t be [an Iranian] nuclear program. And that’s the incorrect part of the sentence,” Diskin said.

Iran is a taboo word in the dictionary of the Zionists and anyone who speaks a word or words implicating a defense of or support for the Islamic Republic is considered an enemy. That is why Diskin’s scathing comments were interpreted as stemming from ‘personal desperation’. Some described him as being the latest in a line of “moronic intelligence chiefs”. Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz called his remarks “crude and inappropriate”, saying it is “clear that the timing and style of his comments stem from personal rather than substantive motives.” However, Israeli opposition leader Shaul Mofaz said Sunday he took Diskin’s criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak very seriously and rejected claims that the comments were made out of personal, political considerations.

On the other hand, some Israeli military and intelligence people joined in sympathy and supported Diskin in his criticism of Netanyahu. Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan expressed support for Diskin, saying he was a serious man and spoke his own “internal truth.” Also, Former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi defended Diskin on Sunday and said, “I know Diskin and he spoke what was on his heart out of genuine concern.” In the meantime, Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert joined a chorus of voices warning against rushing into war with Iran, saying, “There is enough time to try different avenues of pressure to change the balance of power with Iran without the need for a direct military confrontation with Iran.”

Generally, there are two different fronts concerning Diskin: the first group includes those who have served in the intelligence organizations and are cognizant of the true nature of the Iran nuclear program and therefore silently or loudly criticize their government for its ‘bomb, bomb Iran’ rhetoric. And the second group includes those who follow the Zionist leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who lie about the Iranian nuclear program and serve as nuclear Pinocchios in the international arena and play an important role in misleading the international community on Iran.

A strong feeling of fear is eroding the Israeli regime from within and without. On the one hand, the regime has come under the close scrutiny of the intelligence people who are exposing the lies of the regime about Iran which is per se a very bad sign for Israel. On the other hand, the Zionist regime is fearful that the talks (slated for May 23 in Baghdad) between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers could ultimately end with a deal that would allow Tehran to continue enriching uranium. At all events, the regime is toddling on a political razor’s edge and that it is already caught between a rock and a hard place.

So, in order to sabotage the 5+1 talks, the Israeli regime has sent National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror to Europe to hold talks with European officials. Amidror arrived in Brussels on Monday and held talks with Helga Schmid, the EU deputy secretary general for political affairs, who is responsible for preparatory talks with Iran ahead of the Baghdad meeting. Amidror was also expected to travel on Wednesday to Berlin where he was to meet top German officials, among them Hans-Dieter Lucas,Germany’s representative to the Iran talks. A top Israeli official has described Amidror’s Europe tour as “extremely sensitive,” saying his visits are aimed at obtaining more information about the contents of the previous round of talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul and knowing the P5+1’s strategy about the Baghdad meeting.

Apparently, what is happening is not in the least in the best interests of Israel.

By way of countering the anti-regime remarks by the top military and intelligence people in Israel, Netanyahu and Barak have in recent days embarked on toning up their war rhetoric against Iran. In fact, the Zionist duo are steadfast in sowing the seeds of extremism, fear and hatred in order to give a cloak of legitimacy to a possible strike against the Islamic Republic.

Deja vu Redux: Anat Kamm and Mordechai Vanunu

[Tel Aviv] – On Sunday, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced former Israel Defense Forces soldier Anat Kamm to four-and-a-half years in prison for “collecting, holding and passing on classified information without authorization”.

Kamm was convicted in February under a plea bargain admitting guilt to gathering and storing of over 2,000 classified military documents from the Central Command office [under Maj. Gen. Naveh] during her army service. Kamm passed on the documents to reporter Uri Blau whoseinvestigative report in Haaretz Magazine exposed misconduct by the Israel Defense Forces/IDF.

“The report reveals that the IDF had approved well in advance the targeted killing of Malaisha [on June 20, 2007, during a routine military raid in the West Bank] contravening the High Court ruling and intentionally misleading the public. The report was attributed to ‘classified IDF documents’ and had been approved by the Military Censor before going to press.”[1]

Blau made use “of classified material from those documents as the basis for two newspaper articles. In the first, published in late October 2008, Blau accused the IDF of defying a High Court of Justice ruling against the targeted killings of Palestinian terrorists. The next article, published a few weeks later, similarly intimated that the IDF had earmarked Palestinian terrorists for targeted killings, and included a photocopy of a targeted-killing order Kamm had given Blau.” [2]

In her own testimony, Kamm described “Maj. Gen. Naveh’s office as ‘embarrassing in terms of information security’ and testified that she had not undergone any security check prior to being assigned to her army role, even though she had access to the most confidential documents.” [Ibid]

Kamm’s trial maybe over, but no decision has been announced whether Israel will prosecute Uri Blau for reporting the brutal truth. Also pending is the Supreme Court decision on or before November 13^th regarding nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu’s request to implement Israel’s citizenship revocation law against himself.

Background:

Twenty-four years after the Mossad kidnapped Vanunu from Rome after luring him from London, they returned to track down another who followed his conscience but was labeled a traitor by a state and public who view truth tellers as a threat to their sense of security.

The prey this time was Uri Blau, who went into hiding after writing a series of reports exposing lawbreaking approved by Israeli army commanders. Blau could face a lengthy jail term for espionage and Israeli security services warned they would “remove the gloves” and track down the “fugitive felon.”

The military censor, who prevents publication of information that they deem could harm Israel’s national security, approved Blau’s story for publication in Haaretz .

Kamm had originally been charged under Israel’s espionage and treason laws but the amended indictment dropped the charge of deliberately intending to harm state security, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The Israeli court initially gagged all news and details of Kamm’s arrest but after a cyber storm of Internet reporting, the gag order was lifted.

Shortly after her arrest, Kamm admitted to copying the documents while serving in the office in charge of operations in the West Bank, between 2005 and 2007.

The 23 year old said she acted out of conscience to expose war crimes and she believed she would be forgiven for her honesty and integrity.

Another prelude to the Kamm affair began in July 2009, when Kamm’s brothers in spirit from Breaking the Silence, an Israeli human rights group published 54 testimonies from Israeli soldiers regarding their experiences during Operation Cast Lead.

The testimonies exposed the gaps between the reports given by the army in January 2009 regarding the “accepted practices; the destruction of hundreds of houses and mosques for no military purpose, the firing of phosphorous gas in the direction of populated areas, the killing of innocent victims with small arms, the destruction of private property, and most of all, a permissive atmosphere in the command structure that enabled soldiers to act without moral restrictions.” [3]

On February 3, 2010, The Independent reported that a high-ranking officer who served as a commander during Operation Cast Lead, admitted that Israel’s army went beyond its previous rules of engagement on the protection of civilian lives and “that he did not regard the longstanding principle of military conduct known as ‘means and intentions’– whereby a targeted suspect must have a weapon and show signs of intending to use it before being fired upon – as being applicable before calling in fire from drones and helicopters in Gaza last winter.” [4]

The Déjà Vu:

Kamm and Vanunu share the same attorneys. Kamm was initially accused of treason and espionage but Vanunu was convicted of both.

Kamm and Vanunu both acted on moral and ideological grounds in a spirit of dissent from government policies of war and deceptions.

Kamm had been under house arrest for two years and faces 54 months behind prison bars.

Vanunu endured 18 years in a windowless tomb sized prison cell for exposing Israel’s 7-story underground clandestine WMD facility in the Negev.

To this day, the Dimona nuclear plant uninspected by international inspectors and Vanunu remains captive in Tel Aviv.

On April 14, 2010, Vanunu wrote, “The restrictions, not to leave the country for one more year renewed. Now 7 years since my release AFTER 18 YEARS in Israel PRISON. The Israel stupid spies will not get any thing from here.”[5]

The media blackout over Vanunu’s historic freedom of speech trial and resultant 78 days of solitary confinement for speaking to foreign media in 2004 has continued, but on or before November 13^th, the Israeli Supreme Court is to render its decision regarding:

On October 10, 2011, Vanunu wrote: “About Nov. 13^th we don’t know what will happen. Because even if they will cancel my citizenship, it doesn’t mean they will send me free, they can still keep me here, but we believe this is the way out from Israel. If they will not cancel my Israel citizenship, then the court will decide to hear the case, and then the judges in the court hearing will decide if they will force the interior minister to follow his Israel laws, and cancel my citizenship. Any way they must let go free after 25 years. VMJC.” 

Brief Background on Vanunu:

In 1986, after being clubbed, drugged, bound and kidnapped by the Mossad in Rome then transported back to Israel for a closed-door trial.

Vanunu was also rendered defenseless when the court ruled that his motivations were not ideological and they refused to allow Vanunu’s own statements regarding his intentions to be considered in his defense.

In 1986, Nuclear Physicist, Frank Barnaby was employed by the London Sunday Times to interrogate Vanunu and review the 57 photos he had obtained at various restricted/top secret locations in the Dimona. Barnaby spent three days with Vanunu in London before he was lured and abducted by the Mossad from Rome. Barnaby attended Vanunu’s closed-door trial and was called by the defense to give expert testimony. Barnaby testified:

“I found the fact that Vanunu was able to smuggle a camera and films into and out of Dimona and photograph highly sensitive areas in the establishment astonishing…I very vigorously cross-examined Vanunu, relentlessly asking the same questions in a number of different ways and at different times…I found Vanunu very straightforward.

“After questioning him about his motives for violating Israel’s secrecy laws he explained to me that he believed that both the Israeli and the world public had the right to know about the information he passed on. He seemed to me to be acting ideologically. Israel’s political leaders have, he said, consistently lied about Israel’s nuclear-weapons programme and he found this unacceptable in a democracy.

“The knowledge that Vanunu had about Isreal’s nuclear weapons, about the operations at Dimona, and about security at Dimona could not be of any use to anyone today. He left Dimona in October 1985 and the design of today’s Israeli nuclear weapons will have been considerably changed since then…Modern nuclear weapons bear little relationship to those of the mid-1980.”[6]

Blau could be charged with espionage. Vanunu was convicted of it.

In exchange for a promise protecting both him and his source from investigation, Blau returned 50 documents but authorities claimed he still held hundreds more classified documents. While on holiday a friend warned Blau that the Shin Bet had broken into his home and ransacked it. Blau later learned that the Israeli secret police had been monitoring his telephone, e-mail and computer for months.

On February 22, 2006, it was revealed in court that Israel had asked Microsoft to hand over all the details of Vanunu’s Hotmail account before a court order had been obtained.

Vanunu wrote, “Microsoft obeyed the orders and gave them all the details…three months before I was arrested and my computers were confiscated…it is strange to ask Microsoft to give this information before obtaining the court order to listen to my private conversations. It means they wanted to go through my emails in secret, or maybe, with the help of the secret services, the Shaback, Mossad.

“Sfard [Vanunu’s attorney] proved that the police had misled the judges who gave the orders to arrest me: to search my room, to go through my email, to confiscate my computers and that they misled Microsoft to believe they are helping in a case of espionage.

“The State came to the court with two special secret Government orders; Hisaion [documents or information that are deemed confidential by the government and kept from the court, the defendant, and lawyers.] This allows the prosecution to keep documents related to my court hearing secret. One was from the Minister for Interior Security and one from the Minister of Defense.”[7]

Vanunu’s secretly taped police interrogations, his 2004 Christmas Eve arrest for “attempting to leave the country” when he attempted to celebrate mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the confiscation of his private property by thirty IDF that stormed into his room at St. George’s Cathedral in 2004, Vanunu wrote had all “been done under the false and misleading statements to the courts of ‘suspicion of espionage’, and yet they are not charging me with spy crimes…and the fact is that I have not committed any crimes.”[Ibid]

Legally Speaking:

Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights upholds that “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention”, including abduction of a person by agents of one state to another state.

Section 99 of the Israeli Penal Code, treason is defined as “an act calculated to assist (an enemy) in time of war…delivering information with the intention that it fall into the hands of the enemy.”

Section 113 defines aggravated espionage as “deliver(ing) any secret information without being authorized to do so and with intent to impair the security of the state” and a sub-clause provides for a penalty of seven years for the unauthorized collection, preparation, recording or holding of secret information; if this is done with intent to impair the security of the state and then, the penalty is increased to 15 years.

“We have a dangerous precedent here, whereby the handing over of material to an Israeli newspaper … is seen by the prosecutor’s office as equivalent to contact with a foreign agent,” said Eitan Lehman, Ms Kamm’s lawyer. “The very notion of presenting information to the Israeli public alone is taken as an intention to hurt national security.” [8]

After Kamm’s sentencing the state prosecutor Hadas Porrer-Gefni, told reporters the panel of three judges had given a “strong message” to young people on mandatory army service and that young people should be made aware of Kamm’s sentence before embarking on their mandatory IDF service. “The judgement should be learned in every school and every basic training unit in the army, so that anyone who thinks he can take classified documents knows what punishment he will get.” [9]

Blau published stories based on documents provided by Kamm.

The documents exposed how the army command approved policies that broke international law and violated the rulings of Israel’s courts.

Blau’s reports revealed that senior commanders approved extra-judicial assassinations in the occupied territories that were almost certain to kill Palestinian bystanders and the army issued orders to execute wanted Palestinians even if they could be safely captured in violation of a commitment to the high court.

Blau also exposed that the defense ministry compiled a secret report showing that the great majority of settlements in the West Bank were illegal even under Israeli law.

B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, said its research had shown that “in many cases soldiers have been conducting themselves in the territories as if they were on a hit mission, as opposed to arrest operations.”

The crimes of the state are blatant but it is the truth tellers who are convicted as enemies.

Journalists should be a thorn in the side of Governments and Institutions and expose hypocrisy in high places; and healthy democracies thrive on dissent.

In Israel, the SECURITY forces, IDF and Justice system have colluded to make freedom of conscience and freedom of the press “just another word for nothing left to lose” and until whistle blowers are respected as people acting on conscience for the greater good, doing the right thing because it’s the right thing, may just have to be “good enough” for all.

Notes

1. Timeline the Anat Kamm Affair

2. Anat Kamm gets 4.5 years for stealing military documents

3. AROUND 30 ISRAELI SOLDIERS TESTIFY ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES IN OPERATION CAST LEAD – A NEW BOOKLET BY “BREAKING THE SILENCE”

4. Israeli Commander We Rewrote The Rules of  War for Gaza

5. 

6. www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/barnaby.pdf

7. BEYOND NUCLEAR:Mordechai Vanunu’s FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker:2005-2010

8. Mossad Operation Threatened Against Reporter

9. Comment: Kamm sentence a deterrent against leaks

Israeli undercover agents boast of killing Palestinians on TV

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Undercover Israeli intelligence officers appeared on national television Saturday to talk about assassinating Palestinians in a program broadcast on Israel’s Channel 10.

Oren Beaton presented a photo album of Palestinians he killed during his time as a commander of an undercover Israeli unit operating in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Beaton explained that he kept photos of his victims.

“This is a photo of a Palestinian young man called Basim Subeih who I killed. This is another young man. I shredded his body, and the photo shows the remnants of his body,” he said.

The TV program also featured an undercover agent referred to as “D”, who openly admitted killing “wanted Palestinians.”

He complained of suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and said that the state had rejected his demands for compensation.

The Channel 10 presenter appealed to the Israeli government to meet the agent’s demands.

“Those are the Shin Bet agents we only hear about and never see, and thanks to them we live safely,” she said.

The report was filmed in the Palestinian territories, and showed agents wandering around the streets of Ar-Ram in occupied East Jerusalem with handguns under their shirts, illustrating that the agents were still operating in Palestinian cities.

The agents, who speak fluent Arabic, are shown surrounded by masked Palestinian collaborators secretly deployed to the area to protect them.

The program provided previously unconfirmed details about the operational methods of undercover agents.

The report explained that officers conducted surveillance before an assassination, investigating the target’s friends and classmates.

Agents would even ask about the target’s favorite meals and habits at home, the report said.

In this way, agents would put together an image of the target’s behavior and routine.

Agent “D” said officers would then “seize the target and wait until the commander arrives to confirm his identity. Then we shoot him.”

This confirms previous accounts from Palestinians who have said they witnessed Israeli agents shooting Palestinians at point-blank range.

Source: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=397902

Vera Macht: The Pirates of the Mediterranean

Government measures on the sea, even if they are illegal, are not an act of piracy, according to international law. The actions of the Israeli military are not likely to have been considered in the implementation of this law. The cousins Mustafa, 42, Mahmoud, 30, and Hjazi ElLaham, 27, were on the morning of the 19th February 2011, like every morning, fishing with their boat off the coast of Gaza. They were in the same area in which they are always located, 2.5 nautical miles from the coast, well inside the allowed zone. The Oslo agreement had assured the fishermen of Gaza bilaterally 20 nautical miles of fishing. Israel later unilaterally reduced this distance to 6 miles, and since the blockade was declared the fishermen are only allowed to fish within 3 nautical miles.

It was a stormy day, the cousins were almost alone on the sea. While the other fishermen had stayed at home because of the weather, the three couldn’t afford to lose a day of work. They were just pulling in their net, when an Israeli warship approached. The soldiers on the ship began to shoot at their net. The three fishermen began to work faster, they couldn’t risk to lose their net, and started the engine. Until then, it was an ordinary day. “We are shot at by Israeli warships almost daily,” says Mustafa, the eldest, “we are used to that.” Then they were ordered over loudspeakers to stop the engine, or the soldiers would shoot the captain’s hand. The three stopped the boat and pulled the motor out of the water. The Israeli warship began to circle around the small boat, so fast that they generated waves that made the fishing boat almost capsize.

Next they were ordered to strip to their underwear and jump into the water. “We can’t swim,” they shouted to the soldiers. “You really can’t swim?” Hjazi grins. “Of course we can swim, we are fishermen. But what could we have done?” The answer they got was that they could either jump into the water and swim to the Israeli ship, or they would be shot at. So they jumped, one by one. Arriving at the soldiers, they were handcuffed and blindfolded, and ordered to kneel on the metal floor of the warship. They said they were freezing, that the plastic cords at their hands cut off the blood, but they were only told to be quiet. Their own boat was towed away by the Israeli one. When they reached the port of Ashdod, and were taken from the ship, they finally got new clothes, and the blindfolds were taken away.

A doctor came to have a look at them. Then a soldier came, who asked them if they had planned a suicide mission. A suicide mission? The three looked at each other dumbfounded. They had been arrested in the south of the Gaza Strip, near the border to Egypt, just opposite from the miles away border to Israel. “We were brought here almost naked, and you have our boat,” Mahmoud said finally. “Just search it, you will find nothing but fish and a net.” They were then separately interrogated by the Shin Bet, the secret service. They weren’t asked about the attempted attack again, which apparently appeared ridiculous even to their interrogators.

Instead, they were shown photos of their houses, their family and friends, recorded in detail by a drone. We know everything about you, this said. Then they had to describe the port, and the place where the naval police normally are. Mustafa, the eldest, was shown money. A lot of money. If he could imagine working with them, he was asked. Mustafa just shook his head. After being locked in a cell for the rest of the day, they were brought to the Erez crossing around nine clock in the evening. They finally arrived at home, shoeless. Their family was beside themselves with worry. Because of the stormy sea, they had feared the three had an accident.

One of the fathers of them had borrowed a boat to search for them, when he came close to the Egyptian border, an Egyptian warship sent him home. The soldiers asked him for his mobile phone number, they said they would call him if they found the boat. The Israeli soldiers were less helpful. Before being sent back, the three cousins had asked them what would happen to their boat, and if they would get it back. “You will find it in Egypt,” answered one of the soldiers. “What does this mean?” Asked Mustafa. “It was just a joke,” he got as an answer. One of the other soldiers was in a good mood too. “We have the season in which we get the stuff, and you never get it back,” was his strange statement.

For Mustafa, Mahmoud and Hjazi this issue is less funny. The restriction to 3 nautical miles renders it impossible for them to earn enough to live from the boat, but the boat and the 3 miles are all that they have. “Every meter further outsides helps us to find more fish”, they say. And with that problem they are by far not alone. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, nearly 90% of Gaza’s 4000 fishermen are now considered either poor (with a monthly income of between 100 and 190 US dollars) or very poor (earning less than 100 dollars a month), up from 50% in 2008. In addition, they live in constant danger, even if they are within the 3 mile limit.

Al Mazen Center for Human Rights states that between 1 May 2009 and 30 November 2010 the IOF carried out 53 attacks against fishermen: two men were killed, seven injured and 42 arrested, while 17 fishing boats were confiscated and one destroyed. Just last month there were three other cases in which fishermen were in exactly the same pattern kidnapped and then released again, without their boat. A total of six families, for whose livelihood Mustafa, Mahmoud and Hjazi are responsible, depend on this boat. Six families now don’t know what to live from. What will they do now? How will they go on? “We still hope that we may get the boat back at some point. We can’t afford to buy a new one. “Hjazi says. Then he laughs softly. “I also still have my breakfast eggs on the boat.”

VanunuLeaks: Berlin, Dubai and Spies

“The Shin Bet is like the FBI and the Mossad is like the CIA.” – Mordechai Vanunu

Mossad is Hebrew for “institute” and was formed and formerly known as the Central Institute for Coordination and the Central Institute for Intelligence and Security, on April 1, 1951.

Mossad was established by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, “For our state which since its creation has been under siege by its enemies. Intelligence constitutes the first line of defence…we must learn well how to recognize what is going on around us.” [1]

Mossad engages in covert actions with a focus on Arab nations and organizations and its agents are active in the former communist countries, in the West, and at the UN.

In December 2010, Tamir Pardo took over as Mossad chief and promised “that Israeli agents will never again be allowed to use fake British documents during operations abroad.” [2]

Last March, Britain expelled Mossad’s station chief in London, after an investigation exposed “Israel’s secret service for cloning 12 British passports that were found among 26 forged identity documents used by the hit squad that murdered Mahmoud al Mabhouh in January.” [Ibid]

The Telegraph reported that Pardo, [who had been the deputy director of Mossad] argued against using British, Irish and Australian passports for the hit team that murdered al Mabhouh in his hotel room.

After the Dubai debacle, a source stated that Pardo warned Meir Dagan [the then chief of Mossad] that the “whole business will come home to haunt us”.

Indeed it has.

On 27 December 2010, Mordechai Vanunu ‘leaked’ on his Facebook and Youtube Channels:

“Maybe the New Mossad chief will also apologize to Rome, Italy, for the kidnapping of Vanunu from Rome, by the Mossad in Sep’ 30 1986… Mossad chief need also to apologize to Germany, for another 6 fake passports left in phone booth in Berlin, 1986 few days after Vanunu kidnapped in Rome…”

Professor James Petras noted, “The Mossad’s acquisition and alteration of official British, French, German and Irish passports of dual Israeli citizen’s underscores the cynical and sinister nature of Israel’s exploitation of its dual citizens in the pursuit of its own bloody foreign policy goals.” [3]

Mossad also has had no qualms about exploiting one’s very own family in “the pursuit of its own bloody foreign policy goals.”

In 1986, Cheryl Hanin was a 26-year-old Mossad agent who traveled under her sister-in-laws name and posed as an American tourist in London.

In March 2006-during but not included- in the taping of “30 Minutes with Vanunu” I asked him what he was thinking when he took off with Cindy. Vanunu maintained eye contact as he replied, “It wasn’t like THAT-when Maxwell’s paper published my photo without ever talking to me and some of the stolen Dimona photos with a very bad story against me, I knew the Mossad was after me. Cindy said she had a sister in Rome and I thought I would be safe there until I could return to London. We went to movies and art galleries, I trusted her. But, as soon as I got into the apartment, I was hit on the head and drugged. When I woke up and they took me for interrogation, they threw the Times article on the table and said, ‘Look, what you did.’ I was so relieved they had published it and that I had done what I did.”

The London Sunday Times published a front-page photo of the Dimona reactor and a story that spread over three pages revealing Israel’s arsenal of upwards of 200 nuclear warheads on Oct. 5, 1986, five days after the Mossad kidnapped Vanunu.

In 2009, I paid $20.00 to obtain Cheryl Hanin Ben Tov’s home address and phone number and snail mailed Mrs. Ben Tov twice hoping she had a conscience and would intervene for Vanunu’s freedom if I updated her, because I do not want to see Vanunu’s prophecy be self-fulfilling:

Cheryl has not sent me a reply, but two days after posting my letters- with my return address on the envelope- the visits to my website increased dramatically.  Same thing happens within twenty-four hours after I depart Ben Gurion Airport, for I always tell SECURITY that I am an activist reporter who is published first at WeAreWideAwake.org.

A short drive from my sanctuary, Cindy/Cheryl Hanin Ben Tov has been living the good life in an exclusive gated community golf course home- purchased in Hanin’s name in 1998 at $528,000.00.

See photo here:

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/21/Worldandnation/The_spy___and_the_man.shtml
On April 6, 1996, in an investigative report, The St. Petersburg Times located Cheryl Ben Tov and reported that she continues to work for the Mossad.

It is illegal under American-Israeli diplomatic protocols for the Mossad to operate in America.

In 1986, Hanin was a 26 year old Mossad agent posing as an American tourist in London. She grew up in Pennsylvania and Orlando in a Jewish family that owed its affluence to tires.

I moved to Orlando from New York in the mid 1970’s and still can recall her father, Stanley Hanin, founder and pitchman for the Allied Discount Tires chain stores, shrill refrain in his self-produced cheesy TV commercials, “Tahrs ain’t pretty, but you gotta have them!”

As her parents went through an acrimonious divorce, Hanin embarked upon a long love affair with the Jewish State. In 1977, she spent a semester in Israel, studied Hebrew and Jewish history and threw herself into her academic and religious studies in a three-month residential course funded by the World Zionist Organization.

Upon graduation in 1978, she joined the Israeli army and married Ofer Ben Tov and then was recruited by the Mossad. See Photos of Ofer and Cheryl here: http://www.danheller.com/hungary-grp-bentov.html
In 1986, “She left Israel to flee the media and the people who burrowed into her life,” a friend in Florida told the Israeli daily, Yedioth Ahronoth.

“This bothered her a lot. She was terrified. She felt the need to run. Since this affair Cheryl only wants one thing: a normal quiet life.” [4]

Ever since Vanunu emerged from 18 years in a windowless tomb sized cell on 21 April 2004, all he has been saying that he wants is:

“FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM I NEED NOW.” [5]

1. http://www.fas.org/irp/world/israel/mossad/

2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8224391/New-Mossad-chief-to-apologise-for-use-of-UK-passports-in-Dubai-killing.html

3. http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15757

4. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article830184.ece

5.  

The Hate Mongers Among Us – Part 4

Staying on Message to Advance the Narrative…

Keeping the “anti-Semitism” theme front-and-center remains essential to advance the hate-monger’s narrative with the assistance of mainstream media.

Thus the Anti-Defamation League criticized the current cover of Time magazine for what ADL President Abe Foxman suggested was a portrayal of Israelis as more interested in making money than in striking a peace accord with the Palestinians.

The article highlighted Israel’s booming real estate market and the pleasure Israelis are taking in late-Summer vacations.

Nevertheless, according to Foxman: “The insidious subtext of Israeli Jews being obsessed with money echoes the age-old anti-Semitic falsehood that Jews care about money above any other interest, in this case achieving peace with the Palestinians.”

Foxman insisted that Managing Editor Richard Stengel issue an apology to readers both for the timing of the article and for calling up old anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews and money.

As if right on cue, the next day filmmaker Michael Moore jumped into the Islamic Cultural Center debate, arguing that the center should not be near the 911 site but inside it as a way for Muslims to recover their religion from Islamic extremists.

In his branded controversial style, Moore could have left it at that. Instead, he used his assured media profile to relate an account of George Washington’s wish to see Jews receive equal rights.

Impressionistic Warfare

From a psy-ops perspective, the subject matter is secondary to the impressions left with the public. The imbedding of imagery and emotion is the strategic purpose of much of what you see.

For instance, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, speaking to ABC’s “This Week,” said on September 12^th that the controversy over the site of an Islamic Cultural Center has heightened concerns among Muslims of rising anti-Muslim sentiment, saying he felt there was “growing Islamophobia in this country.”

That’s a foreseeable result of creating widely shared impressions that foster and sustain widely shared beliefs that, in turn, are kept intact with emotional triggers. That’s how the hate-monger narrative progresses in plain sight.

When waging war in the shared field of consciousness, the most powerful weapon is often the power of association. Michael Moore’s film success shows how it’s done.

In his popular Fahrenheit 911, he deployed impressionistic “weaponry” to associate the war in Iraq with “Bush Oil.” How was that done? He showed on film that one of the several dozen siblings of Osama bin Laden served on the board of advisers to the Carlyle Group, an investment banking firm in Washington, D.C.

Also serving on that board was former president George H.W. Bush, the father of George W. Bush. Therefore, by the power of association, the war in Iraq was for “Bush Oil.” Storylines don’t need to true, just plausible. The point of psy-ops is not reality but credibility.

Impressions gain the traction required to advance a storyline—in plain sight.

Consensus beliefs create and sustain a narrative—in plain sight.

Psy-ops succeed when they attract enough eyeballs to misdirect the public’s attention—in plain sight.

Fahrenheit 911 was produced by Miramax, a Disney subsidiary. Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein loudly claimed that Disney reneged on its promise to distribute Moore’s film. Disney chief executive Michael Eisner objected—just as loudly.

The high profile sparing between these two Hollywood titans dragged on for months in mainstream media. By the time the film was released, the interest generated by this “dispute” ensured that Moore’s film opened on a record number of screens for a “documentary.”

At virtually no cost, that public relations ploy helped ensure an international audience for a film that discredited not only the U.S. but also the office of the president. In its practical effect, the Moore film helped ensure there was virtually no mention of how key Zionist goals were advanced by this war—in plain sight.

Real-time Terror

Meanwhile, September 12 news reports highlighted the extradition to France from Egypt of a terrorist who reportedly planned to bomb an Israel Defense Forces event in Paris. Noticeably absent were facts about the timeframe of this threat or even when the arrest was made.

That account provided an opportunity for the chief of French intelligence to make a high profile announcement that the risk of a terrorist attack on France “has never been higher.” This week, the French Senate is scheduled to vote a ban on wearing Islamic veils known as burgas, a vote certain to reinforce The Clash of Civilizations as the consensus narrative

Also on September 12, the leader of Shin Bet announced in Tel Aviv: “Hamas forces in Gaza and the West Bank are engaged in an effort to foil peace talks.” Israel’s domestic security chief told cabinet ministers “threats are due to increase in the near future, as diplomatic developments occur…This isn’t just an estimate but is supported by real intelligence.”

Unmentioned in this volatile mix is the psychology of the hate monger. The purveyors of hate routinely project onto their opponents both their own personality traits (hatred) and, as here, their anticipated agenda. This announcement is far more likely to mean that Shin Bet will stage provocations designed to make it appear that Hamas is the instigator of violence.

For the Zionist agenda to continue in plain sight, peace must be avoided no matter what the cost. Disruption of the peace process, in turn, must plausibly be the work of others. The hate monger must appear to be hated; the aggressor must plausibly appear to be the victim.

Thus the need to portray as anti-Semitic (a hater) those who document the dynamics of how hate-mongers induce hate—in plain sight.

The Assassination of Bibi Netanyahu

Should we see a revival of the U.S. national security apparatus, we will also see a push back against the right-wing extremist coalitions that have long ruled Israel. However, any resistance to the Zionist agenda runs the risk that Israel’s masters of game theory warfare will collapse another government.

That’s how Tel Aviv responded when in June 1963, President John F. Kennedy pressured David Ben-Gurion for inspections of Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona. This young president sought to ensure that the Zionists of that era did not start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. He foresaw what we now see.

Before JFK’s strongly worded letter could be physically delivered, Ben-Gurion resigned citing undisclosed personal reasons. By the time a replacement governing coalition was in place and fully functional, the Kennedy problem had been handled.

In the parlance of national security, that’s called an entropy strategy.

Fast-emerging circumstances suggest the likelihood of a similar strategy, particularly should there emerge any prospect of peace with the Palestinians. As Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman candidly put it, peace is impossible: “not next year and not for the next generation.”

Should “Bibi” pressure his fragile governing coalition for an extension of the “temporary partial freeze” on settlements, members of his nationalist government could withdraw, collapsing the government. Key members of the coalition signaled their intentions on September 12^th by announcing that any extension of the freeze will end the Netanyahu government.

On September 13^th, four Likud Party members threatened to withdraw budget support if the freeze is extended. That threat was issued as Netanyahu departed for peace talks in Sharm el-Sheikh with Palestinian leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Clinton.

The recurring possibility of governmental collapse has long given Tel Aviv leverage over peace talks sought by the U.S. That era may soon draw to a close if our national security apparatus is now guiding U.S. foreign policy. To date, our elected officials have proven themselves unable to navigate through the manipulations often deployed by Israel to stymie agreement on the terms of a peace accord.

Tel Aviv knows the power that the perception of political vulnerability offers in negotiations. When the game theory dynamics of Israeli psy-ops are fully grasped, that leverage will quickly dissipate as negotiators realize they have long been manipulated. That makes the duplicity personal.

The key barrier to realization is the fast-fading belief among policy-makers in the U.S. and the E.U. that Israel is an ally and a friend rather than a sophisticated foe skilled at using deception to leverage its small numbers to great effect.

Though collapse is one possible strategy, Bibi may instead be assassinated.

The threads of a plausible storyline were laid in a September 9^th article on Haaretz.com where he was compared to French president Charles de Gaulle against whom French nationalists staged numerous assassination attempts.

Either approach would inject enough entropy into the peace process to sustain the Palestinian conflict and extend the occupation yet again.

Either strategy would strengthen the hand of the hate-mongers as settlers build another 19,000 homes and U.S. legislators continue to pretend that the Zionist state is a victim of anti-Semitism rather than a serial agent provocateur.

Jerusalem to New York: Feel The Hate and Know The Love

On April 29, 2010, Haaretz reported that “far-rightists from the West Bank settlement of Yizthar on Thursday marched through a neighboring Palestinian village and attacked local homes, to avenge a series of arrests by Israel Police earlier in the day.

“Extreme right-wing activist Baruch Marzel issued a statement in response to the arrests, saying that the Israel Defense Forces were ‘out to get’ the settlers. Extremist settlers declared the ‘price tag’ campaign following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of a temporary freeze in West Bank construction late last year.

“Yitzhar has been at the forefront of the settler movement’s campaign, which calls for violent retaliation for government restrictions on Jewish building in the West Bank. Residents have launched numerous attacks on Palestinians, including an arson attack on a mosque in December 2009.  The IDF vowed last week to take serious steps to curb settle violence at Yitzhar, with assistance from local police and the Shin Bet security service’s Jewish unit, set up to thwart violence by extremist settlers.” [1]

In “Feeling the Hate” Max Blumenthal’s newest series, he begins, “1500 Jewish extremists rally on 4/25/10 in Midtown Manhattan against President Barack Obama’s call for an Israeli construction freeze in East Jerusalem and demand unlimited rights to colonize the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Racist rhetoric and more can be heard here:

Among the far right demonstrators were members of The Republican Jewish Coalition, the Zionist Organization of America, Z Street, Americans for a Safe Israel, Christians United for Israel, and Manhigut Yehudit, an anti-democratic group that calls for theocratic rule over Israel.

Max reported “supporters of Manhigut leader and Likud politician Moshe Feiglin distributed fliers promoting Feiglin’s upcoming campaign for prime minister of Israel. An open advocate of ethnic cleansing who has proposed depriving the Palestinians of drinking water, Feiglin recently called Vice President Biden “a diseased leper.”

“While the pro-settler elements rallied in Manhattan, their counterparts from the radical Kahanist movement in the Hebron-based settlement of Tel Rumeida rampaged through Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, inciting violent confrontations while announcing their intention to rid the area of its historical Arab presence. Dov Hikind, a Democratic New York Assembly member who represents Orthodox Jewish areas in Brooklyn, is a longtime supporter of Baruch Marzel, the settler leader who orchestrated the provocations in East Jerusalem.” [2]

The explosive settler situation in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, has been filled with violent outbreaks and confrontations, between settlers versus the police and the Palestinians they evict from the homes they believe they are entitled to.

In the neighborhood stands a newly erected community center with a plaque “Dedicated to the Children of Shimon Hazadik Neighborhood” from a Dr. Rubin Brecher and family of Lawrence, New York.

According to Jewish tradition, Shimon Hazadik (which means ‘The righteous’) was the High Priest at the time of Alexander the Great. He reminded the people of what’s important in the world and he used to say: “On three things the world stands: the Torah, on Service [prayer] and on acts of kindness.”

The settlers taking over the Sheikh Jarrah area have garnered international censure from the European Union, the United Nations, Britain and months ago, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the Israeli evictions “deeply regrettable” and urged “the government of Israel and municipal officials to refrain from such provocative actions.” [3]

The Al-Kurd family was evicted from their home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in November 2008, just prior to my first visit there. My last visit was on June 10, 2009.

Mrs. Al-Kurd, known as Um Kamal [mother of Kamal] and her recently deceased husband Mohammed had lived in the neighborhood from 1956 until the morning of November 9, 2008 when the Israeli police enforced a court order that evicted them.

When I returned to the tent on June 10, 2009 and asked Um Kamal where her calm strength and perpetual smile came from, she gestured to the sky and responded, “Allah: God gives me.”

Maher Hannoun, a neighbor who would also be evicted a few months later interjected, “Um Kamal is a strong woman because she has a strong connection to this land where we both were born! Even for millions of dollars we would never sell our land, our hopes, our dreams! We are here legally and we have a contract that was signed between the government and UNWRRA, but what gives us the real power to fight is seeing all the people who come to be with us here believing in human rights. We need every one to carry our message around the world that this is our home and we will never leave here.

“In Gaza they attacked with F16 tanks. In Jerusalem they attack with evictions and transferring property. More than 500 homes in this neighborhood have already received eviction notices. They are building 200 settler units and an American Israeli company named Nahalat Shimon Builders is behind it.”

Nahalat Shimon is also the name of a settler group and a real estate company.

On August 2, 2009, “Israeli riot police wielding clubs kicked out two Palestinian families from their homes in occupied east Jerusalem on Sunday, defying international protests over Jewish settlement activity in the area. Clashes erupted after police moved in at dawn around the homes in the upmarket Arab district of Sheikh Jarrah following an Israeli court decision ordering the eviction of the 53 Palestinians, including 19 minors.

“I was born in this house and so were my children,” said Maher Hanoun, whose family was evicted along with the neighboring Ghawi household. “Now we are on the streets. We have become refugees.”

“The Supreme Court ordered the evictions following an appeal by the Nahalat Shimon International settler group, which claimed Jewish settlers have title deeds for the properties, despite UN and Palestinian denials. Jerusalem authorities have also given permission for the construction of about 20 housing units in Sheikh Jarrah, in defiance of global calls for a halt to all settlement activity in occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank.” [4]

The Al Khurd family had lived in their home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood since the days when east Jerusalem was under Jordanian control. The United Nations upon contract with Jordan allotted them the land after they became refugees when they were expelled from their home in west Jerusalem by Zionists during the 1948 war.

Hasib Nashashibi, of the Ensan Center for Democracy and Human Rights [an NGO coalition of Palestinian Muslim and Christians] explained to me, “When Jordan controlled this land and the UN granted privileges to the Palestinian refugees including those from west Jerusalem, such as education, health care, and relief and development; they also allowed the refugees to give up some privileges and receive a home and land deed instead. Jordan never fulfilled their obligation to send the written documentation that these west Jerusalem refugees are land owners and not tenants. Now the Israeli’s are trying to make them refugees for the second time!”

Since East Jerusalem’s occupation by Israel in 1967, the Oriental Jews Associations and the Knesseth Yisrael Association have been waging a brutal take over of the Khurds’ home, claiming that the land originally belonged to Jews.

In 1972, they succeeded to register the land in their name with the Israeli Land registrar. In 1999, settlers burst into the home and set up an occupation in a wing of the house that belonged to the couple’s son, Raed. The Khurd family hired lawyers and have spent a fortune in court battles and in 2006, the Israeli court finally revoked the claim of ownership by the settlers. However, on February 25, 2007 the Israeli Supreme Court issued an order to evict the settlers but it was never enforced!

In Israeli law, all of Jerusalem, including the eastern half of the city, is considered to be the “indivisible” capital of the Jewish state and religiously fundamentalist settlers have been claiming land all over occupied East Jerusalem based on title deeds that pre-existed 1948.

Since Israel became a state 531 Palestinian villages have been destroyed and 750,000 Palestinians were made refugees in 1948, and Israel continues to make more!

President George W. Bush became a willing collaborator in this on going injustice in his infamous 2004 exchange of letters with Ariel Sharon. Bush agreed that Israel would not be expected to return to the armistice lines of 1949 and declared that Israel would be able to hold on to its “population centers” in the West Bank. This is nothing more than Orwellian spin that attempts to justify the established settlement blocs for every one of them are illegal under international law.

“Michshol Hafrada” is Hebrew for “The Separation Wall” and separation translates to Apartheid in Africana.

The Wall has divided Palestinians from Palestinians and has stolen their aquifers, denies them access to their land, jobs, families and holy sites and for every mile it consumes over $1.25 Million USA Tax dollars.

The International Court of Justice deemed the Wall illegal but no president has yet demanded Israel to tear down their wall!

The so-called Holy Land is a Swiss cheese of land locked enclaves; known as Bantustans in Africana. Jewish only colonies have been implanted to divide the Palestinian neighborhoods throughout occupied territory. Over 100,000 Palestinians are trapped and then daily humiliated and tortured at the over 600 checkpoints that deny them access to their families, land, jobs, resources and holy sites.

Since 1967, Israeli forces have bulldozed over 24,000 dwellings -averaging eleven people per unit- usually because they interfere with settlement expansion.

Israel attempts to justify their immoral actions with three distinct categories:

1. Collective Punishment: Homes of suspected terrorists-in reality that is anyone who opposes the occupation- as well as the families of suicide/homicide bombers.

   These punitive actions amount to 15% of the over 22,000 homes destroyed since 1967.

2. Administrative demolitions for lack of building permits: Israel refuses to issue any and this accounts for 25%. In occupied east Jerusalem one out of four Palestinian homes have a demolition order.
3. Security: The blanket reason given for all of Israel’s injustices and illegal actions.

On December 20, 2006, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who received a Nobel Peace Prize for his relentless work confronting and challenging South Africa’s Apartheid regime was quoted in The Guardian: “I’ve been deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land. I have seen the humiliation at the checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about…Israel will never get true security and safety through oppressing another people. A true peace can ultimately be built only on justice…If peace could come to South Africa, surely it can come to the Holy Land.”

I imagine the prophets and Shimon Hazadik would remind “the children” who are taking over the neighborhood that,

“From Moses to Jeremiah and Isaiah, the Prophets taught…that the Jewish claim on the land of Israel was totally contingent on the moral and spiritual life of the Jews who lived there, and that the land would, as the Torah tells us, ‘vomit you out’ if people did not live according to the highest moral vision of Torah. Over and over again, the Torah repeated its most frequently stated mitzvah [command]:

“When you enter your land, do not oppress the stranger; the other, the one who is an outsider of your society, the powerless one and then not only ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself’ but also ‘you shall love the other.'” [5]

1. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1166210.html
2. http://www.alternet.org/rights/146655/watch_ultra_zionists_take_manhattan_and_demand_the_holy_land

3. http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0804/p06s12-wome.html

4. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\08\03\story_3-8-2009_pg4_6

5. Rabbi Lerner, TIKKUN Magazine, page 35, Sept./Oct. 2007

Deja Vu: Vanunu, Kamm, Blau and the Fragility of Freedom

On April 14, 2010, Mordechai Vanunu reported from occupied east Jerusalem, “The restrictions, not to leave the country for one more year renewed. Now 7 years since my release AFTER 18 YEARS in Israel PRISON.”

Twenty-four years after the Mossad kidnapped Mordechai Vanunu from Rome after luring him from London, they have returned to track down another who followed his conscience but has been labeled a traitor by the state and a public who view truth tellers as a threat to their sense of security.

The prey this time is Uri Blau, an investigative journalist for the Israeli daily Haaretz, who went into hiding after writing a series of reports exposing lawbreaking approved by Israeli army commanders. Blau faces a lengthy jail term for espionage and Israeli security services have warned they would “remove the gloves” and track down the “fugitive felon.”

Jonathan Cook, reported for The National, “Options being considered are an extradition request to the British authorities or, if that fails, a secret operation by Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, to smuggle him back, according to Maariv, a right-wing newspaper.” [1]

Blau’s informant and professional collegue, Anat Kamm, was put under secret house arrest by Israel last December based on allegations that during her military service she leaked classified documents regarding how Israeli Forces violated laws dealing with targeted killings. Kamm was charged under Israel’s espionage and treason laws while she was working as a reporter for the Israeli site Walla, which had been partially owned by Haaretz until the week prior to her December arrest.

The military censor, which prevents publication of information that they deem could harm Israel’s national security, approved the Haaretz story for publication. The Israeli court gagged details of Kamm’s arrest and news of the arrest itself.

After a cyber storm of reporting, the gag order was lifted and it was reported that shortly after her arrest, Kamm admitted to copying the documents while serving in the office in charge of operations in the West Bank, between 2005 and 2007.  The 23 year old acted out of conscience to expose war crimes and believed she would be forgiven for her honesty and integrity, and only time will tell.

A prelude to the Kamm affair began in July 2009, when Kamm’s brothers in spirit from Breaking the Silence, an Israeli human rights group published 54 testimonies from Israeli soldiers regarding their experiences during Operation Cast Lead.

The testimonies exposed the gaps between the reports given by the army in January 2009 regarding the “accepted practices; the destruction of hundreds of houses and mosques for no military purpose, the firing of phosphorous gas in the direction of populated areas, the killing of innocent victims with small arms, the destruction of private property, and most of all, a permissive atmosphere in the command structure that enabled soldiers to act without moral restrictions.” [2]

On February 3, 2010, The Independent reported that a high-ranking officer who served as a commander during Operation Cast Lead, admitted that Israel’s army went beyond its previous rules of engagement on the protection of civilian lives and “that he did not regard the longstanding principle of military conduct known as ‘means and intentions’– whereby a targeted suspect must have a weapon and show signs of intending to use it before being fired upon – as being applicable before calling in fire from drones and helicopters in Gaza last winter.” [3]

This week, Jonathan Cook reported that Haaretz had also revealed that, in a highly unusual move shortly before Israel’s attack on Gaza, it agreed to pull a printed edition after the army demanded at the last minute that one of Mr Blau’s stories not be published. His report had already passed the military censor, which checks that articles do not endanger national security.

The Déjà Vu:

Kamm and Vanunu share the same attorneys. Kamm is being tried for treason and espionage: Vanunu was convicted of both.

Kamm and Vanunu acted on moral and ideological grounds in a spirit of dissent from government policies of war and deceptions.

Vanunu got 18 years in an Israeli prison for exposing Israel’s 7-story underground clandestine WMD facility in the Negev, which remains uninspected by international inspectors to this very day.

On April 14, 2010, Vanunu wrote, “The restrictions, not to leave the country for one more year renewed. Now 7 years since my release AFTER 18 YEARS in Israel PRISON. The Israel stupid spies will not get any thing from here. FROM NOW ON, FOR $1,000,YOU CAN MEET ME HERE, to support my life here. VANUNU.” [4]

In 1986, after being clubbed, drugged, bound and kidnapped by the Mossad, Vanunu was rendered defenseless again when the court ruled that his motivations were not ideological and they refused to allow Vanunu’s own statements regarding his intentions to be considered in his defense.

In 1986, Nuclear Physicist, Frank Barnaby was employed by the London Sunday Times to interrogate Vanunu and review the 57 photos he had obtained at various restricted/top secret locations in the Dimona. Barnaby spent three days with Vanunu in London before he was lured and abducted by the Mossad from Rome. Barnaby attended Vanunu’s closed-door trial and was called by the defense to give expert testimony. He testified:

“I found the fact that Vanunu was able to smuggle a camera and films into and out of Dimona and photograph highly sensitive areas in the establishment astonishing…I very vigorously cross-examined Vanunu, relentlessly asking the same questions in a number of different ways and at different times…I found Vanunu very straightforward.

“After questioning him about his motives for violating Israel’s secrecy laws he explained to me that he believed that both the Israeli and the world public had the right to know about the information he passed on. He seemed to me to be acting ideologically. Israel’s political leaders have, he said, consistently lied about Israel’s nuclear-weapons programme and he found this unacceptable in a democracy.

“The knowledge that Vanunu had about Isreal’s nuclear weapons, about the operations at Dimona, and about security at Dimona could not be of any use to anyone today. He left Dimona in October 1985 and the design of today’s Israeli nuclear weapons will have been considerably changed since then…Modern nuclear weapons bear little relationship to those of the mid-1980.”[5]

Blau is charged with espionage: Vanunu was convicted of it.

In exchange for a promise protecting both him and his source from investigation, Blau returned 50 documents but authorities claim he still holds hundreds more classified documents. Israeli officials have invited any spy agency represented in the UK capital to pursue Blau, who has been out of the country since December. While on holiday a friend warned him that the Shin Bet had broken into his home and ransacked it. He later learned that the Israeli secret police had been monitoring his telephone, e-mail and computer for months.

Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights upholds that “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention”, including abduction of a person by agents of one state to another state.

Section 99 of the Israeli Penal Code, treason is defined as “an act calculated to assist (an enemy) in time of war…delivering information with the intention that it fall into the hands of the enemy.”

Section 113 defines aggravated espionage as “deliver(ing) any secret information without being authorized to do so and with intent to impair the security of the state” and a sub-clause provides for a penalty of seven years for the unauthorized collection, preparation, recording or holding of secret information; if this is done with intent to impair the security of the state and then, the penalty is increased to 15 years.

The Israeli army and Shin Bet are attempting to silence investigative journalists and the court system not just enables; it colludes.

“We have a dangerous precedent here, whereby the handing over of material to an Israeli newspaper … is seen by the prosecutor’s office as equivalent to contact with a foreign agent,” said Eitan Lehman, Ms Kamm’s lawyer. “The very notion of presenting information to the Israeli public alone is taken as an intention to hurt national security.” [6]

If Kamm is convicted of espionage with intent to harm national security she could be sentenced to 25 years in jail. Blau published several stories that apparently were based on Kamm’s documents, which exposed how the army command approved policies that broke international law and violated the rulings of Israel’s courts.

Blau’s reports revealed that senior commanders approved extra-judicial assassinations in the occupied territories that were almost certain to kill Palestinian bystanders and the army issued orders to execute wanted Palestinians even if they could be safely captured in violation of a commitment to the high court. Blau also exposed that the defence ministry compiled a secret report showing that the great majority of settlements in the West Bank were illegal even under Israeli law. [Ibid]

B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, said its research had shown that “in many cases soldiers have been conducting themselves in the territories as if they were on a hit mission, as opposed to arrest operations.” [Ibid]

On February 22, 2006 it was revealed in court that Israel had asked Microsoft to hand over all the details of Vanunu’s Hotmail account before a court order had been obtained.

Vanunu wrote, “Microsoft obeyed the orders and gave them all the details…three months before I was arrested and my computers were confiscated…it is strange to ask Microsoft to give this information before obtaining the court order to listen to my private conversations. It means they wanted to go through my emails in secret, or maybe, with the help of the secret services, the Shaback, Mossad.

“Sfard [Vanunu’s attorney] proved that the police had misled the judges who gave the orders to arrest me: to search my room, to go through my email, to confiscate my computers and that they misled Microsoft to believe they are helping in a case of espionage.

“The State came to the court with two special secret Government orders; Hisaion [documents or information that are deemed confidential by the government and kept from the court, the defendant, and lawyers.] This allows the prosecution to keep documents related to my court hearing secret. One was from the Minister for Interior Security and one from the Minister of Defense.”

Vanunu’s secretly taped police interrogations, his 2004 Christmas Eve arrest for “attempting to leave the country” when he attempted to celebrate mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the confiscation of his private property by thirty IDF that stormed into his room at St. George’s Cathedral in 2004, Vanunu wrote had all “been done under the false and misleading statements to the courts of ‘suspicion of espionage’, and yet they are not charging me with spy crimes…and the fact is that I have not committed any crimes.”

The crimes of the state are blatant and more will be exposed as the Kamm trial proceeds and Blau’s destiny unfolds.

Until Israel relents and allows Vanunu the right to leave the state and fade into the world, he will continue to remind any with eyes to see that when acts of moral conscience are viewed as the enemy of the state; freedom is fragile- if not already an illusion.

1. http://www.jkcook.net/Articles3/0475.htm

2.  http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1344&Itemid=222

3. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-commander-we-rewrote-the-rules-of-war-for-gaza-1887627.html

4. 

5. http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/barnaby.pdf

6. http://www.jkcook.net/Articles3/0475.htm]

What the Shin Bet and Israeli Court Cannot Gag

“The Shin Bet, you know, like the FBI and the Mossad, is like your CIA,”-Mordechai Vanunu explained to me in June 2005 during my first of seven trips to east Jerusalem. That was back when I was only an American citizen writing a book based on the memories of a 1948 Palestinian Muslim. Three weeks after that first trip to Israel Palestine, I became a citizen journalist because somebody had to report what the media was ignoring On March 27, 2010, the U.S. based, “Global News Service of the Jewish people” the  JTA, Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Anat Kam, a 23 year old journalist has been held under secret house arrest by Israel since last December based on allegations that during her military service she leaked classified documents suggesting the Israeli Forces violated laws dealing with targeted killings.

Kam was arrested in December 2009 and charged under Israel’s espionage and treason laws while she was working as a reporter for the Israeli site Walla, which had been partially owned by Haaretz until the week prior. The charges stem from when Kam served in the Israeli army, and it is alleged she photocopied sensitive documents.

“Bloggers speculated that the documents she allegedly photocopied served as the basis for a November 2008 article Haaretz story suggesting alleged army violations. Kam has denied the charges and her arrest has been under a gag order in Israel.

“The military censor, which prevents publication of information that could harm Israel’s national security, approved the Haaretz for publication. By contrast, Israeli courts have gagged not only the details of Kam’s arrest, but news of the arrest itself.” [1]

On April 1, 2010, The New York Times followed up with the JTA/Jewish Telegraphic Agency, because the JTA, “is not subject to the gag order…According to people familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the gag order, Kam is accused of copying classified documents while she was a soldier and leaking them to the Haaretz daily. The newspaper published a story that accused the military of defying an Israeli Supreme Court ruling against killing wanted Palestinian  militants who could have been captured alive. A November 2008 Haaretz story suggested the military had unilaterally loosened its rules of engagement and marked militants for assassination…

“Despite the gag order, Israeli media appear to be well-acquainted with the case. Yediot Ahronot, another Israeli daily, hinted toward the brewing saga for the first time Thursday with a story headlined ‘What does the Shin Bet not want you to know?’ and directing readers to the JTA’s article on the Internet. The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, declined to comment…

“Israeli courts are typically wary of allowing publication of material deemed sensitive to national security. While the mainstream media formally comply with the rulings, they often get around restrictions by citing foreign reports, and material often finds its way to the blogosphere.

“The secrecy surrounding Kam’s detention is reminiscent of the arrest of Mordechai Vanunu [who] was kidnapped by Israeli intelligence agents in Rome and taken back to Israel to stand trial behind closed doors…Some details of the Vanunu affair are still under wraps domestically.” [2]

Haaretz’s has filed a request to lift the gag order and court is scheduled for April 12, 2010 to hear the plea regarding the Kam affair.

Vanunu was released from 18 years in a tomb sized windowless cell on April 21, 2004 and as of this writing he is still waiting for the right to leave the state.

A total of 1,200 pages of transcript of Vanunu’s 1986 closed door trial have been released.
Defense witness and the Sunday Times journalist who broke Vanunu’s news in 1986, that Israel was a major nuclear power, Peter Hounam, said, “It is clear that, as far as Vanunu’s accusers are concerned, the trial is not only about whether this decision to reveal the secrets of Israel’s atom bomb amounted to treason and espionage, it is also about whether his decision to become a Christian was at the root of his alleged treachery”.

Within minutes of emerging from his 18 years in jail-most all in solitary-Vanunu announced, “I am not harming Israel. I am not interested in Israel. I want to tell you something very important. I suffered here 18 years because I am a Christian, because I was baptised into Christianity. If I was a Jew I wouldn’t have all this suffering here in isolation for 18 years. Only because I was a Christian man.”

In a 2003, BBC documentary Peter Hounam noted, “Vanunu told the world that Israel had developed between one hundred and two hundred atomic bombs and had gone on to develop neutron bombs and thermonuclear weapons. Enough to destroy the entire Middle East and nobody has done anything about it since.”

On January 25, 2006, after nearly two years of speaking with hundreds, perhaps thousands of foreigners since his release from prison, Vanunu was convicted by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court of 15 violations of a military order that had prohibited him from talking to non-Israelis.

Vanunu was also charged with attempting to “leave the state” while taking a cab from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to attend Christmas Eve mass at the Church of the Nativity in 2004. He has no passport or visa and was only carrying a Santa hat.

The original indictment included 22 different violations; Vanunu was charged with 19 and acquitted of four. He was acquitted of speaking to foreign nationals on the internet and via video and voice chats.

On July 2, 2007, Israel sentenced Vanunu to six more months in jail for speaking to foreign media in 2004.

On September 23, 2008, the Jerusalem District Court reduced Vanunu’s sentence to three months, “In light of (Vanunu’s) ailing health and the absence of claims that his actions put the country’s security in jeopardy.”

On June 14, 2009, while I was in east Jerusalem, Vanunu and he told me, “The Central Commander of the General Army testified in court that it is OK if I speak in public as long as I do not talk about nuclear weapons.”

On July 6, 2009, Israeli Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish continued to deny Vanunu the right to leave the state claiming that, “case is still generating great interest, like any other security-related case. The media’s attention he gets is proof of that.”

I phoned Vanunu after reading that bad news and he said, “You have freedom of speech and freedom of movement. Do what you want. But I am not publishing anything. Everything is already on the Internet.”

The very next day, July 7, 2009, my Facebook account was deactivated while I was posting my video interviews with Vanunu and posing the question, “Have you eyes to see and ears to hear Vanunu on video in 2005, 2006, 2008?’

Facebook never replied to my multiple email inquiries asking “why was I deactivated/deleted/censored while posting to a Cause and Group I created and was the only Administrator of?”

On December 14, 2009 Vanunu returned to the Israeli Supreme Court and I phoned him and learned he expected their decision regarding the three month sentence “in a few weeks” and he was confident he will be freed as “they have no case against me.”

On December 21, 2009, Uzi Eilam, a former head of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission stated Vanunu “served the regime because his revelations helped Tel Aviv intimidate others…I’ve always believed he should be let go. I don’t think he has significant knowledge to reveal (about Dimona) now.” [3]

On December 29, 2009, Israel arrested Vanunu again. His attorney Avigdor Feldman said, “Vanunu was arrested (for) a relationship between a man and a woman, with a Norwegian citizen, He is not being accused of giving any secrets.”

Vanunu was placed under house arrest for three days and it will be six years on April 21, 2010 that Vanunu has waited for the right to leave the state and begin a life.

Israel’s statehood was contingent upon upholding the UN UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Article 19:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 13:

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Read more…

Vanunu has waited twenty-four years for the media to follow up on his 1985 photos of the Dimona and 1986 testimony regarding Israel’s development of up to two hundred atomic bombs and the fact that Israel was already in process of developing neutron bombs and thermonuclear weapons.

Much more than enough to destroy the entire world and nobody has done anything about it since.

1. http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/03/27/1011331/israel-gags-news-of-journalist-under-house-arrest

2. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/01/us/AP-US-Israel-Military-Whistleblower.html?ref=global-home

3. http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114269§ionid=351020202