The nuclear smear option

Jerry

Israel will not be able to address the Iranian threat until Mr. Obama has left office.

Nachman

As I write this the siren is going on outside and all citizens of Israel are asked to go to their nearest shelter. 65 years after the end of WWII the Jewish people still have no peace and the wonderful democracies of this world have embraced a nihilist ideology which believes their is more honour in death than in life. As usual we will have to look after ourselves and if you claim we have a nuclear capability just carry on supporting the nihilists and their desire to wipe us off the earth and you will soon know whether we do have that capability.

tiki

BASHING ISRAEL SELLS! It's as simple as that!Being independed,telling the truth, WHO CARES! Newspapers are falling over each other to get the 'scoop'. NOBODY verifies because they know they can 'get away with it. Israel has more important things to do than to sue every biased newspaper and lying (or ignorant)journalist. Exception of the rule are of course Arab and Islamist countries, that's why NOBODY writes something bad about them. They have the world exactly where they want them: "Being their messenger without questions, out of FEAR"

charlene hale

I watched a programme about a Zimbabwean white farmer which was unbelievably moving to see how the bread basket of Africa has been turned into a land of poverty for many including black Zimbabweans. It was on Channel 4. Heartbreaking beyond belief. I fear that any area given up by Israel will be even worse off than Zimbabwe. Time the world woke up and stoppped putting evil regimes in power. What Mugabe is doing should be exposed. The Guardian should report on that rather than fictions and fabrications that are anti Israel propaganda. But of course as you have rightly said Melanie we are living in an upside down world, justice is fallen and woe to those who call evil good and good evil which sums up the Leftie position.

GaryO

None of the other major newspapers followed up on this story. No surprises there as most self-respecting journalists know that what Guardian prints these days about Israel is laced with smear and innuendoes for the sole purpose of delegitimising the state of Israel and therefore cannot be taken seriously, except by the simplest of minds.

As for Cif, just yesterday, I counted four articles on Israel (there may have been more) -- and all of them derogatory. Now, when there are clearly plenty of other things to talk about that Cif should devote so much space for rubbishing this one tiny country speaks for itself. Also, I cannot help but notice the huge number of virulently anti-Israeli comments these stories attract below the line. You can pretty much say anything on Cif about Israel and you'll get away with it, but mention Hamas Charter just once, and you'll be thrown out before you could finish saying anti-Semitism.

Fortunately Guardian has a negative influence on public opinion. Look at the results of the general election. LibDems were soaring in public opinion polls and by all accounts were going to trounce Labour . But the moment Guardian endorsed LibDems, their popularity dropped like a lead balloon and they ended up with fewer seats than when they started!

liz

This obsession with likening Israel to Apartheid South Africa has provided the left with a conveniently disingenuous hook on which to hang its' hate-filled hat. The ANC has a goodly supply of radical Muslims in national and local government and this sort of analogy simply adds grist to their mill. Fatima Hajaig, until quite recently our Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, delivered a speech at an ANC rally in the largely Indian suburb of Lenasia where she said the following:“They (Jews)in fact control [America]. No matter which government comes in to power, whether Republican or Democratic, whether Barack Obama or George Bush. The control of America, just like the control of most Western countries, is in the hands of Jewish money and if Jewish money controls their country then you cannot expect anything else?"
So with attitudes like this, riding high in the governing party, all one needs to do is spice up 'theories' of connivance between the Apartheid regime and Israel in a country still obsessed with racial differences, and the outcome is fairly obvious.

Shaun Harbord

"......Israel to give up its nuclear weapons" - Vanunu was right!!! Israel DOES have nuclear weapons and I think this is the first time you have admitted it. Two points: (i) For telling the truth, Vanunu was imprisoned for years and has just been returned to gaol -his human rights are being trampled on; how about leading the crusade for justice for him? (ii) What are the chances of Iran, as/when/if ever it does finally get nuclear weapons, attacking a power such as Israel who it knows already has nuclear weapons and the will to use them? Zero.

The idea that Iran is going to attack Israel with nuclear weapons is nonsense on stilts. Meanwhile Vanunu languishes in an Israeli prison for speaking the truth.

Derek Pasquill

Perhaps the Guardian has metamorposed into the media arm of Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood?

What else can explain this Islamist-flavoured obsession with the destabilisation of Israel if not the wholesale adoption of the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas charter, viz the elimination of Israel?

Miranda Rose Smith

Dear Nachman: I heard the siren this morning. I didn't know anyone was supposed to go to a shelter.

Rob-NY

"Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
What's anybody indebted to him for ?
Nothing, they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed"
Neighborhood Bully
Robert Zimmerman (Bob Dylan)
If you don't know this tune, check it out.

Brad Brzezinski

Shaun Harbord:

1)Vanunu was hired on his promise not to reveal official secrets. All countries have areas where this applies. (Does your "telling the truth" apply to reporting on Danish cartoons?)

2) Iran's previous president declared Iran's intention to nuke Israel explaining that because of its small size Israel could be destroyed with one device whereas Iran could withstand some retaliation.

But never mind Israel. Watch N. Korea and imagine a nuclear armed Iran, ruled by Islamist fundamentalists, threatening Sunni Arab states, Europe etc. Or does your hatred of Israel top that?

William Boyd

Thanks for this Melanie. Appreciated.

There are two issues that seem to me important concerning Iran's nuclear weapons program.

The first is to ensure that nuclear weapons do not proliferate in the Middle East (and that is not just merely Israel's problem - imagine how a Sunni state such as Saudi Arabia will react to the fact of an Iranian Shi'ite nuclear weapon) and the second is the plainly very real existentional threat posed by it to Israel.

We (I mean the international community) could more easily deal with the second if we could be genuinely assured of Israel's commitmnent to the first.

I do understand the historical imperatives for Israel's 'strategic ambiguity' policy concerning its nuclear arsenal but question its continued usefulness in the present conditions.

badstephen

I quite agree The Guardian failed to prove its case. And not asking Israel for comment is shocking.
But questions remain unanswered, particularly what did Peres mean by "three sizes"? This is something his denial does not address. The most favourable spin CiF Watch can put on it was that he was offering three sizes of conventional missile, to be armed with nuclear warheads at South Africa's own discretion. I don't see how this is very much better than The Guardian's interpretation.

Alex Bensky

The problem is not with critical reporting on Israel; you can readily find that on the websites of Ha'Aretz, Ynet, and the Jerusalem Post. It's why the Guardian clearly has it out for Israel.

This prompts a questions that I think needs to be put to the Guardian and similar leftists: By virtually every proclaimed value of the left--emancipation of women, trade union rights, a free press, etc.--Israel is not only much, much closer to leftist positions but its adversaries are about as opposed to such values as it's possible to be.

Yet the left adores the Palestinians and loses no chance to cast Israel unfavorably, even if actual facts might indicate otherwise. Why?

Yuval

As a South African and an Israeli, it's worth reminding everyone who build apartheid South Africa's nuclear reactor at Koeberg... the French.

Adam B.

No Harbord, you need to learn about the twelfth imam.

MAD (Mutually assured destruction) does not apply to states with a religious fanaticism like Iran. The Jews have learned through bitter experience that when someone says "we're going to kill you" they probably mean it. Ahmadinejad has promised Israel "will disappear as in a storm", and a previous leader that Iran could withstand Israeli nuclear retaliation, and that 15 million dead Iranians would be worth it if they could achieve the destruction of Israel. Such is the crazy mentality Israel faces amongst those dedicated to destroying her. You need to educate yourself!

Israel can't gamble it's life on the say so of Shaun Harbord. Nor should they.

Rip Van Winkle

William Boyd @ 5:59pm

It would be appreciated for you to also awaken: sip coffee, tea or, perhaps, a cold water dip; in my case going through past postings did the trick.

Now, ready? Good.

Consider your posting: "its" -last paragraph, second line, last word.

Rip Van Winkle

Adam B @ 11:55pm

Sound reasoning Adam.

The storm Ahmadinejad refers to would not be the teacup variety.

wearenotblind

A seemingly good point is made that no reputable news organizations followed up on the Guardian story. The answer by the Guardian types is of course that the rest of the media is controlled by the Jews. Which is also the same reason that no reputable news organizations follow up on stories about world war two bombers being found on the moon.

Richard

Adam B.
May 26th, 2010 11:55pm

Deterrence requires that the threat be believed. The US has in the past relied on lunatic generals and drunken presidents to persuade the rest of the world. Perhaps Iran has to rely on mad mullahs. When a figure in government threatens armageddon, when is he to be taken seriously and when can he be assumed to be playing the game of deterrence? For example, if a minister threatens a people with a shoah of their own, is he to be taken to mean what he says?

Rip Van Winkle

Adam B

Your sound reasoning is confirmed.

Adam B.

Richard, it is Iran which has ratcheted up the rhetoric, not Israel. Israel has never said that Iran needs to be wiped off the map, that it will disappear in a storm. It has had nukes for over 40 years, and has yet to use them. So the argument that Iran has been quaking in its boots about Israeli nukes all this time, and that Ahmadinejad's words are just rhetoric don't hold water. (You also need to investigate his belief in the 12th Imam and his particular religious views - you begin to get a picture which fits together).

Richard

Adam B.
May 28th, 2010 12:23am
I'm afraid that isn't to the point (assuming it was intended to rebut what I said and not ismply repeat what you said).

Adam B.

Then Richard, perhaps you could elucidate?

Pete

What are Israel's nukes for, if not negotiating disarmament?

I mean, if Israel only ever wants to use them defensively, then using them as a bargaining chip in order to gain Iranian concessions on disarmament and inspection looks like the way to go: "We'll submit to anything you do, because we're a fundamentally peaceful society. Prove that you are."

Armadinnerjacket gets to talk about how he forced meaningful concessions out of the infidels, Israel gets much stronger international inspections of Iranian weapons programmes, the world gets fewer nukes. What's not to like?

Richard

Adam B.
May 28th, 2010 2:46pm
Deterrence requires that the threat be believed. The US has in the past relied on lunatic generals and drunken presidents to persuade the rest of the world. Perhaps Iran has to rely on mad mullahs. When a figure in government threatens armageddon, when is he to be taken seriously and when can he be assumed to be playing the game of deterrence? For example, if a minister threatens a people with a shoah of their own, is he to be taken to mean what he says?

Adam B.

Richard, you have merely repeated yourself. I replied to you. It's not my fault if you don't understand.

Richard

Adam B.
I'm afraid that isn't to the point (assuming it was intended to rebut what I said and not simply repeat what you said)...

If you feel able to read carefully what is said to you and respond to what is said to you, then we might get somewhere. Repeating slogans that do not address what was said to you does not count as replying.

Adam B.

Richard, unlike your post, mine contained some substantive and verifiable points. I can indeed read - unfortunatley you can't write.

Rip Van Winkle

Adam B @ 11:18pm

Adam, You are wasting time for all you'll get is many words meaning sweet f.a. except 'what if this" or 'what if that'?

Prescribe omeprazole for gripes.

Harold

Adam B.
Points, even if they are substantive and verifiable, do not count as a proper response unless they address the points they are intended as reponses to. I think that is the complaint against you.

Frank Adam

What the Vanunus and other twits do not realise is that US support for Israel is the price of keeping the "bomb in the basement" in the basement. Taking it out has only released the spiral of another arms race which as the Cold War showed, can not be won.

eileen fleming

Why Israel Put Mordechai Vanunu Back In Jail

On 24 April 2004, which was three days after Mordechai Vanunu was released from 18 years in a windowless tomb sized cell jail for providing the photographic proof and telling the truth about Israel's clandestine seven story underground WMD Program in the Negev, Uri Avnery wrote:

"Everybody understands that he has no more secrets. What can a technician know after 18 years in jail, during which technology has advanced with giant steps?

"But gradually it becomes clear what the security establishment is really afraid of. Vanunu is in a position to expose the close partnership with the United States in the development of Israel's nuclear armaments.

"This worries Washington so much, that the man responsible in the State Department for 'arms control', Under-Secretary John Bolton, has come to Israel in person for the occasion. Vanunu, it appears, can cause severe damage to the mighty super-power.

"The Americans, it seems, are very worried. The Israeli security services have to dance to their tune. The world must be prevented by all available means from hearing, from the lips of a credible witness, that the Americans are full partners in Israel's nuclear arms program, while pretending to be the world's sheriff for the prevention of nuclear proliferation." [1]

A brief history since then:

On April 30, 2007, the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, convicted Vanunu on 14 [out of 21] counts of violating a court order prohibiting him from speaking to foreign journalists in 2004. Vanunu was also convicted for traveling the four miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem when he hoped to attend Christmas Eve mass at the Church of the Nativity, his first Christmas after being released from 18 years in jail [most of it in solitary] on April 21, 2004.

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 six-month jail sentence for speaking with foreign media in 2004, to three months, "In light of his ailing health and the absence of claims that his actions put the country�s security in jeopardy."

After appealing that sentence, the Israeli Supreme Court returned Vanunu to jail on May 23, 2010, after they refused his counter-offer to do three-months of community service in Arab east Jerusalem, the only community he has known since 21 April 2004. The Court insisted Vanunu must serve in west Jerusalem, which is 99% Jewish-populated, but Vanunu feared attack there by angry Israelis, most of whom consider him a traitor.

The restrictions that have subjected Vanunu to 24/7 surveillance [his movements, phone calls and emails] for the last six years come from the Emergency Defense Regulations, which were implemented by Britain against Palestinians and Jews after World War II.

Attorney Yaccov Shapiro, who later became Israel's Minister Of Justice, described the Emergency Defense Regulations as "unparalleled in any civilized country: there were no such laws in Nazi Germany."

Israel also kidnapped Vanunu in 1986, but Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states: "No one shall he subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention", including abduction of a person by agents of one state to another state.

Vanunu was charged with and convicted of treason and espionage.

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.

During my interviews with Vanunu, he informed me that, "All the secrets I had were published in 1989 in an important book, by Frank Barnaby, The Invisible Bomb: Nuclear Arms Race in the Middle East."

Frank Barnaby, the Nuclear Physicist, who was hired by the London Sunday Times to interrogate Vanunu, testified at his closed door trial, "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 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."

But, Vanunu was rendered defenseless during that closed door trial when the court ruled that his motivations were not ideological and they refused to allow Vanunu's own statements regarding his intentions to even be considered in his defense.

On November 24th, 2006 Vanunu wrote:

"My lawyer succeeded to reveal a few very important facts: This General of the Army also was not allowed to see all the secrets that he is required to protect by these restrictions that they claim I know them. So, he gave orders of restrictions without knowing what he is protecting or that he is also following orders blindly, and Mossad Sheen Bet using its authority for just punishing me. He testified that it is not a crime for me to talk with foreigners in general anywhere. He testified that I can speak freely to any Israeli citizens about anything; it is not his concern what I am saying to them. These Israelis can give this information to any foreigners. It was difficult for the Judge to understand why this dichotomy exits between foreigners and Israelis. It means that it is not about secrecy but about something else."

The "Something Else"

In 2004, Yossi Melman wrote for Haaretz:

"This is the secret that hasn't yet been told in the affair: the story of the security fiasco that made it possible for Vanunu to do what he did, and the story of the subsequent attempts at cover-up, whitewashing and protection of senior figures in the defense establishment, who were bent on divesting themselves of responsibility for the failure.

"The 18-year prison term to which Vanunu was sentenced is almost exactly the same period as that in which Yehiel Horev has served as chief of internal security in the defense establishment [who has been] involved in the affair as deputy chief of security at the Defense Ministry, and also after Vanunu's abduction and arrest, as a member of an investigative commission."

Melman described Horev as devoted to duty and bland, petty and acutely suspiciousness, but also a man of personal integrity with a desire to expose corruption and failures coupled with a penchant for vengefulness.

"The affairs of the secrets that leaked from the two places considered Horev's holiest sites - the Biological Institute, which produced a senior spy in the person of Prof. Marcus Klingberg, and the Dimona nuclear plant, about which secret information was revealed through Mordechai Vanunu - were formative events in the development of his world view. Shortly after taking office as chief of security at the Defense Ministry, Horev began to take punitive measures to hobble Vanunu. He is responsible for the harsh conditions in which Vanunu was held, which included years in solitary confinement, and the sharp limitations on the number of visitors he could have�[and has fought] a rearguard battle to prevent Vanunu from leaving Israel and to place him under supervision and restrictions that will be tantamount to house arrest. Horev has always been considered the strictest of all the security chiefs in Israel, especially in regard to the protection of institutions such as the Dimona facility and the Biological Institute. He is apprehensive that if Vanunu goes abroad, he will continue to be a nuisance by stimulating the public debate over Israel's nuclear policy and the nuclear weapons he says Israel possesses�all the hyperactivity being displayed by Horev and those who support his approach is intended only to divert attention from what has not yet been revealed: the security blunders and their cover-ups."

"Vanunu told the world that Israel had developed between one hundred and two hundred atomic bombs [in 1986!] 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."-Peter Hounam, 2003 for the BBC.

In 2005, Vanunu told me:

"President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons. Kennedy insisted on an open internal inspection.

"When Johnson became president, he made an agreement with Israel that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit, the Israelis would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963 to �69, the senators came, but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them.

"Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the situation. As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986, there were over two hundred bombs. Today, they may have enough plutonium for ten bombs a year."

On March 26, 2006, Vanunu told me:

"Many journalists come here to the American Colony, from CNN and NY Times. They all want to cover my story, but their EDITORS say no...CNN wants to interview me; but they say they can't do it because they don't want problems with the Israeli censor. BBC is doing the same thing.

"Sixty Minutes from the United States from the beginning they wanted to do a program, but because of the censor situation they decide not to do it. Also big media from Germany, France, Italy, Japan. None of them wants problems with the Israelis."

I began the taping of �30 Minutes with Vanunu� with this question: "If the British Mandate has expired why not the British Mandate's Emergency Defense Regulations?"

Vaunu replied, "The reason given is security but it is because Israel is not a democracy unless you are a Jew. This administration tells me I am not allowed to speak to foreigners, the Media, and the world. But I do because that is how I prove my true humanity to the world. My freedom of speech trial began January 25, 2006 for speaking to the media, the same day as the Palestinian elections."

The day before Vanunu returned to jail he emailed me:

From: Vanunu Mordechai J C.

To: [me]
Date: Sat, May 22, 2010 at 5:10 AM

Subject: SHAME ON YOU

SHAME ON YOU.

ISRAEL VERY STUPID SPIES.

MOSSAD SHABACK FOR PUTTING ME BACK IN PRISON AFTER 24 YEARS FOR SPEAKING THE TRUTH.

SHAME ON YOU. ISRAEL MEDIA STUPID SPIES, HAAREZ EDIOT AHARONOT MAARIVE FOR SELF DECEPTION.

SHAME ON YOU. ISRAEL DEMOCRACY, KNESET=BET KNESET=SINAGOUGS DEMOCRACY FOR NOT LEARNING IN 2000 YEARS THAT THE BASIC RIGHT IN DEMOCRACY IS FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

SHAME ON YOU. ALL WORLD MEDIA BBC PPC CNN ABC CBS NBC FOX SKY HERALD TRIBUNE NEW YORK TIMES AND ALL THE WORLD MEDIA NRK NHK STA WD ZDF 24 FRANCE ALZAJJIRA SUNDAY TIMES FOR LET SUCH CASE HAPPENING AND NOT PROTECT FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

SHAME ON YOU ALL THE ARABS STUPID SPIES FROM EGYPT TO DUBAI SAUDI,LEBANON.JORDAN FOR LET ME GO BACK TO PRISON.

SHAME ON YOU. US SENATE CONGRESS WHITE HOUSE. UN IAEA MOHAMED ELBARADY FOR NOT PROTECTING MY FREEDOM.

SHAME ON YOU ALL THE RELIGIOUS STUPID SPIES JEWS, CHRISTIAN, MUSLIMS, BIG SHAME ON YOU FOR NOT BRINGING MY RELEASE IN 24 YEARS, RELIGION IS BIG BULLSHIT SHOW,

SHAME ON YOU.ALL THE WORLD STUPID SPIES CIA FBI MI5 MI6 AND ALL THE STUPID SPIES OF EVERY STATE WHO WANT ME BACK IN PRISON YOU WILL NOT GET ANY THING FROM ME.

FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM WILL SURVIVE AND CONTINUE FOR EVER,
VMJC

FREEDOM AND ONLY FREEDOM I NEED NOW.
VANUNU MORDECHAI John Crossman.
KIDNAPPED IN ROME SEP' 30 TH'-1986.
18 YEARS IN ISRAEL PRISON.OUT IN APR'-21-2004.
Waiting In East Jerusalem. To Be Free,To Leave .

Eileen Fleming, Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"which are FREELY STREAMING @
http://wearewideawake.org/
THE VANUNU SAGA 2005-2010

Eli Cohen

Euroka!!!
I have the solution.
http://www.humangenome.org/solutionToMiddleEast.htm
Once this is done, no more hostilities in the middle east, no more removing shoes or underwear at airports.
Free and richer world, less spending in defense/offense, Dow Jones 20000, love peace harmony.

Why does not Israel Buy the friging land from Palestinian. What $300-400 Billion to Rich Jews; nothing!!!

Done, case closed.
Next issue? Maleria, hunger, mansoon rains...