| July 2000 - Current Index Complete Index This Month MiddleEast.Org 7/01/00 |
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WHAT THE WORLD SHOULD REALLY DO
"I call
on the entire free world, its people
and governments,
to join this effort. Israel,
the state
of the Jewish people, will spare no
effort
to secure the freedom of our innocent
Jewish
brothers."
Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Barak
MID-EAST REALITIES EDITORIAL - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 7/3/00:
Let's get real. The Israelis kidnapped Mordechai Vanunu from Italy,
tried him in secret, kept him in isolation for a decade, and continue
to imprison him to this day. Vanunu simply told the London Sunday
Times about Israel's nuclear weapons program. The Israelis still
deny it all.
The Israelis hold Sheik Obeid in their prisons as well, not even
having accused or tried him of anything, claiming they are willing
to exchange him for a missing Israeli airman. They kidnapped
him
from Southern Lebanon a decade ago, Sheik Obeid essentially a
hostage all this time, the Israelis doing what other nations are
condemned for.
These are well-known examples. The thousands of cases of Israeli
imprisonment and torture of Palestinians over the years, with many
even now held in Israeli dungeons -- not to mention their ongoing
policies of home demolitions and apartheid-style restrictions --
are known to all, but few have spoken up and "the world community"
had done little.
Now, when it comes to Israel using Jewish persons in other countries
as spies and constantly denying they have done so, history is full
of examples going way back to the days of the "magic carpet" from
Iraq, to the Lavon Affair in Egypt, to Jonathan Pollard in the USA.
The American government in fact has for years now quietly questionned
American Jews holding sensitive positions, double checking the
possibility the Israelis may be using them, in some cases without
their even knowing it.
Now comes the trial of what is said to be a spy ring made up primarily
of Iranian Jews, 10 of whom have now been convicted of spying for Israel
and given sentences of 4 to 13 years, with 3 released.
What the world should really do is demand that two of the most high-
profile persons imprisoned in Israel be immediately released --
Vanunu and Obeid. Then the Israelis should make a public confession
that in the past they have in fact used foreign persons of Jewish
background as spies in their own countries, and that this practice
is now ended (which in fact at the moment is not the case).
Once the Israelis have taken these steps, then it might be reasonable
for "the world community" to listen again to the Israelis and give
their protestations a presumption of possible credulity.
But as things stand today, on matters of this kind the Israelis have
no credibility and "the world community" has no obligation of any kind
to even listen.
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