Ellsberg on Vanunu's Re-Arrest

(Click on cartoon by Khalil Bendib to enlarge)

By Daniel Ellsberg

"Editor’s Note: The Israeli government’s re-arrest of nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu just before New Year’s Eve represents another example of the double standard that pervades the U.S. news media’s treatment of nuclear proliferation issues.

While Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons brings casual talk of harsh sanctions or even war, Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal – one of the most sophisticated in the world – is politely danced around, and Vanunu’s persecution for having exposed it in the 1980s is treated as a legitimate act on behalf of Israel’s national security.

If the hypocrisy didn't exist, major U.S. newspapers would have followed Vanunu’s re-arrest with in-depth stories about Israel’s nuclear secrets, but instead the arrest was treated as an international "brief" with little context. The Israeli government’s muzzling of an important truth-teller also should have been a big story, as Daniel Ellsberg notes:

Mordechai Vanunu -- my friend, my hero, my brother -- has again been arrested in Israel on "suspicion" of the "crime" of "meeting with foreigners."

I myself have been complicit in this offense, traveling twice to Israel for the express purpose of meeting with him, openly, and expressing support for the actions for which he was imprisoned for over 18 years.

His offense has been to defy openly and repeatedly ,conditions put on his freedom of movement and associations and speech after he had served his full sentence, restrictions on his human rights which were a direct carry-over from the British Mandate, colonial regulations in clear violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights......"