THE ENIGMA OF MORDECHAI VANUNU: HERO OR TRAITOR
By
Mike Onwukwe
Mordechai Vanunu, a nuclear technician used to work in one of the Israeli's
nuclear sites scattered all over the deserts in the Middle East. One day he
got fed up and decided to show the lie on the Israeli position. He reached
for his camera, took about 60 snap shots of critical areas of the nuclear
plant including the plutonium processing area and fled to Australian where
he sent it to about 180 States. From there he moved over to Britain where
he was lured by a lady Mossad agent called Cyndi to Rome-Italy. The
damaging photos and attendant detail were published in Sept 5 1986 issue of
The Sunday Times. And the paper sold like hot cake. He was trailed and
subsequently kidnapped on Sept. 13 1986 and was handed over to Israel on
Oct 7 of the same year. The rest is now history as we use say!
In Italy, he was taken to an apartment where he claimed that he was
attacked by Israeli agents and drugged and flown to Tel Aviv. Today he
kissed the ambient air of freedom after 18 long years in solitary
confinement as the cell doors of Ashekelon prisons were flung open to a
waiting crowd and pressmen. They mobbed him in Anglican Parish in Jerusalem
where he passed the night and his release has turned the global attention
to Israeli's nuclear capability.
When he sold off his story in 1986 to the press, The Sunday Times, he
demystified and shattered the doubt over Israeli's nuclear power. Call him
a whistle blower if you want but he has done what he set out to achieve. He
has interest groups here and there and there is even one called "UK Free
Vanunu Campaign" which as the name suggests is based in London.
Trying too much can work against you sometimes. And this was what happened
to him. He was born in Morocco and his family moved to Israel when he was
five. He studied Philosophy. He describes his handlers as cruel and
barbaric and said that he was mistreated because he was converted to
Christianity. He said that he was proud and happy to reveal Israel's
nuclear capability. Hated in Israel but loved elsewhere, Vanunu emerged
from prisons still defiant and unsmiling and asked Israel to open Demonar
Nuclear Reactor for inspection.
Escorted in a long meandering convoy of cars, he was taken to a secret
location from where he will be taken to Italy for a world Press Conference.
My fear for Vanunu is that Mossad may still be after him because they still
consider him a security risk. A lot of people want him out while an equal
number want him to rot away in the cell. He is a different thing to
different people.
Vanunu wants to migrate to US, settle down and marry and raise up a family
but I wonder if Mossad can let up. The choice of US as a final resting
place for him is still strange to me hence US and Israel is one and the
same thing. The lesson we must learn from this is that there are some
Israelis who have risen above tribal sentiments and have come out to point
of the injustice they are meeting out to Palestinians.
He has urged Israel to sort out their problem with Palestinians if they
wish to have a Jewish State and blamed his ordeal on the fact that he is a
Christian and not a Jew. He also called on IAEA, the UN apex global nuclear
watch dog to comb all the nooks and crannies of Israel for nuclear secrets
hence no State in the Middle East has nuclear power. He challenged Israel
on why they need nuclear power. He sees himself as a hero, and a symbol of
human spirit that cannot be broken or destroyed.
Thumbing up and giving the popular Victory sign, he called on world leaders
and European Union to curtail Israel's nuclear excesses in a world where
diplomacy and discretion is much in demand and cautioned that Israel can do
better. There is no need papering over these realities. Middle East today
is one of the reasons the world is not a safe place now. The support they
curry from US and their nuclear capability makes them not to want to listen
to any reasonable approach other than preying on the Palestinians. And that
is too bad!
His release is stifled up in plethora of restrictions among which is
reporting to the police every 48 hours. Vanunu has confirmed that nuclear
deterrents cannot work unless you know they are there. But the more they
try to restrict him, the more journalists will want to go after him.
Besides, if you will lace his release with a string of restrictions, why
release him in the first place?
All these pretensions about Israel having nuclear power or not should stop.
Israel has never confirmed nor denied her nuclear capability. After all we
know where Israel is today- 6th in the league of world nuclear powers in
the world, a journey that they started in the late 50s by the then young
Shimon Perez with the assistance of France and has gradually but
steadily
come of age. Russia, US, China, France and UK in that order before Israel
all hold the key to global nuclear disarmament.
Israel has air, land and sea pads and capability for lunching nuclear
strikes. Apart from several F.16s jet fighters, that can carry bombs and go
3000kms without refueling, Israel has German Dolphin amphibious submarines
that can equally lunch cruise missiles and has about 100 hydrogen bombs in
their stock. But they cannot use these arsenals against Palestinians as
they will be equally be exposed to the hazards. Israel was on full nuclear
alert during the 1991 Gulf War and during the 1967 War. Israel and other
nuclear powers continue to pose impediment to nuclear free Middle East and
how can a country begin disarming when in fact they have not accepted what
is in their possession?
Bottom line is that the world did not engage Israel soon enough and even
then more significantly. It smacks of anarchy in global politics where
International diplomacy has been clobbered and bludgeoned from the rear. It
is a triumph of dubious diplomacy and a failure of International diplomacy.
Mike Onwukwe wrote in from Arusha Tanzania where he is currently domiciled
and can be contacted on
mikeonwukwe@yahoo.com
May 2004
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