Michael Piper and Final Judgment

[Magda Hassan]

Magda,

Israel imprisoned Vanunnu for nearly 20 years, for nothing more than being a whistleblower. He was in solitary confinement for over a decade. Maybe that was considered a more powerful punishment than death, to both the Israelis and Vanunnu.

Well it wasn't. It was a finite imprisonment and the death penalty applies in Israel but he is out now if not exactly free to leave the country. Plus they could have just assassinated him in a dark alley or pushed him down the stairs before he got to London and saved themselves the trial and all that publicity which they didn't want. Vanunu was a principled man. They would have known this from their psychological profiling of him what sort of stuff he was made of. But Vanunu's expose also threatened billions of dollars of military and other aid which the US would no longer be able to supply to Israel under their laws. Nothing like the amount they were receiving in Kennedy's day even accounting for inflation, NIS etc. The big money never even came until after the 6 day war in 1967 after LBJ was on the way out. But on the same basis why would they assassinate the president of the US who could do nothing to them? Why not ignore him like they have every other country that tells them what to do? It is their modus operandi after all not to give a shit and just do their own thing.