Mordecai Vanunu, the engineer who exposed the existence of Israel’s nuclear weapons nearly 20 years ago, was freed this week after 18 years in jail in Israel. Under the terms of his plea agreement, he can roam freely within Israel but cannot leave the country and will be kept under close supervision.
I’m inclined to think Vanunu deserves to rot forever, and see no hypocrisy in also saying the same of Jonathan Pollard- there must be a deterrent against the leaking of nuclear secrets, and life imprisonment is certainly that. Vanunu had a moral objection to Israel having nuclear weapons? Guess what- if it weren’t for those weapons, there would be no Israel today. A dirtbag like him deserves much worse than 18 years of solitary. This Village Voice puffpiece, predictably, takes a different view.
Suppose Syria or Iran was developing nuclear weapons (because, um, they are), and one of their engineers leaked the whole plan to a British newspaper. How long do you think that guy would get to live?
Posted by Stephen Silver at April 23, 2004 06:05 PM