Jerusalem Post: As Israel continues to treat Vanunu as harshly as it does, our politicians are in no position to demand that the United States should act any differently in the case of Pollard.
The post-prison restrictions on the released Israeli spy are indeed draconian. Although the highly classified intelligence he once possessed is decades old, and despite his desperate desire to leave his country and start a new life, the authorities are spitefully continuing to punish him, regardless of the fact that he served his time, including a shocking 11 years in solitary confinement.
No, we’re not talking Jonathan Pollard here.
We’re talking about a different traitor: Mordechai Vanunu. Back in 1986, Vanunu, a junior technician at the Dimona nuclear reactor, gave Israel’s nuclear secrets to The Sunday Times, claiming he did so out of opposition to weapons of mass destruction.
An irate Israeli security establishment tracked him down in London and in a classic honeypot trap lured him to Italy where he was kidnapped and brought back to Israel against his will. Tried and convicted of treason and espionage, Vanunu served an 18-year jail term. Since his release in 2004, he has been subject to a broad array of restrictions on his speech and movement, which include speaking to foreigners for more than 30 minutes, approaching foreign embassies, or being allowed to leave Israel.
And these restrictions have been enforced with an uncompromising rigidity. Vanunu has twice been returned to prison, once for six months in 2007 for talking to foreigners and again for three months in 2010 for violating his release terms. In neither of these instances was Vanunu charged with damaging the security of the state; the extra prison time was handed down purely for technical parole breaches.
