Palestinian struggle generated autonomous rank-and-file organizations, the uprising has naturally considerably reinforced the radical nationalist weight in the political balance the PLO leadership depends on.
### Murder increased radicalization
The murder of Abu Jihad both increased this pressure and provided an opportunity for making a shift. On the one hand, it increased the radicalization of the Palestinian people as a whole On the other, the fact that Abu Jihad's body was going to be buried in Damascus was an opportunity for renewing relations with the Syrian regime, the sponsors of the radical nationalist opposition to the PLO leadership. This move was crowned by Arafat's personal visit on April 24.
It is too early to try to assess the perspectives of this new reconciliation and its consequences. They will certainly be reflected on the ground in Lebanon, where the uprising already put an end to the siege of the Palestinian camp by the Lebanese Shi'ite organization, Amal, which is allied to Syria. We cannot predict what attitude the PLO leadership will take over the long term. It is probable, however, that as long as the uprising lasts, the PLO leadership will return to a course similar to the one that it followed up until 1982.
This means that the intransigent Zionists who reject a "negotiated settlement" will find cause for satisfaction.
What conclusion should be drawn from that? Certainly not that it is necessary to return to a course of capitulation but, on the contrary, that the illusory perspective of achieving a settlement through the good offices of Washington must be definitively rejected. * against
Zionist
bomb
ONE OF ISRAEL's more recent international terrorist operations before the assassination of Abu Jihad was the entrapment and kidnapping of Mordechai Vanunu, who had exposed the Zionist state's building up of a nuclear arsenal. This case focused attention on the ruthlessness of Zionist rulers both in Israel and internationally. The following article, written by a leader of the anti-Zionist left, describes the impact of the case and what it revealed about Israeli policies and politics. MICHEL WARSCHAWSKI
A SENTENCE of 18 years in pris-
on for treason and espionage was handed down against Mordechai Vanunu by the Jerusalem district court. His lawyer, Avidgor Feldman, declared that he was surprised by the severity of the sentence. The surprising thing is rather the naivete of one of the best lawyers in the country. What did he expect?
Either you accept the point of view of the state, supported in this case by a major part of the left opposition, that Vanunu is really a traitor. Or you recognize that he has done a very great service to humanity by warning international public opinion about a danger, and in that case the former technician at the Dimona nuclear plant deserves the Nobel May 2, 1988 • #140 International Viewpoint
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ISRAELI STATE Peace Prize. From the outset, it was a sure bet that the Israeli judges would not opt for
The Vanunu case upset a lot of preconceived notions and has gone beyond what the great majority of Israeli society can ac-
The son of very poor Moroccan immigrants, Mordechai Vanunu succeeded where most in similar circumstances failed. He managed to escape from his "fate" as a Moroccan Jew condemned to remain in the shadows of Israeli society. After working eight years at the Dimona center, he was able to begin studying at the University of Beersheba. In the course of his studies, he was able to meet progressive students. He made contact in particular with Arab students, with whom he had intense
Little by little, Vanunu departed from the national consensus. For a few weeks, he belonged to the Israeli Communist Party. He left it because of political differences. After his arrest, the Communist Party did its utmost to eradicate any trace of his short stay in the party's ranks, including destroy-
However, for Mordechai the answers offered by the reformist left became increasingly unsatisfactory and, as he wrote later from his cell, he did not have the opportunity to meet the anti-Zionist left. For him, the state of Israel is not reformable, either as regards the oppression and exploitation of oriental Jews or in its relations with the Palestinian people.
Vanunu decided to make
La complete break
A revolutionary change seemed far off to him, if not impossible. So, he decided to leave the country, and even converted to Christianity. His decision shocked people,
10, 1986.] For the great majority of Israelis, this was a vulgar case of spying rewarded by jay sums from a prestigious British
- there was talk of hundreds of thousands of pounds! This supposition, carefully fostered by the Zionist press, was also accepted by the left. A Moroccan! Who could believe that he was motivated by a progressive ideal? If he broke with national solidarity, it could only be for the
No spying or premeditation involved
Even a superficial analysis of the way that Vanunu divulged what he knew about Dimona makes it easy to see that there was no spying or premeditation. It was with a certain naivete that Vanunu revealed the secrets that were in his possession, backed up by pictures, in a study circle that he joined in Australia. Hence the second supposition taken up by some Israeli progressives, that Vanunu was an agent of Mossad,
The fact is that the Israeli secret services were already following Vanunu. This was categorically proved by the Sunday Times even before the British weekly published the Dimona secrets, and apparently nothing was done to stop him. What is more, how could he get pictures of Israel's most secret installations, except with the aid of the secret services? The supposition that Vanunu worked for Mossad depended on the notion that the Israeli authorities wanted to warn the Arab world by making public the real state of the Zionist nuclear forces.
However, unless one were conditioned by the idea that no Israeli, and still more no oriental Jew, would betray their country except for money, everything seems to indicate that Vanunu is what he claims to be -a fighter for peace ready to do anything to warn people against the danger represented by Israeli nuclear weapons.
And this is a very great danger. It was warned against more than 25 years ago by almost all the members of the atomic energy commission that was set up by the government itself when it decided to develop Israeli nuclear power energy with French aid. The members of this commission, moreover, with one exception, resigned to protest against what they considered an adventurist project. Since then, this whole area has been kept under a curtain of secrecy that permits every sort of abuse.
No one knows, for example, who is responsible for the decisions on developing, or even using, Israeli nuclear power. The parliament has never discussed these problems, because the bomb is not supposed to exist, and former ministers asked about this matter say that they have never considered the question! So, there is no monitoring, no committee overseeing things even as concerns security for the population and the
Refusal to sign non-proliferation treaty
What is more, Israel has refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and has always rejected any international inspection of its nuclear power plants, even by such a powerful and generous friend as the United States.
"Those are the territories even on the far left, for whom his conver- we have to occupy first!" sion seemed to indicate at least mental imbalance. However, in a letter to Professor Emmanuel Faraajun published in News From Within, Vanunu explained himself.
His decision to convert was not motivated by mystical aspirations but rather by the need to express a total break. "Leaving Judaism is not only leaving a religion," explained Yael Lotan, a representative of the Committee to Defend Vanunu's Rights, 'it is leaving the tribe, abandoning your membership in the collectivity." This was Vanunu's real treason, which the Israeli state will
When Vanunu decided to make public everything that he knew about Israeli nuclear power, he completed his break with "national solidarity," putting the interest of the peoples, including the Israeli people, above any national consideration. In Israel, no one could imagine such a thing
The publication of the Dimona secrets by 4 in Israeli society. (See IV 108, November the Sunday Times created a certain disarray International Viewpoint #140 • May 2, 1988
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