To Dabble Or Not To Dabble?

In politics I mean (hat-tip to Max).

Today the media's attention has been drawn by the arrest and possible release of Peter Hounam, Times journalist and friend of Mordechai Vanunu.

Key to Hounam's arrest is that he's been employed by the BBC to quiz Vanunu for a two hour documentary that would be quite a scoop- possibly an echo of the original scoop by the Times in 1986 which Hounam was party to and which confirmed Israel's status as a nuclear power. Unfortunately for Hounam and maybe Vanunu, this contravened a condition of Vanunu's release: not to talk to foreigners.

What's clear from the episode is that the BBC has little respect for Israel's right to its own legal processes (not to mention its security). It's said that the BBC went to the trouble of renting a luxury apartment to facilitate the interview.

Of course now the talk will be about how Israel suppresses journalistic freedom. Actually it would appear that Israel is concerned about its security and cares to enforce its laws. There's so much that journalists could learn legally that they can't be bothered to deal with, they instead resort to tawdry methods that promise more presentable 'dirt'.

Seems likely the BBC think that the big problem in the region is that Israel has nukes whereas underdogs like the Palestinians and Syrians don't- and that international 'outrage' over this imbalance may force change on Israel. This brings to mind the comment of a French MEP, who in 2001 called for Arab Countries to be armed with nukes to balance things out so that Israel 'cannot do simply whatever what it wants'.