Israeli-Arab Fifth Column Watch - Is It Treason Yet?
Iran, as you may have heard, has become a bit of a problem lately. Especially with Israel, what with the whole "they're going to nuke everybody there" thing. And so, if an Israeli citizen - with all of the civil, political, and economic rights that any Israeli citizen has - chose to spy against his country, surely that would be treason, right? And if he came from a community where it seemed like his sentiments were supported, surely that community would be treated with justifiable suspicious, right? Right?
The State Prosecution on Monday handed the Haifa District Court an indictment against a former local council head of the Western Galilee Arab village of Fassuta on suspicion of having been recruited by Iranian intelligence to spy in Israel. Jirias Jirias, 57, has been charged with conspiring to give information to an enemy, contact with a foreign agent and attempting to cover up his crime. The Foreign Ministry announced Monday morning that the charges do not include 'grave' acts of espionage on behalf of Iran, as earlier reports claimed. "The accused maintained contact with Hani Abdullah Mitawali, an agent for the Iranian intelligence known for locating Israeli and Palestinian agents on behalf of Iran. Mitawali acquainted the accused with Iranian intelligence officials on two different occasions, and during the meetings that took place in Cyprus, they asked Jirias to enter Israeli politics and acquire research information on Israeli society and government," states the indictment.
Only in Israel could an enemy state really believe that someone openly hostile to the state could get himself elected to a position that would put him into contact with sensitive information. In any normal country, politicians aspiring to high office have to at least pretend to be patriotic. Not so in the case of Israeli Arab politicians. They can visit countries Israel is at war with, they can advocate violent revolution against the state, they can openly call for their followers to undermine state security, and they can outright refuse to pledge allegiance to the state they make laws for and decisions about - and yet, Israel can do nothing but continue allowing them to serve. Certainly, if Israel took any kind of systematic action against these politicians, the country would be accused of racism by all of the usual, fashionable European outlets. The State Department would probably express "concern". And so, despite the fact that Israel's Arab citizens enjoy more political, social, and economic rights than the Arab citizens of any other country in the Middle East, they continue to elect borderline traitors to national offices and outright traitors to community offices.
The State Prosecution on Monday handed the Haifa District Court an indictment against a former local council head of the Western Galilee Arab village of Fassuta on suspicion of having been recruited by Iranian intelligence to spy in Israel. Jirias Jirias, 57, has been charged with conspiring to give information to an enemy, contact with a foreign agent and attempting to cover up his crime. The Foreign Ministry announced Monday morning that the charges do not include 'grave' acts of espionage on behalf of Iran, as earlier reports claimed. "The accused maintained contact with Hani Abdullah Mitawali, an agent for the Iranian intelligence known for locating Israeli and Palestinian agents on behalf of Iran. Mitawali acquainted the accused with Iranian intelligence officials on two different occasions, and during the meetings that took place in Cyprus, they asked Jirias to enter Israeli politics and acquire research information on Israeli society and government," states the indictment.
Only in Israel could an enemy state really believe that someone openly hostile to the state could get himself elected to a position that would put him into contact with sensitive information. In any normal country, politicians aspiring to high office have to at least pretend to be patriotic. Not so in the case of Israeli Arab politicians. They can visit countries Israel is at war with, they can advocate violent revolution against the state, they can openly call for their followers to undermine state security, and they can outright refuse to pledge allegiance to the state they make laws for and decisions about - and yet, Israel can do nothing but continue allowing them to serve. Certainly, if Israel took any kind of systematic action against these politicians, the country would be accused of racism by all of the usual, fashionable European outlets. The State Department would probably express "concern". And so, despite the fact that Israel's Arab citizens enjoy more political, social, and economic rights than the Arab citizens of any other country in the Middle East, they continue to elect borderline traitors to national offices and outright traitors to community offices.
