Dimona: The Third Temple?; The Story Behind the Vanunu Revelation

Brattleboro, VT: Amana Books, 1989. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. Very good. xv, [1], 236, [4] pages. Footnotes. Chapter Notes. Figures. Illustrations. Contents include: Introduction; One: Mordechai Vanunu Traitor, or Hero?; Two: "Given that this fear exists"; Three: Creating "Facts," not Flowers; Four: Dimona The third temple?; Five: Is the Talking Over?; Six: Israeli Nuclear Strategy "Polite Blackmail"; Seven: "Cracks in the Defense Model"; List of Acronyms/Terms; Chronology of Important Dates; Appendix A; Appendix B; and Appendix C. Mark H. Gaffney is an author, an environmentalist, and a peace activist. His essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Atlantis Rising Magazine. The author's first book, Dimona the Third Temple?, was a pioneering study of the Israeli nuclear weapons program. The book told the remarkable story of Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear technician who endured a fate worse than death: the hellish ordeal of 18 years in an Israeli prison, eleven and a half of them in solitary confinement. The Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center is an Israeli nuclear installation located in the Negev desert, south-east of the city of Dimona. In August 2018, it was renamed after the late Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shimon Peres. Israel claims that the reactor and facility is for research purposes into atomic science. However, the purpose of the reactor is believed to be the production of nuclear materials that may be used in Israel's nuclear weapons. Information about the facility remains highly classified and the country maintains a policy known as nuclear ambiguity—refusing either to confirm or deny their possession. Mordechai Vanunu (born 14 October 1952), also known as John Crossman, is an Israeli former nuclear technician and peace activist who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, where he was drugged and abducted. He was secretly transported to Israel and ultimately convicted in a trial that was held behind closed doors. Vanunu spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 in solitary confinement, though no such restriction is mentioned in Israel's penal code, nor imposed by his verdict. Released from prison in 2004, he was further subjected to a broad array of restrictions on his speech and his movement, and arrested several times for violations of his parole terms, giving interviews to foreign journalists and attempting to leave Israel. He claims having suffered "cruel and barbaric treatment" at the hands of prison authorities, and suggests that these would have been different if he had not converted to Christianity. In 2007, Vanunu was sentenced to six months in prison for violating terms of his parole. The sentence was considered unusually severe even by the prosecution, who expected a suspended sentence. However, in May 2010, Vanunu was arrested again and sentenced to three months in jail on a charge that he had met foreigners, in violation of conditions of his 2004 release from jail. In response, Amnesty International issued a press release on July 2007, stating that "The organization considers Mordechai Vanunu to be a prisoner of conscience and calls for his immediate and unconditional release." Vanunu has been characterized internationally as a whistleblower and by Israel as a traitor. Daniel Ellsberg has referred to him as "the preeminent hero of the nuclear era". In 1987, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "his courage and self-sacrifice in revealing the extent of Israel's nuclear weapons program". Israel (with India, North Korea, Pakistan, and South Sudan) is one of five non-signatories to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, though it reportedly opened Dimona to U.S. inspection in January 1965, with inspections continuing until 1969. Israel is believed to have produced its first nuclear weapons by 1967, and it has been estimated to possess anywhere between 80 and 400 nuclear weapons.