Israel’s Secret Weapon, BBC’s worthy journalism

On Saturday, June 28 and Sunday, June 29, cable and DirecTV viewers in Panama and much of the rest of the world were able to see "Israel's Secret Weapon," which had been shown on BBC television in the United Kingdom last March and finally made it to the global BBC World audience. This is the tale of Israel's weapons of mass destruction, a story I've rarely seen covered on American networks, and never so well as in this episode of "Correspondent."

Israel has had nuclear weapons for decades, and one Israeli, Mordechai Vanunu, is nearing the end of a long prison sentence for having exposed his country's atom bomb production in the British press. Much of this program is about an American couple who have in a way "adopted" Vanunu, whose own family had disowned him as a traitor to Israel. Former Israeli Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who appeared on the program, ducked all the questions on Israel's weapons but was forthrightly indignant about Vanunu, whom he insists belongs behind bars.

It's an update of an old story, with new bits about chemical and biological capabilities, good analysis of the diplomatic gamesmanship involved with Israel's arsenal and a brief reference to an amazing exchange with the US government, which insisted as the Iraq War approached that the only questions about weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East about which it would talk were Saddam's. As to the nuclear arms, this documentary breaks new ground about health problems suffered by workers in Israel's atomic weapons program. On the chemical warfare side of the story, the program accuses Israel of using an undisclosed convulsion-causing gas against Palestinian protesters in Gaza.
Israel decided to cut off ties with the BBC over a repeat
broadcast of a documentary named "Israel's Secret Weapons"

So why did this air on BBC but not CNN, Fox, CBS, ABC or NBC?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/2837671.stm