Who is Prisoner X?
After a week of international controversy, Israel says it will investigate the case of an Australian-Israeli citizen known as 'Prisoner X' -- a man whose detainment and death in an Israeli cell remain cloaked in mystery. Yet just last week an investigative report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation brought the case to light. The report, which did not disclose its sources, said Prisoner X was a dual citizen of Australia and Israel and was recruited to join Israel's Mossad spy agency. The report identified him as Ben Zygier, reporting he was detained in 2010.
How prisoner x remains a mystery for so long itself was a mystery. This does however reflect upon Israel as a country. Although very much like North Korea by operating outside United Nations boundaries, yet very unlike North Korea by gaining the support of the United States, Israel has been a dominate presence ever since it's first establishment post world war 2. Israel should be criticized because of the intense secrecy it employs. All Israelite reporters have to sign a contract agreeing to not report anything that might harm Israel or give Israel's enemies an advantage. This is much like china, yet Israel claims to be an "democracy." While the world diverts it's attention towards the rising power's in asia, it fails to realize the problems in the middle east. Israel. Although not a problem, Israel is still a major military and political power in the middle east, having allies in the west, Israel quickly rose to be one of the strongest military presences in the Middle East thanks to it's lucrative trade of weapon technology with the United States.
What alarms me isn't Israel operating outside U.N jurisdiction, but that they were able to keep a political prisoner under custody for so long without anyone knowing. What is far more concerning, of course, is the fact that a man was held in detention under heavy secrecy, and nothing was published about the reason for his arrest or the circumstances surrounding his death. How does Israel continue to operate like this without any intervention from the United Nations? Wanting to learn a bit more about history, I combed through the internet, hoping to find a case on why Israel was such a tightly controlled state. Turns out, Israel was a country created after world war 2 and is the only country in the world with Jewish people as the majority group.
Schwartz, Michael, Michael Schwartz Reported from Jerusalem, Holly Yan Reported, and Wrote From Atlanta. Sara Sidner Also. "Israel to Investigate Arrest, Death of 'Prisoner X'" CNN. Cable News Network, 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.