In addition to closed-circuit TV systems and the ability to track cellphone and computer users, advanced biometric identification systems and online coordination across borders are becoming more and more widespread. Ronen Bergman Read Quote
Israel has the right to defend itself, especially against the huge numbers of Iranian long-range missiles pouring into the Gaza Strip from Iran via Sudan and Egypt. Ronen Bergman Read Quote
In 1982, Israel began an invasion across its northern border, seeking to root out elements of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Israeli military wreaked destruction all the way up to Beirut and forced the P.L.O. out of Lebanon. It also defeated the Syrian Army and, particularly, the Air Force wherever it engaged them. Ronen Bergman Read Quote
For years, Israeli and American intelligence agencies assumed that if Iran were to gain the ability to build a bomb, it would be a result of its relationship with Russia, which was building a nuclear reactor for Iran at a site called Bushehr and had assisted the Iranians in their missile-development program. Ronen Bergman Read Quote
I have covered Israeli hostage and M.I.A. cases for more than 15 years, including the covert ways in which Israel’s powerful espionage agencies operate to bring soldiers home alive or dead. Over that time, the issue has come to dominate public discourse to a degree that no one could have predicted. Ronen Bergman Read Quote
The first to grasp how sensitive Israeli public opinion was on the issue of hostages and M.I.A.’s – and therefore what a powerful weapon abduction could be – was Ahmed Jibril, the leader of a faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Ronen Bergman Read Quote
Israel’s discourse with the United States on the subject of Iran’s nuclear project is more significant, and more fraught, than it is with Europe. The U.S. has made efforts to stiffen sanctions against Iran and to mobilize countries like Russia and China to apply sanctions in exchange for substantial American concessions. Ronen Bergman Read Quote
Like Iran and Syria supplied Hezbollah with sophisticated anti-tank rockets – Matisse, Cornet, and other RPGs that caused great damage to Israeli tanks and Israeli infantry in 2006 – they did the same in Gaza with Hamas. Ronen Bergman Read Quote
There are some episodes in the history of Israel that are still kept under the strongest secrecy thick veil possible. Some of them are 40 years old, 50 years old, and are still under thick, thick secrecy, and anyone violating this secrecy would be thrown into jail himself. Ronen Bergman Read Quote
Under international law, defendants convicted in absentia have the right to a retrial, unless the prosecutors for the authorities who do finally capture them can show that the defendants knew they were under indictment. Ronen Bergman Read Quote
