Forecast Highs

Psy-ops or Psych-out?

The following picture was aired last night on the Israel Broadcasting Authority’s Channel 1 TV news show ‘Mabat’.

Snapshot taken from Channel 1 TV News, 4 August 2009 21:18

The caption accompanying the photo on the IBA broadcast reads: ‘The Prime Minister visits the Dimona nuclear reactor, receives briefing on the scientific programs undertaken there’.

The segment was very short, not accompanied by any analysis, and said only that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited the Dimona nuclear reactor and received a briefing of the work being done there. The segment was accompanied by a still photograph showing Netanyahu, dressed in a white overall, standing next to some technical installation. While other Israeli Prime Ministers have visited the Dimona reactor, this is the first time I have seen a picture released of the event. Except that the picture was not released. It was only sent to the government-owned Channel 1 TV. The Government Press Office says it did not take the picture, and that it was taken by someone at the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, which hosted the PM. Phone calls to the Commission to ask for the picture went unanswered. An official at the office of Dan Meridor, Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy, said she knew nothing about the picture, and that Meridor’s office is not connected to the Atomic Energy Commission. An official at the Prime Minister’s Office denied the existence of the picture. The PMO released no other information except that Netanyahu visited the facility and received a briefing of scientific projects being undertaken there. When asked if the visit represented a message to the world or Iran, the PMO said it was a routine visit to the facility and not a message meant for the international community. Israel believes Iran is racing towards acquiring nuclear weapons capability and is pushing for tough international sanctions on the regime in Tehran in an effort to thwart the nuclear development. Israeli officials have also repeatedly stressed that “no option was off the table” with regards to Iran – hinting at possible military action.

Why would the Prime Minister’s Office go to the trouble to have Netanyahu photographed at the nuclear reactor, then pass on the photo only to Channel 1 TV News [that has the lowest rating of all TV news shows] and not disseminate the photo to other news agencies, Israeli and foreign? What would be the point of that? All material, whether photos or text about the Dimona nuclear reactor must go through military censorship. So either there was a foul-up, a serious security breach at the Dimona nuclear reactor or, it was a calculated act meant to send a message on government-run television to someone who would be watching closely.

In the past, Iran has widely disseminated this and similar pictures of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visiting the Natanz nuclear facility, ostensibly to send a message to the world that they were making progress on their nuclear program.