Gilad Atzmon argues that the revelation that an Israeli journalist had been secretly held under house arrest and that another had fled to the UK for his life expose the hollowness of the Zionist claim that Israel is “the only democracy in the Middle East”.

In Israel, the so called “only democracy in the Middle East”, a journalist has been held under house arrest since December for leaking a story about Israeli barbarism. In the Jewish democracy, another prominent journalist has had to run for his life for telling the truth about Israel’s murderous policies and its chief war criminals.

The Guardian reported on 2 April that Anat Kam, 23, an Israeli journalist “has been under secret house arrest since December on charges that she leaked highly sensitive classified military documents that suggest the Israeli military breached a court order on assassinations in the occupied West Bank”.

Seemingly, in the “Jews only democracy”, people (even kosher citizens) are put under house arrest even when they are trying to suggest a breach of the state’s Supreme Court orders.

Anat Kam will go on trial in two weeks time on treason and espionage charges and could face up to 14 years in jail. In the “democratic” Jewish state, a court-imposed gagging order is preventing media coverage of the arrest and charges in Israel. I am left puzzled here as it seems that Israelis can be prosecuted for reporting illegal activities.

A leading Haaretz journalist, Uri Blau, who has also been linked to the case, has had to escape Israel. He is now in London, apparently for fear he will be targeted for his reporting.

In November 2008, Blau reported in Haaretz that the Israeli armed forces had been carrying out assassinations of Palestinian militants in the West Bank in contravention of an Israeli high court ruling, which said efforts should be made first to arrest suspected militants rather than assassinate them.

According to Blau the Israel’s chief of General Staff, General Gabi Ashkenazi, allegedly approved the assassination operations. The Haaretz piece was accompanied by copies of military documents and was approved by the military censor before publication.

I would suggest that if America still insists on “democratizing the world”, then it may have to start with its “best ally”. The time may also be ripe for neo-conservative British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who advocates “liberal interventionalism”, to face the fact that the Jewish state, the state that lists him as one of its propaganda (Hasbara) authors, is no less than a tyranny inspired by a deep Talmudic intolerance.