A Message to Anat Kam, from Israel’s Soldiers

Anat Kam considers herself a journalist. Her interest is in telling a story and selling copy. The more she sells, the more her editors value her.

Anat Kam is a 23-year-old Israeli woman who betrayed the position she was given during her army service. She served as the assistant to the bureau chief of OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh between 2005 and 2007. During that time, she copied or stole some 2,000 classified documents that, according to the Jerusalem Post, “contained top secret information concerning General Staff orders, personnel numbers in the Central Command, intelligence information, information on the IDF doctrine and data pertaining to central sensitive military exercises, weaponry and military platforms. The files also contained details on what the Central Command does in the event of a major escalation – how it deploys forces to the West Bank and where it stations them there. (http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=172658)

What she did with the documents is even worse. She gave them to Haaretz reporter Uri Blau, who is now hiding out in London, refusing to return other documents he is suspected of holding. This in itself is a crime – holding stolen, property…no?

What is interesting to me is the glorification of this woman, this thief who ran to the media after betraying the trust she was given. Perhaps even more interesting is how quickly her lawyers and others want to claim that accusing Anat Kam of treason is a betrayal of all Israel’s media and that she is honorable…no, she is not.

According to Yuval Disken, Chief of Shin Bet (Israel’s military intelligence organization), the leak “posed a direct and real threat to the lives of IDF soldiers and Israeli citizens.”

I came home from work today full of anger at this woman’s deceit and the idiocy of those who run to defend her without knowing much of the facts. Only Kam and Blau, those they showed the documents to, and the investigating teams know the full extent of the damage.

I sat with Elie to speak of other things and then we discussed this. My son summed up my feelings beautifully and so I present a message to Anat Kam from the soldiers of Israel…whom she betrayed, “I hope she goes to jail for ten or fifteen years.”

Yes, I do. I do not support Anat Kam. If she felt that the army was doing something wrong, she had other avenues besides prostituting herself to the media. She is a “journalist” – no, she is a wanna-be journalist.

Her lawyer says she is a “young Zionist.” I’ll give you the young…but no – Zionism is about the dream of fulfilling and maintaining the Jewish homeland of Israel. What Anat Kam did was all about fulfilling and maintaining Anat Kam at the expense of our soldiers, our sons, our future.

If she is guilty of what everyone suspects she has done…I hope she gets a good, long sentence to contemplate her crimes.

9 Comments

  1. i don’t know. I don’t agree with you. If she felt that the army was doing something wrong, she did the right thing to report it to the media. That’s the only way.

  2. Hi George – I think the only death penalty law on Israel’s books is related to Nazi crimes and only one person in Israel’s 62 year history has even been tried, convicted and executed (Adolf Eichmann). Having said that, what she did was illegal. There is little question she did the crime and if she thinks she can get away with it without paying her time…I sincerely hope she is WRONG!

    Having said that, in answer to the first comment about what other options she had besides contacting a reporter – first – many of the documents have nothing to do with the one that was released regarding targeted killings, which may or may not be illegal, but according to the Jerusalem Post, many of the documents had to do with positioning of soldiers, supplies and operation. That was pure treason. Second – she could have written to Members of the government (Parliament) in opposition to the government and if the army or government was doing something wrong, they would have loved to call the government on these actions.

    The bottom line is that I don’t believe an ambitious 20-22 year-old who had dreams of becoming a journalist…did what she did for the good of Israel, but rather for the good of Anat Kam. For that, she deserves a severe and long prison term.

  3. I checked my facts; the death penalty is on the books in Israel for “treason in wartime”. I assume that the period which we are talking about here cannot be defined as wartime in its strictest sense.

  4. Yony’s mother

    Anat Kam is a traitor – her crime is that of TREASON.
    She is a disgrace to the jewish nation, our people and our land. There are no mitigating circusmtances and let us please not speak of Freedom of Speech, Democracy, or g-d forbid journalism, when describing theft, treachery and maliciouse acts that endanger lives.

    Last week a mother buried her second son, fallen in the line of duty, defending our country.
    Anat Kam’s mother can only bury her head in shame.

    I hope she sits in jail for the rest of her life.

  5. Today I saw @YossiBoublil says that Anat Kam stole a military operation document about releasing Gilad Shalit! She ruined the whole Shalit family and all the Israeli citizens.

  6. Death penalty is for Nazi Crime
    the last was Eichman fact
    but for this Anat , she deserves to be in jail forever !!!!!! Death penalty is not enough for this pig

  7. Another angle: the army also messed up, IMHO. She should not have passed the security check (a long and ardous process from personal experience).
    This was a young radical during all her high school years who tipped off reporters, albeit on the subject of education but still… She decided to enlist in the army – but military HR should have known better than to give her access to such sensitive material.

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