The Naza of the Skies: the story of a foiled massacre

The film “Naza” by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor criticises Unit 8200, which the Israelis simply call “eight two hundred”. It is the renowned team of experts that employs the most gifted young people in mathematics, cryptanalysis and computer science to carry out intelligence work and, when necessary, hunt down terrorists. It is also the same unit of Israeli military intelligence that helped Australia foil a major terrorist attack on a commercial airliner. Confirmation came first from the Australian government and then from the Israeli military: “Our intelligence led to the arrest of the suspects, who were at a very advanced stage of carrying out their plan. Preventing the attack saved the lives of dozens of innocent people and demonstrated that Unit 8200 is a key player in the intelligence war against ISIS.”

An Australian citizen had sent his unsuspecting brother to Sydney Airport to board an Etihad Airways flight carrying a bomb concealed inside a meat mincer and constructed according to instructions from Islamic State. Khaled Khayat and Mahmoud Khayat, who were subsequently sentenced to forty years in prison, had also planned to build a device to release poisonous gas in a public area. “Israeli intelligence services foiled the downing of an Australian aircraft; it would have been an unimaginable massacre,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also stated. High-grade explosives used to build the bomb had been sent by air freight from Turkey as part of an ISIS plot; the group claimed responsibility last year for the attack on the Jewish community at Bondi Beach. Australia’s Deputy Commissioner for National Security, Michael Phelan, described it as “one of the most sophisticated plots ever attempted on Australian soil”, whilst Donald Trump is reported to have subsequently revealed that Israel had also issued a warning regarding an ISIS plan to blow up aircraft bound for Europe using explosives concealed inside laptops. While ‘Naza’s’ anonymous sources made headlines around the world, the Israeli announcements about the foiled attacks did not. “The work of Unit 8200 is of the utmost importance in combating terrorism, both by Israel and by the rest of the Western world,” Yossi Kuperwasser, a former brigadier-general in the Israeli army and director of military intelligence research, now head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told Il Foglio. “A great deal of the intelligence that has led to all manner of operations against ISIS and other terrorists has come from Unit 8200. But these people would applaud anyone who says anything negative about Israel. The West must understand that Israel is fighting terror and that it seeks to do so as much as possible in accordance with international law and to minimise the number of people affected by our efforts to protect ourselves.”

But this is the message conveyed by films such as ‘Naza’: ‘That we do not want to know how the fight against terrorism works’, Kuperwasser continues in Il Foglio. “This is the message: we don’t want to know. And we want to believe that our security can be achieved without casualties – that’s impossible. Especially because terrorists take advantage of this and hide amongst civilians. This posturing of high moral ground is nonsense, and people need to realise this. We are responding to a vicious terrorist attack and we must deal with those terrorists who continue to act against us.”

As a former intelligence officer, Kuperwasser feels frustrated by the lack of gratitude. “I used to feel frustrated. I feel less so today, because I know this is part of the world we live in. They use the issue of human rights and so on to attack Israel.” In the thriller Rendition, Meryl Streep plays Corrine Whitman, the head of the CIA’s counter-terrorism division, a cold and calculating woman. Whitman justifies the ‘dirty work’ by invoking the safety of her own family: ‘Darling, this is a nasty business. There are more than seven thousand people alive tonight in central London thanks to information we’ve obtained in this way. So, perhaps you can lay your head on your pillow and feel proud of having saved one man whilst seven thousand die, but I have grandchildren in London, so I’m glad I’m doing this job and that you aren’t.”

Perhaps the "otto duecento" also saved the lives of a few celebrities in tuxedos who took part in the twenty-five-minute round of applause at the Venice Film Festival.