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The Honey Trap Theory: Ari Ben-Menashe Speaks on Epstein (Part 1) · The Epstein Chronicles

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. Whenever anybody talks about Jeffrey Epstein and has
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: alleged ties to the Massad, they all refer to the
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  Speaker 1: same source as that source of information that confirms that
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  Speaker 1: Epstein was in fact working with the Massad, and that
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  Speaker 1: person is Ari Ben Manash. So in this episode, we're
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  Speaker 1: going to take a look at who Ari Ben Manash is,
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  Speaker 1: and we're going to take a look at his original
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  Speaker 1: claims about Jeffrey Epstein and Glen Maxwell and Glen Maxwell's father,
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  Speaker 1: Robert Maxwell. But before we dive into the article, why
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  Speaker 1: don't we start with a basic background on who Ari is.
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  Speaker 1: Ari ben Manash was born in December nineteen fifty one
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  Speaker 1: in Tehran, Iran, to an Iraqi Jewish family. His early
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  Speaker 1: life was shaped by the turbulent politics of the Middle
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  Speaker 1: East in the mid twentieth century, where regional instability, shifting alliances,
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  Speaker 1: and covert dealings between states created fertile ground for those
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  Speaker 1: involved in intelligence and military affairs. When he was still
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  Speaker 1: a teenager, his family relocated to Israel, where he quickly
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  Speaker 1: assimilated into Israeli society and served in the military By
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  Speaker 1: the seventies, ben Minosh had joined the Israeli Defense Force,
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  Speaker 1: serving between seventy four and seventy seven. His focus was
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  Speaker 1: in signals intelligence, a field that required a sharp mind
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  Speaker 1: for languages, communications, and pattern recognition. From there, he was
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  Speaker 1: recruited into the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate, where he worked
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  Speaker 1: from seventy seven to nineteen eighty seven. This role gave
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  Speaker 1: him a front row seat to some of the most
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  Speaker 1: sensitive Israeli intelligence operations of the Cold War era. During
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  Speaker 1: his time in Aman, ben Omash claimed to have been
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  Speaker 1: deeply involved in Israeli arm transfers to Iran, particularly during
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  Speaker 1: the period when the Islamic Republic was officially hostile towards
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  Speaker 1: Israel but still covertly dependent on its weapons supply during
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  Speaker 1: the Iran Iraq War. According to his own accounts, he
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  Speaker 1: was part of the shadowy arms network that blurred the
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  Speaker 1: lines between Israeli policy, private contractors, and clandestine US interests.
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  Speaker 1: One of his most sensational claims is that he had
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  Speaker 1: insider knowledge of the October Surprise conspiracy of the eighties.
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  Speaker 1: This theory suggests that members of Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign
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  Speaker 1: negotiated with Iranian officials to delay the release of US
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  Speaker 1: hostages until Jimmy Carter lost the election, an arrangement that
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  Speaker 1: allegedly tipped the scales in Reagan's favor. Ben Minosh insisted
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  Speaker 1: he had first hand knowledge of Israeli involvement in these negotiations,
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  Speaker 1: though his claims have never been conclusively proven and remained
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  Speaker 1: hotly debated. In nineteen eighty six, during the height of
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  Speaker 1: the Iran Contra scandal, Ben Minosh reportedly became a source
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  Speaker 1: for journalists, helping expose covert US and Israeli arm cells
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  Speaker 1: to Iran. This information not only embarrassed multiple governments, but
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  Speaker 1: also furthered his reputation as an insider willing to go
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  Speaker 1: public with intelligent secrets. Yet his credibility has always been
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  Speaker 1: under scrutiny. Some saw him as a whistleblower willing to
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  Speaker 1: risk his career to reveal truth, while others painted him
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  Speaker 1: as an opportunist inflating his importance within the Israeli intelligence establishment.
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  Speaker 1: Ben minash life took a dramatic turn in eighty nine
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  Speaker 1: when he was arrested in Los Angeles for allegedly attempting
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  Speaker 1: to sell three C one thirty hercules military transport planes
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  Speaker 1: to Iran in violation of US export laws. He spent
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  Speaker 1: eleven months in jail awaiting trial. His defense centered on
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  Speaker 1: the argument that he had been acting under the authority
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  Speaker 1: of the Israeli government, it was not freelancing for personal profit.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety a jury acquitted him after testimony suggested
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  Speaker 1: that his actions had been linked to Israeli policy rather
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  Speaker 1: than personal criminality. Nonetheless, his standing in Israel's intelligence community
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  Speaker 1: had collapsed, and he found himself essentially exiled. This marked
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  Speaker 1: the beginning of his reinvention as both an author and
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  Speaker 1: a consultant for hire. In nineteen ninety two, Ben Manosh
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  Speaker 1: released Prophets of War Inside the Secret US Israeli Arms Network.
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  Speaker 1: In this book, he chronicled his decade inside Israel's intelligence world,
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  Speaker 1: detailing covert arms deals, espionage, and his interpretation of how
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  Speaker 1: US Israeli clandestine ties functioned. Among the most explosive revelations
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  Speaker 1: were his allegations at Robert Maxwell, the British media tycoon
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  Speaker 1: and father of Glen Maxwell, was working as an agent
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  Speaker 1: for the Massad. Ben Manash tied Maxwell to the betrayal
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  Speaker 1: of Mordechai Vananu, the Israeli whistleblower who exposed Israel's secret
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  Speaker 1: nuclear weapons program. Venunu was abducted by Massad in Rome
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  Speaker 1: and smuggled back to Israel in eighty six. According to
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  Speaker 1: ben Minosh, Maxwell played a role in facilitating Venunw's exposure
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  Speaker 1: and arrest. He went further suggesting that Maxwell's mysterious death
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  Speaker 1: at sea in nineteen ninety one was not an accident
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  Speaker 1: but a Masad assassination carried out because Maxwell had become
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  Speaker 1: a liability. After his acquittal, Ben Minosh struggled to find
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  Speaker 1: safe footing. He briefly moved to Australia before eventually settling
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  Speaker 1: in Montreal, Canada, where he remarried a Canadian woman and
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  Speaker 1: gained citizenship in the mid nineteen nineties. From there, he
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  Speaker 1: began offering services as a consultant and lobbyist, often for
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  Speaker 1: controversial clients across the world. Canadian intelligence agencies reportedly interviewed
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  Speaker 1: him multiple times, taking advantage of his knowledge of Middle
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  Speaker 1: Eastern networks, but he also gained notoriety for his business dealings.
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  Speaker 1: He positioned himself as a political broker who could leverage
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  Speaker 1: his intelligence contacts for governments and figures willing to pay
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  Speaker 1: in later decades, ben Minosh became known less for his
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  Speaker 1: intelligence past and more for his work as an international
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  Speaker 1: lobbyist and consultant. He was involved with clients ranging from
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  Speaker 1: Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabi to factions in Sudan, Libya, Kyrgyzstan, and Tunisia.
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  Speaker 1: Often these were regimes of political actors isolated from Western governments,
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  Speaker 1: and ben Manash marketed himself as a fixer who could
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  Speaker 1: open doors in Washington, Moscow and Jerusalem for the right price.
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  Speaker 1: In one instance, he registered a foreign agent in the
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  Speaker 1: US after being hired by Sadir Japarov, the leader from Kyrgyzstan,
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  Speaker 1: in a one million dollar contract to promote his government abroad.
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  Speaker 1: Similar deals with African and Middle Eastern leaders brought him
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  Speaker 1: both money and controversy. Critics accused him of working as
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  Speaker 1: a mercenary lobbyist willing to defend authoritarian figures for profit,
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  Speaker 1: and to this day, Arib ben Manash remains a polarizing figure.
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  Speaker 1: His supporters view him as a courageous whistleblower who exposed
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  Speaker 1: government lies in deep corruption, while detractors see him as
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  Speaker 1: an unreliable, fableist who mixes truth with embellishment. To create
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  Speaker 1: an aura of importance. His reputation has been further complicated
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  Speaker 1: by the fact that many of his claims, though dramatic,
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  Speaker 1: remained difficult to independently verify. Still, his life intersects with
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  Speaker 1: major historic flashpoints, the Iran Contra scandal, the October Surprise,
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  Speaker 1: Robert Maxwell's downfall, and Israeli nuclear secrets. Whether one sees
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  Speaker 1: him as a hero, a hustler, or something in between,
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  Speaker 1: Ari Ben Manash continues to loom in the shadows of
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  Speaker 1: intelligence history. So what did Ari Ben Manash have to
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  Speaker 1: say about Robert Maxwell? Ari ben manash most enduring and
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  Speaker 1: certainly most controversial claims revolve around the late media baron
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  Speaker 1: Robert Maxwell, the father of Glene Maxwell. In his nineteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety two memoirs Profits of War, Ben Manash declared that
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  Speaker 1: Maxwell was not merely a powerful pressed icoon with political connections,
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  Speaker 1: but in fact the long standing Masad asset recruited decades
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  Speaker 1: earlier and used the funnel sensitive information and intelligence to Israel.
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  Speaker 1: He painted Maxwell not his the media magnate who occasionally
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  Speaker 1: dabbled in espionage, but is someone deeply embedded in Israel's
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  Speaker 1: intelligence infrastructure, trusted enough to handle some of its most
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  Speaker 1: sensitive operations. One of the most striking allegations Ben Manash
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  Speaker 1: leveled concerned the case of Mordecai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear
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  Speaker 1: technician who revealed Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons program to The
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  Speaker 1: Sunday Times in nineteen eighty six. According to Ben Manash,
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  Speaker 1: it was Maxwell who tipped off the Massad about the
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  Speaker 1: new news contact with British journalists. This tip allegedly helped
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  Speaker 1: Israeli intelligence set in motion the operation to lure Venunu
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  Speaker 1: to Rome, to seduce them through the honeytrap agent Cheryl
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  Speaker 1: ben Hove, and then kidnap them back to Israel in
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  Speaker 1: a covert mission. Ben Minosh claimed that without Maxwell's intervention,
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  Speaker 1: Venunu might have escaped Israel's grasp and lived freely after
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  Speaker 1: disclosing the nuclear secrets. In ben Manosh telling, Maxwell's relationship
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  Speaker 1: with Massad was not a casual one, but rather symbiotic
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  Speaker 1: and mutually beneficial. Maxwell's global media empire gave him access
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  Speaker 1: to elites in politics, finance, and intelligence. Massad in turn
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  Speaker 1: used him as both a conduit of information and a
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  Speaker 1: trusted operative for specific missions. His newspaper could shape narratives
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  Speaker 1: very inconvenient stories or ampli TI messages that aligned with
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  Speaker 1: Israeli strategic interests. Ben Minosh suggested that Massad had cultivated
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  Speaker 1: Maxwell for years, precisely because of the unusual combination of wealth, influence,
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  Speaker 1: and plausible deniability. Another explosive claim made by Ben Manash
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  Speaker 1: was that Maxwell's sudden death in November of nineteen ninety one,
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  Speaker 1: when his body was discovered floating in the Atlantic Ocean
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  Speaker 1: off the Canary Islands, was no accident, nor was it
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  Speaker 1: a suicide as some speculated. Instead, he asserted that Maxwell
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  Speaker 1: was assassinated by Massad operatives. The motive, he claimed, stem
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  Speaker 1: from Maxwell's growing financial troubles is increasing on predictability. Facing bankruptcy,
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  Speaker 1: Maxwell allegedly tried to leverage its past services and sensitive
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of Israeli operations to secure bellouts to Massad. Ben
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  Speaker 1: Manash suggested this made him a liability rather than an asset.
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  Speaker 1: The official story of Maxwell's death has always been riddled
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  Speaker 1: within consistencies, which provide fertile ground for conspiracy theories. He
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  Speaker 1: was reported to have fallen from his yacht, the Lady Lelaine,
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  Speaker 1: but no definitive explanation was ever reached. Ben Manash took
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  Speaker 1: those ambiguities and tied them directly to his claim that
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  Speaker 1: Maxwell's usefulness to Massad had expired, and that he knew
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  Speaker 1: too much about Israel's covert operations, including its nuclear program,
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  Speaker 1: arms deals, and deep political connections. In such circles, liabilities
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  Speaker 1: are rarely tolerated. Ben manash betrayal of Maxwell painted him
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  Speaker 1: as a man who lived a double life, a public
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  Speaker 1: figure of wealth and power and a clan destined intelligence
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  Speaker 1: operative whose dealings went far deeper than any outsider imagined.
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  Speaker 1: According to him, Maxwell had been instrumental in helping Israel
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  Speaker 1: acquire technology and secure influence in Western capitals. His role
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  Speaker 1: in Venunw's downfall was merely one of the most visible
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  Speaker 1: pieces of a long career spent in the shadows of espionage.
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  Speaker 1: Venunu had leaked photos of Israel's secret nuclear facility at
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  Speaker 1: the Mona, proving the existence of a nuclear weapons program
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  Speaker 1: long denied by Israeli officials. This revelation could have seriously
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  Speaker 1: embarrassed Israel and changed his relationship with the Western allies.
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  Speaker 1: Ben Manash argued that Maxwell stepped in at the critical
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  Speaker 1: moment to prevent further damage by ensuring Massad could neutralize
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  Speaker 1: Venunu before more information reach the public domain. This claim,
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  Speaker 1: if true, would put Maxwell directly at the center of
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  Speaker 1: one of Israel's most sensitive intelligence operations of the twentieth century.
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  Speaker 1: For critics of Maxwell, Ben Minosh's allegation seemed plausible because
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  Speaker 1: Maxwell had long courted power and was notorious for his ruthlessness.
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  Speaker 1: He was known to move effortlessly between governments, corporations, and
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  Speaker 1: media circles, often blurring the line between journalism, politics, and
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  Speaker 1: back channel diplomacy. His empire gave him leverage, and his
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  Speaker 1: financial scheme often left him in need of powerful allies. Massad,
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  Speaker 1: in Ben Manash's narrative, offered both protection and utility, creating
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  Speaker 1: a relationship that spanned decades. The question of motive in
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  Speaker 1: Maxwell's alleged assassination looms large. In Ben Minosh's account, he
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  Speaker 1: argued that Maxwell's precarious finances, heavily indebted his empire teetering
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  Speaker 1: on collapse, led him to threaten exposure. Maxwell, he claimed,
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  Speaker 1: tried to use his intelligence ties as bargaining chips to
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  Speaker 1: save off Ruin, but to an agency like Massad, which
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  Speaker 1: prizes secrecy and controls above all, else such threats were intolerable.
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  Speaker 1: From their perspective, it was safer to silence them permanently
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  Speaker 1: than risk the exposure of sensitive operations. Ben Minash also
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  Speaker 1: linked Maxwell's relationship with Masad to broader patterns of Israel's
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  Speaker 1: espionage and influence operations. According to him, Maxwell was far
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  Speaker 1: from the only figure cultivated in this way, but he
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  Speaker 1: was among the most successful, operating at the nexus of business,
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  Speaker 1: media and intelligence. This made him uniquely valuable, but also
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  Speaker 1: uniquely dangerous when his empire began to crumble. Critics of
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  Speaker 1: Ben Manash have dismissed his claim as sensational, pointing out
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  Speaker 1: that he has a history of making bold assertions that
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  Speaker 1: are difficult to verify. Yet his stories about Maxwell persist
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  Speaker 1: because they align with the suspicion that already existed about
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  Speaker 1: the publisher's sudden death, his shadowy dealings, and his reputation
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  Speaker 1: as a man who thrived in secrecy. Even decades later,
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  Speaker 1: Maxwell's drowning has never been definitively explained, and keeping speculation alive.
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  Speaker 1: The Maxwell Venunu connection has also remained a point of
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  Speaker 1: intrigue because Venunu himself was such a high profile case.
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  Speaker 1: His kidnapping and subsequent imprisonment dru worldwide attention and condemnation.
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  Speaker 1: If Maxwell truly played a key role in exposing Venunu,
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  Speaker 1: as Ben Manash insisted, it would place him at the
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  Speaker 1: heart of one of Israel's most controversial intelligence operations, further
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  Speaker 1: cementing his legacy as a covert actor rather than a
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  Speaker 1: mere bystander. Ben Minosh did not portray Maxwell as a
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  Speaker 1: simple villain or victim, but as a man consumed by
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  Speaker 1: ambition and ultimately undone by the very system that he served.
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  Speaker 1: In his view, Maxwell's ego and greed pushed them too far,
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  Speaker 1: first into financial ruin, then into dangerous confrontations with his
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  Speaker 1: intelligence handlers. The fatal night aboard the Lady Glaine was,
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  Speaker 1: in this telling, the inevitable outcome of years of playing
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  Speaker 1: both sides of a dangerous game. Now the assassin nation
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  Speaker 1: theory also fits within a larger pattern of mysterious deaths
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  Speaker 1: tied to intelligence work. Ben Manosh emphasized that Maxwell's body
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: was recovered under ambiguous circumstances and that the inquest into
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  Speaker 1: his death left lingering questions. His funeral in Israel attended
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  Speaker 1: by top political figures, including then Prime Minister Yitzak Shmir
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  Speaker 1: and President heim Herzog underscored his importance to the State
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  Speaker 1: of Israel, further fueling suspicion that his ties to Masad
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  Speaker 1: were deeper than officially acknowledged. In the decades since Maxwell's death,
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  Speaker 1: Ben Minash's claims have been cited in books, documentaries, and
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  Speaker 1: investigative reports, While mainstream institutions remain cautious about endorsing them.
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  Speaker 1: His narrative is shaped how many interpret Maxwell's life and death.
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  Speaker 1: Even skeptics can see that Maxwell's influence, his ties to
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Israeli leaders, and his mysterious end invite legitimate scrutiny. Another
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  Speaker 1: aspect Ben Manosh highlighted was Maxwell in manipulating information flows
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: through his media empire, he could steer a coverage favorable
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  Speaker 1: to Israeli interests or suppress damaging stories. This power, combined
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: with his intelligence connections, made him one of the most
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  Speaker 1: formidable figures in late Cold War geopolitics. When he died,
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  Speaker 1: the sudden collapse of his empire revealed not just financial crimes,
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  Speaker 1: but also the intricate web of political and intelligence connections
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  Speaker 1: that he cultivated. Banunu, who spent eighteen years in prison,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: many of them in solitary confinement. Later confirmed that he
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  Speaker 1: believed he was betrayed by someone close to the media
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  Speaker 1: or political establishment, though he never directly accused Maxwell. Ben
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  Speaker 1: Minosh's story provides a name and a narrative to explain
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  Speaker 1: how MASADNW to target him for Venunu supporters. This remains
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  Speaker 1: a chilling reminder of the global reach of Israeli intelligence.
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  Speaker 1: Ben minosh narrative about Robert Maxwell is not universally accepted,
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  Speaker 1: but it is one of the few that ties together
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  Speaker 1: the strands of espionage, media, nuclear secrecy, and sudden death.
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  Speaker 1: Whether one sees him as a whistleblower or a liar,
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  Speaker 1: his account has ensured that Maxwell's name is forever linked
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  Speaker 1: not only to financial scandals and family disgrace, but also
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  Speaker 1: the clandestine world of Masad operations. In the end, what
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  Speaker 1: ben Manash offered was a portrait of a man who
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  Speaker 1: thrived in shadows, who built a fortune on manipulation, and
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  Speaker 1: who ultimately died under circumstances befitting the clandestine life he
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: allegedly lived. Robert Maxwell, and his telling was more than
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  Speaker 1: a disgrace press lord. He was a spy, a betrayer,
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  Speaker 1: and finally a casualty of the very secrets that he carried.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So that's going to do it for the
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  Speaker 1: first episode. In the next episode, we're going to continue
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  Speaker 1: the conversation, but we're going to spin to what Ari
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  Speaker 1: Ben Manash had to say about Jeffrey Epstein and Glenn Maxwell.
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  Speaker 1: All of the information that goes with this episode can
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  Speaker 1: be found owned in the description box.