Israeli Rabbi Says Sexpionage is Kosher

Rabbi Ari Shvat’s ruling—which appeared in the marvelously-titled study, “Illicit sex for the sake of national security”—says that its okay for female agents of Israel’s foreign secret service, Mossad, to have sex with the enemy in so-called “honey-pot” missions against terrorists :

. . . Schvat wrote that honey-pot missions are not just a thing of modern-day espionage - such as the late 1980s capture of Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear technician who revealed details of Israel’s nuclear program, or the January 2010 assassination of terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. Both cases reportedly involved a Mossad female lure.

In fact, honey-pot missions are rooted in Biblical lore.

Queen Esther, who was Jewish, slept with the Persian king Xerxes around 500 BC to save her people, Schvat noted. Yael, wife of Hever, slept with the enemy chief of staff Sisra to tire him and cut off his head, according to tradition.

There is a catch, however, for married honey-pots. “If it is necessary to use a married woman, it would be best [for] her husband to divorce her. . . . After the [sex] act, he would be entitled to bring her back,” Schvat wrote.

Although that’s great stuff, my favorite line from the Haartz article is this one: “Male agents in Mossad apparently have no limitations on sleeping with the female enemy, as they were not mentioned in the writings.”

Whaddya think? Is it moral to sleep with the enemy for the purposes of national security? What if it’s a “ticking-bomb” scenario and the only way to get the information from the terrorist is a bit of “illicit sex?” Many people seem to think that torture is justified in those situations. What about a little fornication?

(Via: Tablet )