Former Israeli space security chief says aliens exist, humanity not ready | Hacker News Reader

Former Israeli space security chief says aliens exist, humanity not ready

jpost.com

89 pointsbreck92 comments

As I've read: "As for why he's chosen to reveal this information now" ... I've just thought "because he has something to sell"! And sure, just a little later in the text:

"Eshed provided more information in his newest book, The Universe Beyond the Horizon – conversations with Professor Haim Eshed"

Knowing that, I also understand why he waited up to now: "I have nothing to lose. I’ve received my degrees and awards." He is 87.

Ka-ching.

Humanity is ready for his book. Aren't we lucky?

P.S. Two years ago there was a book Haim Eshed co-authored: "Project Management of Technological Innovation", then, one year ago, he also co-authored "Satellites and the New Space"... This year the world was really ready for... literally a book about Men in Black -- if we're to believe the journalists! This latest one, the said "conversations with" is a book where he is being interviewed and the writer interviewing him is Hagar Yanai, the "author of novels and fantasy books" who received "the Deborah Omer Prize for children and youth and three Geffen Prizes for Israeli fantasy" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagar_Yanai I also wouldn't mind telling her whatever she asked. And I wouldn't be surprised if the journalists haven't covered the whole story up to now, about what's actually written in the book and how it came to be. I'd really like to read an interview with her about the book.

If he was 20 years younger, I'd tend to agree with you. At that age, though, it doesn't seem like the income would mean much.

..because people in their 80's don't need money for themselves or their family?

...late 80s. The dude has probably less than a decade left. Though, sure, family can always do with a bit more money.

The dude was in charge of Israel's space and satellite divisions at least as recently as 2007 (source: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL11678080). I don't think he has to worry about money.

> [the aliens] wished to prevent mass hysteria

I don't think any government agency has a right to hide the existence of aliens from the public for the public's good, whether the aliens consent or not.

Proof of the existence of aliens would impact our understanding of the universe and ourselves so fundamentally that hiding their existence is cruel.

It would be like teaching your kids not to kiss or they'll get pregnant. It's a misguided attempt at protecting people in ways that prevents them from dealing with real life.

"If you disclose our existence then we will [leave/blacklist Earth/blow up the planet]."

"Former Israeli space security chief says aliens exist" posted 9 hours ago

uh oh lol

So long and thanks for all the fish.

I don't think any government agency has a right

You think that you have some say over what rights governments have?

You should consider that these aliens may be small insects or even microscopic. Our scale is not "universal". Revealing them could endanger them?

Consider for a second if some highly intelligent tardigrades or resilient small insects from another civilization hitched a ride on a comet in suspended animation, then took a small fragment to earth. It could be as abstract as that, and it would fit a similar description. The fact that most of the readers here expect a human-like creature at our scale with x neurons and physiology like us is pretty naïve. It's sort of like Hollywood OS to actual operating systems. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-he-...

I hate to say this, but he doesn't even detail their level of intelligence. There very well could be life around Venus in the atmosphere for instance: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03258-5 How intelligent are they? What is their physiology? If they are in fact tiny insects or microscopic, then a subterranean base on Mars would be trivial. Our participation could simply be logistic in nature. Nothing was said in detail. If we can make 7nm bitcoin miner ASICs we could certainly do that. He's being very intentionally non-specific for a reason here. Like it's a less-than spectacular life-form? With less than spectacular space travel?

Sorry about this late reply, but also consider that their temporal existence could be different than ours. They could potentially live and die 100 lifespans in a day or visa versa. UFOs could potentially look like they are doing erratic flying maneuvers because they are in a different temporal environment than us. The fact that the Slate article saying that a Martian underground base is impossible uses humans as a reference, and it shouldn't. I have a sinking feeling that people are assuming that these aliens breath oxygen like us. Or that they live on land like us. All of our physical, temporal, and other properties can be dissimilar to aliens, as they are often times to other plants and animals that live here on earth with us. https://slate.com/culture/2020/12/mars-base-haim-eshed-galac...

Although the whole thing is ridiculous, he would've nearly had me at they're in communication part with me imagining some laser communication method. The Mars story just took it too far. Come on people, at least make sure your conspiracy is plausible.

He is on the Wall of Honor at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum: https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/dr-chaim-es...

Being notable for something doesn’t make you credible in everything.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nobel_disease

If aliens existed and we knew about it, who would know? The head of Israel's and USA's space defense programs.

Sure. “He’s full of it” is still an option, though. I’d argue it’s the likely one. People have been killed for revealing lesser secrets.

My priors would say 99% odds he's full of it, but you have to admit that if he's not (and if he really was the head of Israel Defense space division, makes him 1 of a very few people who would know), then this would be the biggest story in the history of the earth.

So shouldn't we at least take a look? The Top Story on HN right now is about a finance deal between Uber and Aururo. Pretty sure that even though that one is almost certainly true, it's expected impact on the world relative to this is zero.

Agreed, this is fascinating and potentially huge. This comes months after the Pentagon released UFO footage for the first time (not necessarily alien, but unidentified). Wonder if there could be a coordinated effort to slowly disseminate the information to the public slowly instead of all at once.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/politics/pentagon-ufo-...

> If aliens existed and we knew about it...

That is an absolutely enormous "if".

And yet, who could be more credible? As long as all we've got is someone's word, he seems nearly as good as it gets.

He is as good as it gets. That’s just not very good without corroborating evidence.

Exactly: that remind me Kary Mullis, a Nobel Prize (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kary_Mullis#Use_of_hallucinoge...). I had a colleague AIDS denialist, he told be that AIDS doesn't exist and that's a fact because Mullins sayd so. So I read about this man that is a brilliant biochemist but with no title or specialization or experience to qualify him as AIDS expert. Reading about his personal life, I learned he was also an hallucinogens addict.About that, he also claimed "to have been rescued from a fatal accident by a person travelling in an astral plane, and to have conversed with an alien disguised as a raccoon" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/08/19/kary-mulli...). So I asked to my colleague: "what's your opinion about aliens?", his response: "they are among us, I'm sure: Mullins sayd so!". :-)

And yet this is the former head of a space agency talking about space aliens. He's within his field of expertise.

The inventor of PCR is about as “within his field” on HIV as this guy is on aliens.

The field still seems fairly undifferentiated, so 'space agency' seems to cover space travel, astronomy, satellites, and anything else outside the atmosphere. Who else is more credible, someone from SETI?

Anyone with actual proofs, I think. We have to filter the source according to the type of information: a political tabloid isn't a good source of information for science, even if someone post it on HN. An accredited scientific journal is a good source. Furthermore, it's necessary looking for "red flags" in our source (critical reading): if the source has few verifiable facts or no verifiable fact at all, maybe it's a case of "alternative fact" (aka bullshit). The search for alien life is taken seriously by the scientific community and a researcher has all the motivations to be part of the history proving the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. If you ask me, I am "probabilist", I think that they could be out there. I'm waiting for evidences. This article is not.

I read the jokes on some of the comments on here which I could understand bc it’s a bit scary thinking about if something like this could be true. Having Said that, I am a bit terrified and it’s because I heard of this gentleman and he is highly respected throughout the world in space Security. What he said was true and when whenever it is going to be confirm. Life is never going to be the same.

He's selling a book.

Also, this part is so contradictory:

But Eshed insists that Trump is aware of them, and that he was "on the verge" of disclosing their existence. However, the Galactic Federation reportedly stopped him from doing so, saying they wished to prevent mass hysteria since they felt humanity needed to "evolve and reach a stage where we will... understand what space and spaceships are," Yediot Aharonot reported.

So it's wrong for Trump to disclose the existence of the Galactic Federation, but Eshed is free to do so? Hmm...

And, if Trump did know, he would have somehow worked that into his presidential campaign and a reason to re-elect him.

Sort of like: “Meeting with us very, very soon. Very good people on both sides,..well maybe people on one side. We’ll have to see. They are staying at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, the absolute best place. We are looking very strongly at renaming it Trump Intergalactic Hotel”.

Here he is talking 9 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myjSeORB1Og

The dude seems legit. This could be real.

Bernie Madoff seemed legit, too.

  This could be real.

Yeah, it's not.

The saying goes "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", not "extraordinary claims must come from one important-sounding guy."

Anonymous user "uniqueid", I forget which defense space agency were you head of?

I probably should have phrased my comment in a less confrontational way.

I think there are more likely explanations for this story; my guess is a confluence of a nervous breakdown with a life-long desire to meet aliens. I reckon most people who work at space agencies are also fans of science fiction.

Sorry to harp on you there, you never know if you're talking to GPT-3 on these things.

The most plausible explanation is that the person who “recorded his conversations” also took “creative liberty” with his conversations. IMO, the story is too airtight to be a result of senility. It seems like, in order of probability, 1) the work of a really good sci-fi author 2) a really good elaborate prank 3) really sharp 87 year old having a good laugh 4) senile 87 year old 5) the truth. Even though #5 is low, expected value of the story is very high. As far as I know, never in history has the former head of one of the top space agencies come forward and said "yes, aliens are real and we are communicating with them".

6) He's selling a book and he wants people to buy it.

I missed the paragraph that mentions his new book. Yes, that's the most likely answer.

I guess the ultimate chess move in life is to stop being a rube and become a real carnie.

Step right up, come see the Aliens.

This is absolutely wild. I've never entertained conspiracy theories about aliens for a minute. But this guy's credentials are as legit as they come. I don't understand why this isn't bigger news than it currently is.

> retired Israeli general and current professor

> served as the head of Israel's space security program for nearly 30 years and is a three-time recipient of the Israel Security Award

Assuming the article isn't misrepresenting his comments, my belief in alien conspiracies has just shot up from 1E-6 to something like ~1%. Ie, I still don't believe in them, but given what's at stake, this is mind blowing.

Credentials:

https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/dr-chaim-es...

Reuters 2007: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL11678080

He was literally in charge of Israel's space and satellite operations.

Even 1% is huge.

No photos, no references: could be a man with the same name. And he's 87 years old, I'm sorry but he can be senile, without evidences, this article IMHO is only a clickbait example.

> could be a man with the same name

I think this is the most likely explanation, and where I'd put my money. I'll admit if he pranked me (as a fellow prankster, that would be a good one).

But still, the slim odds times infinity makes this a story worth spreading so we can get eyes on it and put it to bed fast.

I mean, if you just want highly credentialed people saying they believe they've seen evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft or life, you can look at Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon, a ton of former astronauts, Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, Sen. Mike Gravel, Representative Roscoe Bartlett, former Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer. Really it's pretty shocking people dont't care. That's just a short list I was able to remember / google my way to.

I looked up the first example you gave, and it doesn't seem even remotely close. Harry Reid is saying that the US government is covering up evidence of "possible close encounters with UFOs". And that we should "at least be spending some money to study all these phenomena? Shouldn’t we study this stuff? The answer is yes. That’s all this was about". He also does not claim to have any definitive answers himself, about whether aliens exist and if aliens are in regular communication with humanity.

Haim Eshed, on the other hand, is claiming definitively "exactly what sort of agreements have been made between the aliens and the US" and that "Trump is aware of them, and that he was on the verge of disclosing their existence. However, the Galactic Federation reportedly stopped him from doing so, saying they wished to prevent mass hysteria". These claims are not even in the same ballpark.

https://nypost.com/2020/10/13/harry-reid-claims-us-has-been-...

> The US government has key evidence of possible close encounters with UFOs but has been hiding it for years, according to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The 80-year-old politician claimed in a new documentary, “The Phenomenon,” that “there’s more than one up there” and even believes they may have interfered with American weapons.

> Asked if he was saying that “there’s some evidence that still hasn’t seen the light of day,” Reid insisted, “I’m saying most of it hasn’t seen the light of day.” “We have it — it’s there,” continued the former Nevada senator, who instigated secret UFO programs in the Pentagon. “They did everything they could to stop the program from going forward … they wanted nothing to do with this,” Reid said of the government’s resistance to his program trying to expose the truth. “Nobody has to agree why it’s there. But shouldn’t we at least be spending some money to study all these phenomena? Shouldn’t we study this stuff? The answer is yes. That’s all this was about.

The other poster already tried to inform you, but this is not unprecedented. The USA government has been claiming the existence of aliens since the 1950s! Lots of notable people have claimed to know of extraterrestrial contact, not that I believe them.

I think it is much more likely that the 87-old is

- suffering from a mental disease

- is bored to death and pulling a prank before it's his time to go

https://archive.is/NZdO1

Time required for "humanity needed to "evolve and reach a stage where we will... understand what space and spaceships are,"" could only be measured in eons, so this would be the same as saying "You'll get no help." Consequently this appears to be BS: why contact any earthlings millions of years before you'll reveal yourself to most earthlings.

On the other hand, the Israelis claim to be "God's chosen people" so why shouldn't they also be the "aliens' chosen people"?

"On the other hand, the Israelis claim to be "God's chosen people""

That is not correct.

A quarter of the population of Israel isn't Jewish. They certainly don't.

And of the ~75% who are, around half identify as secular / not religious.

Anyone speak Hebrew? How does he sound here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbdK9KwjBn0

I am extremely skeptical of this claim, but I thought I might look at the book. It is published in Hebrew. I do not know if it will be translated into other languages...

I don't believe it. If there's one thing I learned from Star Trek, it's that you can cure the technologically-limited species' plague in 42 minutes.

Pandemics end when people end them, not when the disease ends.

"This cooperation includes a secret underground base on Mars, where there are American and alien representatives."

Wouldn't this require some pretty big coordination to pull off? Assuming the UFOs didn't just suck up some astronauts with a tractor beam...

Just seems like lots of people would have to know about this, making it hard to keep secret. I'd have a hard time believing Trump would know about this and never say anything... But what do I know?

Considering the Air Force can't hide the X-37B from amateur astronomers it's more than a little suspect that Americans have been traveling to Mars for decades without anyone noticing anything leaving.

They managed to keep things like the F117 secret for years, and those nifty helicopters used in the bin laden raid. If (and that's a huge if) this were true they could hitch a ride with ET, no need to use human tech. OTOH why meet in secret on mars? That seems silly.

But large numbers of people successfully keeping secrets from the public is common.

I think that keeping the specifics of some aircraft/technology projects a secret (which are obviously and clearly being developed, this is not a secret) is quite a far cry from keeping the existence of aliens and coordinated secret meetings on Mars a secret.

All that anyone would ever see, though, is a flying saucer or one of those 'pill'-shaped things. That's pretty easy to write off, regardless of the credentials of whoever made the observation.

And, anyone who blows the whistle gets written off as crazy.

> Has the State of Israel made contact with aliens?

> According to retired Israeli general and current professor Haim Eshed, the answer is yes, but this has been kept a secret because "humanity isn't ready."

This premise is absurd and the fact that the only one that is coming forward is the aging head of "space security" in Israel, a nation that recently failed to land a robot on the moon according to the article, makes it prudent to write him off as crazy. Especially since he's trying to sell a book.

> kept a secret because "humanity isn't ready." ... This premise is absurd

Not really. Mass panic, even if unlikely, should not be dismissed out of hand. People are freaking out over a mere pandemic.

> a nation that recently failed to land a robot on the moon

Are you emphasizing the fact they're advanced enough to try, or unlucky enough to need a second shot?

> Especially since he's trying to sell a book.

As someone else mentioned, he was the head of the agency. Money probably isn't an issue for him.

I think that writing him off would be premature.

I live in Hawai'i. When Captain Cook first arrived would be a somewhat analogous event. A young teen at the time named Kamehameha knew that Cook's arrival was something monumental, spent all the time he could aboard the ship learning about these strange visitors, and then went on to conquer and unite all the islands into the Kingdom of Hawai'i.

Unless you happened to be present at the 0.01% of the area of Hawai'i that Cook visited, you would have had no idea that such creatures and such a world outside of the islands existed.

Unknown unknowns.

You only hear about things that are no longer a secret. This only means you know about ex-secrets that are no longer secrets now. This is different than saying there are no secrets anymore.

Anything that's a secret today isn't known to us.

If you accept that it is true, then you also have to accept that aliens could have ways of transport we haven't even dreamt of (resembling teleportation, perhaps?).

The claimant hints that our understanding of space and time is wrong, so it's not far fetched to imagine that if we knew how it actually worked getting to Mars would be easier.

The US had surveillance programs for years that were know of by lots of people and kept under wraps.

Trump not tweeting it out is more unbelievable to me. But he did recently say he heard UFO's are real. And Rubio made comments about UFO's above our military bases and how it's a national security threat.

To put it another way, if this were true a secret base on Mars would be by far the least important and surprising detail of this story.

We were visited by aliens and i did not even get a lousy tshirt?

No, seriously, i would like to discuss terms of humanity joining your galactic federation. And About the promised tshirts. I might not be representative, but neighter is the current president of the usa. At least i try to be funny, he is definately not. I wear M, address is at my ip, please dont forget the custom declaration documents when sending the package.

Kind regards :-)

If I were from the Star Trek future, and had contact with us right now, I would definitely not hand over the galactic car keys.

But it would be only charitable to open the galactic medicine cabinet.

>But it would be only charitable to open the galactic medicine cabinet.

Not really, consider what happened when we got Antibiotics, we ended up feeding them to livestock for a few % body weight.

If we got future level medicine, we'd breed future proof plagues.

This article give us no evidence/proof/fact at all, only the affirmations of a 87-year-old general that could be affected by senility . I don't know that newspaper, I don't know it it's some kind of satirical newspaper or not (forgive me but "Yediot" sound me like "Idiot") (EDIT: I found this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yedioth_Ahronoth , it seems a regular newspaper), but, if it's the work of professional journalists they should interrogate themselves about the importance of their job it these times of fake news, avoiding to produce this kind of material, even for "clickbaiting" purposes.

He was literally in charge of Israel's space and satellite programs as recently as 2007 (https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL11678080). If what he says is true, this is exactly how'd you expect to hear about it: an old insider with nothing to lose who wants to tell the truth.

"gabrielblack", what national space agency did you lead to tell us so assuredly that he's lying?

All I know is that if I'm a reporter at the WSJ or NYTimes I'm not telling this story, because if it were true it would probably be your head.

No photo, no references, no curriculum ! Could be a person with the same name! This article is full of speculations, Could someone honestly say that there is a single thing reliable there ? IMHO it's more like the plot of an episode of "Men In black" then a serious newspaper article.

And don't forget. this isn't the original article: it's an article describing another article. What's that ? Metajournalism ?

Honestly, I know this sounds like a conspiracy theory or a crappy way to sell his book, I just really want this to be true.

The aliens asked specifically not to have their contact revealed. So, what does he do? At least Mulder will be happy...

This is in direct contradiction to what Edward Snowden is saying in Permanent Record. He could not find anything.

This guy just decided to sell his reputation for some quick cash (with his book). Maybe he saw a last opportunity to get in on the Bitcoin craze. His family can blame it on dementia and his reputation may stay intact anyway.

We're just crossed the threshold were a world-class pristine reputation which spans almost a century has become less valuable than a modest sum of money...

The aliens would take a look at Twitter and the U.N and quarantine the system

2020

The people are ready, but we can't say our leaders are.

"humanity isn't ready" is classic conspiracy theory. It means "we the (secret) governments are in control of the situation". Especially with the moon base. It's a classic comforting and chaos limiting conspiracy theory giveaway.

To consider it possible implies you think it's possible for our governments to collaborate and keep things secret for our own benefit.

I believe that if there were aliens that mankind will do just fine, no panic, in fact the existence of a real "other" maybe something the species might need.

It's also a solution to the Fermi Paradox: we can't see other species out there, because they're hiding and have chosen not to show themselves.

Government's have shown a huge capacity for co-operation on a global, almost absolute scale.

There are times when they have shown a capacity to engage in conflict, yes. But since the mid-50s, at least two major powers have held the capacity to destroy earth in its entirety and have hitherto failed to do so.

Since then, we've built the World Wide Web, established a global world governing structure (UN, and it's instruments)... Co-operated on a whole host of humanitarian projects. Ronald Reagan ordered the GPS system to become open to all, in order to protect humanity from air disasters.

That said, disputed evidence for the existence of aliens exists all over the place. People "know" about Roswell. Countless people have seen UFOs. And sceptics have simply said "now now, don't be silly. There must be other some explanation". That's hardly proof, but there isn't a complete blackout of information out there. Whether you dismiss it all as a collective delusion (also feasible, considering The Mandela Effect, and other similar phenomenon)... Or the leaked whispers of a genuine conspiracy. If mankind can keep the secret of how to saw a lady in half on a stage, it can keep this one.

Don't forget to buy his book!

This submission should be flagged

Go ahead and flag it? That's what the button is there for.

i didn't know we as users could flag things

it should be up to the moderators no?

If you see a submission you think is inappropriate, hit "flag" next to the time stamp. If enough users do so it will be marked flagged. I think moderators can restore it manually at that point. You can also vouch for submissions you think were wrongly flagged.

I just flagged it

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