AUSTRALIA yesterday warned Israel its standing as a friend would be jeopardised if it were found to have condoned the suspected theft of three Australian citizens’ identities by its Mossad spy agency to carry out a political assassination.
As [Prime Minister] Kevin Rudd demanded answers over Israel’s role in the growing international scandal – and ASIO and the Australian Federal Police launched investigations – it was revealed that Australia had previously warned Israel not to use fake Australian passports for intelligence operations.
A diplomatic row broke out yesterday when three Victorians, all living in Israel, were confirmed among 26 people from four nations whose tampered passports were allegedly used by a team of suspected Israeli Mossad agents who assassinated Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith summoned Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem, early yesterday to express his “grave concern” about the issue.
The Aussie connection come in the wake of European nations having words to Israel over stolen identities apparently used in the hit. Israel has a history of this crap. In 2004, New Zealand suspended relations with Israel when Mossad agents were caught forging passports.
Why does Israel keep abusing its relationships with the West? I’d have thought they could use all the friends they could get.
deowll said,
“I can only assume that in some regards these people weren’t skilled.”
The Israelis couldn’t sink the USS Liberty, despite having state of the art munitions free of charge from the United States and French government. Maybe they should have hired Blackwater.
I’m not an Israel basher but, I have to say, they kind of suck as an ally some times.
They get ALL KINDS of money from western nations but then do whatever the hell they want, screw the west.
#32–greg==what makes you think Israel isn’t a stalking horse for the USA?
Worldfocus (tv News): guy from Australia (Kevin Rudd)says: “This is of the deepest concern to Australia and we will not let the matter rest.”
Well!! Thats impressive. Let me do a quick googole on this guy:
Again, very impressive. Multiple Entries:
1. Prime Minister of Australia
2. Irrelevant Blowhard
3. Meaningless Posturer
Well, one out of three ain’t bad.
#34 Bobbo
Rudd is using the issue as a distraction away from problems with his Environment Minister, and clearly he saw it as politically expedient to take a tough approach.
Chairman Rudd is indeed all three of the things you listed.
Israel is an extremely effective operator. The Palestinians blow up random people. The US attacks random countries.
The Israelis walk up to the right guy and shoot him dead. This is exactly how intelligence wars are supposed to work.
If Osama had attacked Israel he would be plant food already.
The Israelis didn’t expect the Dubai police to match up everything that was on their security cameras to figure out who was involved. Other than that the Israelis did a good job.
On the news now. What has it been, 48-72 hours and all the perpetrators names, historical location, and full frontal photos are established.
Must have been an American operation. Too many people, no exit strategy, poorly thought out.
OTOH–dramatic evidence to Hamas about what game is being played?
Not checkers, not chess, but BATTLE CHESS—cue the bloodfest.
#36 “The Palestinians blow up random people. The US attacks random countries.”
You’re saying ALL Palestinians blow up random people? Then I guess Americans do too if you consider drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
You may not believe me but if you read Jimmy Carter’s book “We can have peace in the holy land” he says that the only way you can achieve peace is to understand both sides and so he tries to give both ideologies to his readers. He said he was warned beforehand that people would brand him an anti-Semite if he expressed any criticism of the Israeli government but he thought his pedigree on the topic would alleviate that problem. He said after publishing his 1st book on the subject called “Palestine” that simply by exploring the issue from their point of view, he was indeed called an anti-Semite by the Jewish Defense League and others, which shocked him.
Second, Hamas was encouraged by George W. Bush to lay down their arms and participate in the electoral process. They had been told that since their beginning. To everyone’s shock and amazement, they agreed. They won the elections in Gaza by a landslide. As you may know, the Israelis said that they would never recognize a Hamas government and issued arrest warrants for all the newly elected Hamas Parliament members. Many of them remain in jail today charged with nothing more than winning an election.
Don’t believe me, check this out for yourself. When you hear about a Hamas member assassinated you have to wonder, was he a terrorist or simply a political activist that the Israelis haven’t caught yet.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4214375.stm
J Scott: ““We can have peace in the holy land” he says that the only way you can achieve peace is to understand both sides…” /// Isn’t that so simplistic on its face as to invalidate it on first review? If not, then continue: “He published his first book and was “shocked” at the response to it.” Gee–so much for his understanding.
Its an American naivitee–to think that people that want to kill us just don’t understand us.
“When you hear about a Hamas member assassinated you have to wonder, was he a terrorist or simply a political activist that the Israelis haven’t caught yet.” /// Gee, I think once the Israelis kill you in a hotel room, you have been well caught. But as being well read yourself, what do you think: was this Hamas leader a murderer of innocent women and children by way of terrorism, or just a political activist? Hmmmmm?
Silly people.
Here’s my quote: “Some people deserve killing.”
GO TEAM JERUSALEM!!!
THEY KICK-AZZ!!!
I think that people are missing the point. That Israeli Intelligence now are reduced to impersonating Australians, Brits and Kiwis. That they need to send two football teams to strangle a lonely fat old man in a hotel room. That the target, a noted evil SOB, had no protectors. No body guards. A Mossad accountant is probably right now, wondering why 26 agents all visited SeaWorld and took water skiing lessons.
It is obvious that the theft of passport information and assassination are amoral.
Neither jews nor arabs should be sided with in the conflict. Choosing either side makes us anti-semites and thus we lose either way.
Cursor_
Guys… it’s all charade. There is dependency between western countries in all things regarding the war on terror. Israel needs other countries just like they need Israel. Think about it this way: an australian passport is a capability and Israel used it to get rid of Mr. Mabhouh – a blood thirsty terrorist. I am 100% sure that Australia is using and taking advantage of way more Israeli capabilities than they will ever care to admit.
All of this barking by politicians is just a show. Behind the curtains, they are all congratulating one another and sharing the info. Don’t be fooled
Oh by the way, no one has yet to prove that Israel did it anyway…. 😉
43 sargasso,
Why do you think there were 26 Mossad agents on the ground in Dubai?
Because Dubai’s funny chief of police says so?
LOL
Israel badly needs some more spanking again. Its the only way to control them.
And sending 30+ Mossad agents to kill one guy is not going to solve any terrorism issues in Israel. There are more out there willing to take the dead Hamas leaders empty seat.
Israel = A cancer in the middle east.
#46 you don’t have to believe anyone but the surveillance footage was convincing. How many hairs do you need split to call a duck a duck?
#41 Well if you are going to write a book, you don’t tend to assume the obvious. If your subject deals with making peace in a nearly impossible situation of course you state the necessity of mutual understanding. And yes, if you win a Nobel Prize recognizing your work to bring peace to this region you assume people know you are not an anti-Semite.
Despite the victim’s prior history, when you make an offer to participate in government in exchange for peace and then hit squads are sent out to kill those who won the election, the guy’s history is no longer the entire story is it? It is an assassination of a official of a governing body you are not at war with.
Doesn’t change the fact that most Americans never look that deeply anyway. Their understanding of the Middle-East is pathetic.
And if you want to know why I think I know so much, you already pointed out that I read a lot. I can also send you photos of myself in Saudi Arabia and gearing up for a patrol of Kabul. So yes, I know the middle-east QUITE well.
Cut and paste this bit.ly/bYOb5e link for an anecdote of my time in Israel. Or just search my site for Israel.
#47–zorkor==”Israel spanked again?”==is that like you describing your last fight as you hitting your opponents fist with your face?
Its intelligent posts like yours that nudge those on the fence to jump down on Israels side. So stop posting your own sexual fetishes and try sticking with facts.
No one has proven that Israel was behind the assassination. Fatah has no love for Hamas. Hamas was killing Fatah members who were stuck in Gaza. (Fatah was the group who lost the election to Hamas in Gaza, by the way.)
Although it might have been Israel’s Masad. Does it really make a difference? It’s one less Hamas around to plan rocket attacks and kill innocent people. Whoever is behind it should be found so they can be given a medal and a foreign aid check from the US so they can take out another Hamas.
Remember, Hamas people are the animals that stone women for being raped, they have honor killings where they kill their own family members, and then they load their own children with explosives to become suicide bombers.
The fascist state of Israel is a testimonial to the basic nature of jews.
Benji==you sure are down on someone following your same god by way of different dogma.
Pull it back just a tad and you can fool us. Not that I disagree with you. Just saying.
# 52 harold
Don’t be a spastic cave man. Israel is a testimony to the true nature of humans. When people who self identify as a minority and are targeted and attacked for being different they may want to have somewhere they feel safe. Once in that place they may be disproportionately aggressive, even against their own interests, when they feel threatened (i.e. Israel, Palestine, Ireland, AMERICA etc.).
Many things Israel does are cruel and racist but some of the most meaningful opposition comes from within, from ‘Jews’.
Hamas are real fascists (they even use the fascist salute) and people probably voted for them because the only other choice was the fatally corrupt PLO and they wanted HOPE and CHANGE but later found out they got suckered (sound familiar) but some of the most sincere opposition to these zealot, fascist, murderers comes from within, from Palestinians.
So what else would you expect from an all asshole nation like Israel? They truly are the embodiment of centuries of Jew cliches.
#40 Obviously your extensive regional knowledge has left you little time for basic language comprehension.
Let me restate.
The Palestinian(as a group, in modern times) way of war is to blow up random bystanders in hopes that the world will conclude that any group so insane must have been deeply traumatized as children.
America’s foreign policy(after WWII) is filled with wars against territories merely tangential to genuine threats against us.
Israel figures out who is important to an adversarial organization and takes them out efficiently.
Israel, and for that matter Iran, are very effective at their games. You might not like them, but you ought to respect them.
The middle east is never going to be won by mutual understanding love-ins. The West is uniformly out of it’s depth in the area. Just a different level of competition.
zorkor, stop being a spanked fag that is posting under different names (harold and canuck).
Grow a pair!
Chris, your comprehension is at the level of a 12 year old.
The Dubai authorities have now identified some 26 suspects in this assassination/murder/extrajudicial killing (delete according to taste).
Seems like a lot but anyway …..
Some were travelling on British, Irish, French, German and Australian passports
All of these countries have complained to their Israeli ambassadors.
I expect that the Irish govts follow on action will be exactly the same as it was when Colonel Oliver North traveled to Iran on a fake Irish passport.
(for younger readers he was selling arms to a terrorist state – so that the profits could be used to fund an illegal war in Central America – bypassing Congress – to kill poor unfortunate peasants)
#58 Yeah sure, I’m pretty ignorant about world affairs.
Have some more: The Palestinians have been screwed by their leadership for decades. Arafat was a joke. His guys were more interested in passing the beggars cup than fighting. He was the Arab equivalent of the hard-up relative that corners people at holidays with tales of woe and passive-aggressive digs at the audience. When the time came for him to march of into the sunset with a deal for his people he couldn’t do it. Now that deal has dried up and drifted away just like Arafat himself.
The new force, Hamas, is more interested in painting targets on the backs of their population than trying to get a deal done. They likely aren’t even interested in making a deal, because their Iranian backers would turn off the money tap. The Palestinian population is happy with Hamas because at least they provide some basic level of public services.
You may not like what I have to say, but it’s based in more realism than telling Grandpa that he will ever use those door keys on his old house. Until a Palestinian leader has enough balls to tell his own people that sad truth nothing will change.
#60 One thing Arafat, Hamas, and anyone else who tries to get anything done in Palestine has to deal with, is having the Israelis tell them that they are responsible for policing the Palestinian populace, but then refusing to allow the policemen to carry guns or any other weapons to enforce their authority.
They also have to try to represent a governmental authority while under house arrest from Israelis. Yea, you look really strong issuing orders from your living room.
Then when Arafat wanted to travel to the UN to ask for financial assistance, he was denied a visa by Israel.
How can Hamas even rule the land when half of their Parliament members are placed under arrest by the Israelis. You either need to read more or to stop assuming that none of us reads. This nonsense you talk works on the Fox News crowd and the uneducated.