The UK admits to having no real proof the Mossad was behind the killing of Hamas kingpin Mahmoud Mabhouh, but they're going to expel an Israeli diplomat as a 'demonstration of anger':
Ron Proser, the Israeli Ambassador to London, was summoned to the Foreign Office on Monday to be told the results of an inquiry into the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, whose body was discovered in a luxury Dubai hotel room in January.
Several members of the team suspected of killing him were found to be travelling on passports cloned from documents belonging to British citizens living in Israel. Other passports had been stolen from Irish, German, Australian and French citizens.
A ministerial statement to be made to Parliament will formally name the Israeli security services as responsible for the cloning of up to 15 British passports, which were copied after being taken away by airport officials.
The statement will say that it proved impossible to confirm definitively whether Mossad, the feared Israeli secret intelligence service, was responsible for the operation, with suspicion also resting on the Military Intelligence Directorate.
But the probe had determined for certain that the passports were cloned when British citizens passed through airports on their way into Israel, with officials taking them away for “checks” which lasted around 20 minutes.
Foreign Office sources expressed frustration that there was little more that could be done to “punish” Israel over the affair.
Hey, passports were cloned..so it had to be those sneaky, underhanded Jews, right?
The reality? Anyone could have cloned the passports, even Fatah's security services.For that matter, the British Consulate in Jerusalem is entirely staffed by 'Palestinians', and the consular staff's getting hold of passports held by Britons or dual citizens in Israel for their own nefarious purposes would be simplicity itself.
Of course, no one is saying anything about al-Mabouh's forged passport, or the fact that he was involved in facilitating arms shipments from Iran that the UK gives lip service to 'condemning.'
The chief push for expelling the Israeli diplomat and essentially tagging Israel with the blame for the Dubai hit is coming from Foreign secretary David Miliband, who has always been in step with the Labour government in demonstrating hostility to Israel at every opportunity.
It's also worth remembering that Gordon Brown and Miliband have repeatedly promised to amend the British law that allows any UK activist or Palestinian groupie to file an arrest warrant in a British court against any foreign visitor to be tried for 'war crimes'. This statute has only been used against Israelis, and was responsible for Israel's opposition leader Tzipi Livni canceling a visit to London late last year, as well as a delegation of Israeli officers who bowed out of a scheduled meeting with UK counterparts after they were warned that there were arrest warrants waiting for them at Heathrow airport.
In spite of repeated promises by Brown and Miliband, they've done absolutely nothing to change this situation. As a matter of fact, Labour minister of justice Jack Straw(whose seat in Parliament is dependent on catering to Muslims in Blackburn) took action in January to put amending this legislation on hold indefinitely, and neither Gordon Brown nor David Miliband ever voiced any objections.
Just another episode in the UK's ongoing attempts to appease their restive Muslim population by demonizing Israel....something they may one day regret.
Assuming Israel is behind this assaination and this is a big IF one might disagree with the methods used. This is a fair debate but the actions by Britian seem to be a bit over the top here.
ReplyDeleteFirst it has to be understood that Israel is the only "Western" country who faces an enemy directly on its borders, it is surrounded by these enemies, and these enemies have global reach. As such, it would be hardly surprising that Israeli officials might find it necessary to carry out assainations of enemies in parts of the world that lie beyond their borders.
If Britian faced the same type of existential threat that Israel faces, I would expect the Britons to act in much the same fashion. I'm sure the British would hope their government would react in a similar fashion.
With this said I'm skeptical that the Israelis were behind this. Israel faces intense scrutiny by the news media at all levels. Other people who would want this man dead do not face the kind of scrutiny Israel does and they would have both motive, opportunity, and ability. I think there is a saying that applies to any kind of detective work. To roughly paraphrase, before we embrace an exotic theory about something we first must eliminate the most likely culprits. It is far more likely that others did this than Israel. Given the scrutiny Israel faces, it would be very difficult for them to carry this out and it would be extremely risky. If Israel did carry this out, a good question would be what made this man dangerous enough to take this kind of risk? Of course this would involve good detective work and a desire to get to the truth rather than the partisian witch hunt the British seem to be on here.
Has British intellegence never assainated someone who interests were opposite theirs own foreign soil? Some how I think they have. I'm thinking alot about glass houses lately. Speciffically those who live in them should not be throwing stones.
As related by the Dubai press spokespeople, the story of the assassination of this Hamas arms trader has always had the feel of a Brian Rix farce to me. And I give Mossad the credit for having better script writers than that.
ReplyDeleteEither this is the straightforward Muslim appeasement as alleged, or there is something even more underhand going on. I have no idea what that might be, but government actions in the recent past have given me every reason to dread it.
In discussions, please remember to distinguish between the British government, and the British people. The US government probably has more influence over the British government than the British people do.