Fascinating news coming out of Dubai about the assassination of senior Hamas weapons buyer, Mahmoud al Mabhouh, who was assassinated in a well-orchestrated plot in that country two weeks ago. Al Mabouh was Hamas’ chief intermediary with the Iranians and allegedly specialized in securing that nation’s weaponry for the Palestinian group.
Haaretz writes today that “it is widely reported” that the Mossad is a leading suspect in the murder. A Dubai police commander said the killing method was one used by the Mossad and it reminded a journalist friend of mine of the attempted Mossad assassination of Khaled Meshal in Amman in which the killers injected him with a poison that would mimic a heart attack. After the killers were captured & King Hussein demanded the antidote from then prime mininster, Bibi Netanyahu (surprise!), the agents were released. And guess which Arab capital hasn’t seen another assassination since?
What is fascinating is that Dubai has released the photos of 11 suspects, all of whom carried European passports. Two Palestinian accomplices are in custody. I’m not an expert in such operations, but I wonder whether, if the Mossad carried this hit out, these were Israelis who were natives of these countries; or whether the Mossad contracted out the killing. I’m not even sure that Mossad does this sort of thing.
Interesting background to this story is provided by the Times of London’s Sheera Frenkel, who wrote an excellent story about an Israeli campaign of assassination directed at Hezbollah and Hamas senior operatives. This may be part of the same pattern. An Iranian nuclear scientist was also assassinated in Teheran recently; and though evidence points more in the direction of the Iranian intelligence service than the Mossad, Israel would certainly be motivated to kill leading Iranian nuclear researchers.
I’m beginning to wonder whether this incident could turn into something similar to the CIA rendition-kidnapping in Italy which, due to botched communications among the kidnappers, was easily exposed by the Italian government. Now, the Italians have the names of all the CIA personnel and have tried them in abstentia giving the CIA a big black eye. Could the same thing happen to Mossad? Now that we have pictures, someone’s going to know one of these killers. An Interpol warrant might scare up some new developments I hope. From there, could there be an ICC warrant in some Mossad agent’s future? And if Bibi signed off on it as he did Khaled Meshal’s attempt, could we have an Israeli PM receiving a warrant as well?
It is clear that Hezbollah and now probably Hamas are both desperate to assassinate Israelis in revenge for the Gaza and Lebanon wars and the killing of Imad Mugniyeh in Damascus. It appears the Mossad has a better killing average so far. Though my hope is that exposure will cause it enormous grief for this heinous betrayal of international law and moral values.
Not to mention that the next time Israel’s soldiers are captured/kidnapped by Hamas or Hezbollah, I certainly will have very little sympathy considering the depredations by Mossad against their leaders. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
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Reminds of me when Arafat died. I asked a Lebanese journalist friend in an online chat who did it. He said, “Mossad,” but refused to discuss it further.
Should we be scared, too?
Nowadays, the Mossad focuses specially on Arabs who procure weapons or who lead powerful militant groups fighting against Israel. If you merely oppose Israel’s policies you get the treatment fr. the MFA & hasbara brigade but nothing worse.
Richard, as you said on the other post on Reut, one cannot be too complacent about anything when it comes to Israel and its tactics. The way I see it, there may well come a time when certain bloggers/pundits will be viewed as enough of a threat to take more pointed actions. At the very least, I’d expect an uptick in cyber-attacks, especially once it becomes obvious that disinformation and concern trolling are no enough. There will also be greater intensity directed at character assassination as well as blackmail through family members 9a well known and well worn ‘trick’ used against politicians, newspapers and community leaders). At worst, it’s anyone’s guess.
I expect, things will become difficult once Israelis see the BDS campaign as a real threat, and citizens of all walks of life will feel even more isolated and despised in the world at large. So far, they treat BDS as an annoying insect bite, with an occasional sting easily overshadowed by some success of a business deal or another IPO. but if it’s shown to have the ability to wound Israel economically and politically – for example, if more deals start going south and enthusiasm for investment in israel appears to be on the wane, more severely than now (say, by an order of magnitude), I wouldn’t put anything past the powers-that-be.
As several have already pointed out (abigail abarbanel comes to mind as the best one, not to mention your truly), Israel, as a collective, is moving dangerously close to the precipice of insanity. In part, it may have crossed over already (I bring the hysterical response to Goldstone as Exhibit A. The recent ‘treatment’ of the turkish ambassador as exhibit B). It’s a slow descent, but one that’s increasingly recognizable as symptomatic of progressive mental disease to those who care to look carefully at the detailed responses and actions coming out of israel – and it’s die-hard supporters abroad.
It’s well to remember that this dysfunctional and unstable entity called israel is armed to the teeth and is hardly squeemish about pressing their advantage anyway they can. I am not saying that there is physical danger to bloggers/pundits/writers …. yet. But we’d do well to anticipate an escalation in means – legal and not so legal – that may be used in last ditch, desperate attempts to silence or at least compromise opposition.
Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.
I have my email address on a few pro-Zionist websites, for informational purposes. One of them sent me a computer virus in an email update. Forewarned, indeed. If you’re going to be involved in this kind of thing, make sure your antivirus software is up to date. If I were to tell you where the virus came from, your socks would fly off; it’s one of the biggest on the internet. Really disgusting.
Mary, please, please make my socks (stockings) fly off…..and tell.
Some of these thoughts have crossed my mind in relation to myself. I have noted at times my blog is being read by the MFA (& those are visits publicly logged). Undoubtedly, it’s being read or monitored by “others” (ha mayvin yavin). It’s hard to believe bloggers like me would be seen as dangerous enough to take action against. So far, the Mossad tends to act, as I wrote, against arms dealers & others who’ve harmed Israelis. But undoubtedly we are seen as the enemy by an increasingly paranoid, desperate Israeli government and security apparatus.
What we’re getting are independent actors who feel they’re doing their part for Israel by trying to be a pest. As for the virus I received, it was quite a doozy. I was advised to open up a separate email account when signing up for certain emails, which I will now do.
Just to clarify: The Gene above is not the Gene writing this. This Gene is definitely not scared, merely disgusted.
Yes, someone like Mr. Silverstein, a brave warrior in the fight, he just gets occassional comments by those who disagree with him… fear not for him, lest he is brave…
LOL… if you were anymore sanctimonious and self important we’d have to bring in a truck to clear off all the cheese from your body…
Oh and you should remember those words – what’s good for the goose… you like to apply them only when convenient….
OCCASIONAL? You’re out of yr mind. Of the 25,000 or more comments on this blog I estimate that at lest 30+% are hostile or at least disagreeing. That’s quite a bit more than “occasional.”
Richard
That is one set of photographs of accused killers that NEVER will be seen on AMERICA’AS MOST WANTED or any other mainstream media outlet.
Hopefully though they will be recognized and at least some of them brought to justice.
Looking at the photos, it struck me that at least two of the pictures look very israeli to me (the top row, the guy in the middle and the one on the right). Especially the fellow on the RHS of the top row looks rather like a couple of guys I know (though the detailed similarity is superficial – so it’s not an indentification). the others could be anything, possibly even irish,british or what not.
Still, this collection of photos tells me all I needed to know. Looks like the typical operational group mossad would assemble. Done with just enough variety to deflect suspicion.
I can only hope that there will be some in the wider community who’ll be able and willing to finger the criminal assassins.
If you look at the typical Israeli, he or she is likely to not look any different than the typical European Christian. This is because so many Israelis are European converts and do not share an ethnic history with Judaism as it existed in the middle east. Look at Lieberman; he is a Russian. Look at Tzipi Livni; does she “look Jewish”? There are quite a few people who look more Aryan than Jewish living in Israel. I hope the word “Aryan” did not offend anyone, by the way.
I think Mossad would deliberately choose a squad of assassins who look European, even to match their phony Irish passports.
Many of them look Israeli to me. And today’s news confirms this.
From what I have read, it looks pretty conclusive.
Many of them look Israeli to me. And today’s news confirms this.
Isn’t that a bit conspiratorial and jumping the gun… perhaps Pat Buchanan could give you a job… as soon as there is any bombing or murder that causes note in the world media, aka Lebanon, he has an article penned before the blood is dry implying it could be those tricky Israelis lurking behind the dark corner lest noone should be fooled…
I mean you and show how much more exciting and interesting it is if in fact it can be slung and implied that the Israelis did it rather than a simple case of another murder by one of the Arab states in the Middle East… ya know that’s just too predictable and really rather borrrrrrrring….
Remember, Tikun Olam – Tikun Olam… lol..
The number of serious international publications & journalists including Israeli ones who’ve concluded this was an Israeli hit is legion. But lv. yr legitimate e mail address (as opposed to the fake one you’re currently using to submit comments) & I’ll notify you when the defendants arrive at the Hague.
Oh, now they’re arriving at the Hague… that idyllic utopian place where bad people and depraved murderers are put on trial… like the UN Human Rights Commission… I mean Council…
Patience, my friend. These murderers will end up there as will some Hamas leaders as well responsible for firing rockets at Israel.
What war crime has the Human Rights Commission committed? Esp. anything compared to the Gaza massacre which will land Israel’s generals there one day.
Actually, I have heard that international law may be a bit fuzzier when it comes to Hamas rockets, since people under occupation have the right to armed resistance. I’ll try to find out more about this.
I’m not advocating that Hamas is guilty of war crimes. I’m advocating that these acts of which I strongly disapprove should be investigated as possible war crimes. It’s clear that the level of magnitude is much much higher on the Israeli side for potential war crimes.
I agree, and Hamas’ activities should be investigated along with Israel’s. Any suspected human rights violations should be investigated without regard to politics, but unfortunately, politics dictates everything. I hope that when these assassins are apprehended that this matter also will not be swept under the rug, but you never know.