
Miriam and Emanuel Riva, murdered in Brussels by an unknown gunman
An Israeli source confirms a rumor that has circulated in Israeli media circles, that one of the Israelis murdered at the Jewish museum in Brussels worked for the Mossad. Emanuel and Miriam Riva were both accountants. He worked for an Israeli government agency called Nativ. It works among Jews from the eastern bloc and encourages them to make aliyah. During the Cold War, when Israel worked clandestinely to bring Jews from the Soviet Union to Israel, Nativ had a direct pipeline to Israeli intelligence. Miriam Riva worked for the Mossad. As far as my source knows, neither of them was an agent. So it appears that they were not targeted because of her involvement with the Mossad (though that still remains a possibility).
Channel 10 news earlier reported that they worked in government service in Germany for six years. The phrase “government service” in Hebrew can sometimes be a euphemism for spy work. In her case, the phrase fits, but only in the sense that she most likely worked for Israel’s overseas spy service in a capacity.
There is no news yet about the identity of the attacker. Neither neo-Nazis or Islamists have taken responsibility. Though clearly that has not stopped Bibi Netanyahu from getting on his high horse and blaming European Israel-haters for the crime. Bibi’s response is typically nasty, mean-spirited and ideologically-motivated, when it should be thoughtful and out-reaching:
Mr Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, seized on the arrival of Pope Francis in the Holy Land to criticise European reaction as too muted – while blaming the incident on “constant incitement” against Israel by “elements in the Middle East and Europe”.
Speaking on his arrival in Israel, the Pope referred to the attack as “this criminal act of anti-Semitic hatred.”
…”There are elements in Europe that rush to condemn the construction of a flat in Jerusalem but do not rush to condemn – or offer only weak condemnations of – the murder of Jews here or in Europe itself and, even worse, welcome unity with a terrorist element such as Hamas, which calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. We oppose such hypocrisy, we protest against it.”
…”I am very disturbed by the growing anti-Semitism in Europe. There must be zero tolerance for anti-Semitism toward Jews and their state.”
In a typical conflation of anti-Semitism with anti-Israelism, he makes those who condemn Israel’s illegal policies of Occupation and land theft into accessories to Jew-murder. We must not let him get away with such nonsense.
The truth is that (and I say this without knowing the particulars of the killings) there are people out there who are just deranged enough and just outraged enough to perpetrate murder as a response to Israel’s bloodletting in the Middle East. Killings of Diaspora Jews (or even Israeli Jewish civilians) are no more justified than Israel’s killings. But hatred breeds hatred and killing breeds killing. No matter what any Israel supporter may say about this, Bibi clearly hates Arabs (as his father did before him) and his policies led to the deaths of several thousand Palestinian civilians. All the killings have to stop, not just those of Jews.

Agree with your sentiments Richard.Any suggestion that the loss of Jewish lives ONLY is worth condemning is totally repugnant
After killing the Israeli couple, the gunman went inside the Museum to murder the Museum receptionist and a Museum volunteer, no doubt also Mossad agents?
Richard concluded that there was no reason to link the murders with their involvement with Mossad. Read the article.
I can proffer the following tentative explanation (we won’t know the facts for a while): a man who identifies with Palestinians see the video of the cold blood murder of two Palestinian teens in Beitunia a week ago. He decides to “revenge” (of course this is not a revenge but a murder of innocents) by shooting anybody that he associates with the state of Israel. Two stories of cold blooded murders, apparently unrelated.
But here is the difference: while Belgium’s and EU’s entire leadership were quick to condemn the killings, fortify security of Jewish establishments and order a man hunt for the killer, the killer of the Palestinian teens will never face trial, the investigation will be whitewashed and even if they are convicted it’s going to be a minor slap on the wrists. Needless to mention, no Israeli politician condemned the murder of the Palestinian teens, offered an apology or provided extra security for Palestinians. Just a story of two murders, one of the murderers wears uniform, the other doesn’t.
the only person blamed here in the context of the murder is Bibi. It si not surprising, coming from you.
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN wrote: Bibi’s response is typically nasty.
Is Nativ nasty? Is killing 4 people nasty?
Why is it nasty?
Or a false flag.
that link answers your question about their work in germany:
attachee/diplomat at the israeli embassy in Berlin since 2007. we know very well that diplomats in an embassy often are covert secret service members.
http://www.israel-entdecken.de/rundreiseisrael4/diplomatisches-korps-israelische-botschaft-berlin.php
How did Bibi’s policies lead “to the deaths of several thousand Palestinian civilians”?
He does nothing. He doesn’t build, and hardly any arabs die.
please delete my previous comment
So why does the murder of a civilian Mossadnik and her husband merit more attention than the deaths of the other two victims?
I’m clueless
[Sorry but comments like this that are crude propaganda devoid of substance & rich in ignorance & false claims will not be published here]
Are you really that ignorant or just wanting to stir up emotions?
@ Eric Fux: You know no more than the rest of us what happened and in what order victims were shot. There are many possible scenarios here & it’s inflammatory to jump to conclusions that aren’t strictly facts, which is what I’ve tried to do in reporting that one of the victims worked for the Mossad, but wasn’t a spy (as far as we can tell at this point).
@ Zur Shefi: That’s not only an inaccurate statement, it’s gratuitous. The only thing I blame Bibi for is being a shameless political opportunist willing to use dead Israelis to advance his pro-settler political agenda. As for the murderers, I hope they’re caught, tried and convicted (hopefully before the Mossad appoints its own “judge” to do the job). My post clearly indicated that was my view. Only someone acting in bad faith such as you would claim otherwise.
Bad faith is a definite black mark for you. I’ll be watching future comments of yours.
@ Abraham Tsinman: Blaming Europeans for the killings & doing so in a crude, incendiary way is indeed “nasty.” When your country suffers such a loss you can gain much in international standing by coming across in a dignified way, rather than the crude way in which he’s come across.
@ Blake: What? Israel killed its own citizens? Nice try, but really…
@ Frank s: So Bibi doesn’t order invasions, military operations, assassinations? So he’s not the PM of the country? Or does the IDF really run the country and do these things without any input from the PM?
@ Padre DeWalt
You are indeed, though I don’t think you meant to use that term. “Speechless,” perhaps. Don’t they teach English language skills at Hasbara University?
Uh, maybe because they (or at least she for sure) worked for Israeli intelligence agencies & several militant groups and intelligence agencies of several ME countries may be interested in finding Israeli military-intelligence targets to hit. Oh, I don’t know…but perhaps that might be the reason.
Journalists in Belgium and all around just report the information emphasized by it’s headline without any shades.
If there’s no link, what’s the purpose of such an article.
It costs nothing to the writer to jump at the opportunity that this could be a political murder.
@ bluebird: My information says they were accountants. If their status was “attache/diplomat” that might indicate some other status than purely civilian. Interesting. Can a German speaker get me a translation of the passage that describes their employment status in Germany?
Richard, stop acting as you were yourself a spy.
It seems you don’t have the clues. Unfortunately photo appeared on some papers and a blured video was published by the police. It is very clear that the couple was murdered first, outside the building in front of the entrance. They were looking at leaflets. Then, employees were shot inside the building.
“Bibi clearly hates Arabs (as his father did before him) and his policies led to the deaths of several thousand Palestinian civilians. All the killings have to stop, not just those of Jews.” … Don’t forget the millions of other Arabs killed by neocon/Israeli pressure on the US government.
due to that website copy from the israeli embassy in Berlin/Germany they were diplomats at the embassy with the status “attache”.
there are military attachees, police attachees, financial attachees and culture attachees working at an embassy as diplomats. They were attachees starting from 2007 in the israeli embassy in berlin.
We should mention that attachees at an embassy often are members of the secret service covered as diplomats. Also NATIV executives were always working as diplomats out of israeli embassies, that one in germany inclusive. They were always closely connected with ukrainian jews in the israeli embassy in berlin, too. Therefore i wouldnt exclude a possible ukrainian/russian mafia link with that murder in brussels, too.
One more thing: Since european diplomats, politicians and military attachees are travelling to brussels quite regularly (NATO headquarters, EU headquarters, SWIFT), this would be the last place they would deliberately spend their holidays/vacation. I bet 99% that they had been in brussels on some kind of business/politics trip.
Also consider the matter of fact that Israel sent two NATIV executives as “diplomats” to its Berlin embassy in 2007 starting a NATIV project in germany. As a matter of fact exactly in 2007 that couple began to work at the embassy in Berlin. Coincidence?
Their job was to lure as many as possible russian and ukrainian jews (who were currently living in germany) to israel. The german jewish organisations were quite upset about the NATIV plans what had been the idea of Mr. Avigdor Lieberman.
2 NATIV members had been sent by Lieberman as “diplomats” to the israeli embassy in berlin in 2007. Mr. and Mrs. Riva started to work in that embassy in 2007 !!!
Their success in Germany was marginal and therefore they began to cooperate with the israeli embassy in Kiev/Ukraine. The rest you can read in current headlines.
That link might link the german NATIV connection and the current ukrainian situation. After all what we know about the victims I wouldnt exclude a possible russian/ukrainian link with that killer. The AK47 is another hint towards russia/ukraine.
http://wadeward.com/2014/01/mossad-took-turnover-in-ukraine/413895.html
Interesting information and speculations, bluebird. Indeed that AK47 is curious – definitely suggestive of east European connection. This may well have been a “hit”. If it was, someone(s) knew what and who the Rivas were and knew something of their plans or purpose for being in brussels. They may have even been lured there.
If this was a “hit” – and there are some indications of “professionalism” by the gunman, then the other two who got killed – the receptionist and the volunteers may have been witnesses that needed to be silenced. from their perch at the front of the museum they might well have had a good view of what transpired, hence the gunman’s actions.
I also agree that it is strange that no antisemitic/radical group took responsibility. Something about this incident does not add up to a run-of-the-mill “hate crime”. To me it looks like some kind of a planned operation, with a pre-planned escape route and an effort to avoid detection.
here’s a 2007 Guardian report regarding the 2 NATIV executives starting to work at the israeli embassy in germany in 2007. In 2007 Mr and Mrs Riva started to work at the israeli embassy in germany as “diplomats”.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/28/germany.israel
Timing and the information you’ve got are fitting quite well.
quote (guardian link)
The Israeli embassy in Berlin has confirmed that two emissaries from Nativ are due to arrive in Berlin within the next few weeks to start their work, which includes trying to encourage emigration to Israel among the Jews from the former Soviet Union, and offering help with their move on issues such as bureaucratic matters.
The German press has referred to the operation as being “James Bond-like”.
quote:
Bases for agents and the organization of meetings and information transfer are traditionally synagogues, cultural and Jewish and Israeli educational centers, high schools, school.
question: is a jewish museum a cultural center for israeli citizens? I believe that the answer is “yes”.
Wrong, Richard Silverstein. Europeans ARE to blame. All non-Jews are to blame. Netanyahu does not go far enough in condemning this. Pressure must be brought to bear to make it illegal to criticize Israel, which is just a cover for rampant anti-semitism and the desire to finish what Hitler started.