There are only a few things the Mossad is “good” at. And killing is the primary one. They don’t do much that’s constructive. They don’t make the world better or safer for Israel. They don’t bring peace. They don’t persuade people to compromise.
They kill. They cheat. They steal. They’re good at all those things. But how do those things do anything to help Israel in the long-term? They don’t.
Yeah, they take out an enemy. But only to see a stronger, more formidable enemy replace the one they murdered. Often, as in tonight’s case, they get revenge on someone who last posed any danger to any Israeli decades ago. So what benefit is it to Israel to murder an unarmed man (story in Telegraph and Ynet) who left militancy long ago and was eking out a life as a shop owner in a foreign country to which he’d fled so long ago?
A little background: in 1986, three Palestinians killed a yeshiva student. They were caught and tried. They saved the State of Israel a great deal of legal effort and funds by confessing to the crime and not putting up a defense. They were sentenced to life in prison (Hebrew), where two of them remained until they were freed in the Shalit prisoner exchange. But the third, Omar Zaid, escaped after four years in prison while hospitalized during a hunger strike. He eventually made his way abroad to Bulgaria. There he met a Bulgarian woman, settled down, had a family including three children, and tried to live as normal a life as possible.
But last year, Israel filed an extradition warrant for his arrest. In response, he abandoned his family and escaped once again to the Palestinian embassy in Sofia, where he was given refuge. To any normal country adhering to the rule of law, a foreign embassy is sovereign territory not to be violated. That’s how Julian Assange escaped to the Ecuadorean embassy in London. You don’t see MI5 sneaking into the embassy to liquidate him. If it did, there would be a massive uproar. Intelligence chiefs would be fired. Prime ministers would resign.
In Israel, they give you a medal and make you Mossad chief. Because Israel isn’t a normal country. It thumbs its nose at international law. Law exists only when it’s convenient to Israeli interests. When it’s not, it doesn’t. So, according to numerous Israeli sources, the Mossad, in an act of retribution, has assassinated Zaid.
Mossad Did It
How do we know Israel did it? Because Israeli TV Channel 1’s military correspondent opened his report by saying: “Justice was done, even if very late.” Bibiton (Israel HaYom) called it “a mysterious assassination” (not “murder”) in its lead headline. Maariv says “the account was closed after 30 years.”
Kol Yisrael, Israeli State radio, quoted an intelligence source who made this contradictory statement:
Israel isn’t responding to the Palestinian claim that the Mossad killed the wanted man from the Popular Front who gained refuge in the Palestinian embassy in Sofia…However, a security source told Kol Yisrael has no interest in targeting an old terrorist especially if it involves a great outlay of resources or endangering [agents]. He also noted that the first impression was that the killing wasn’t even very professionally executed.
Reading between the lines, I understand from this that murdering Zaid wasn’t an especially difficult task. So Israel did it. There were signs of violence on his corpse. His upper body had been beaten and he was thrown from an embassy window and landed on the ground below. A Palestinian human rights group said there were signs he was attacked with a “sharp object.”
?האם אסף יריב (בכיר שב”כ ש”הושאל” למוסד) קשור להתנקשות במבוקש הפלסטיני בסופיה
A confidential security source refused to comment to me on the case, other than to say half-jokingly that I should consult Assaf Yariv. To explain the joke, you must know that Yariv was the other candidate recently vying for the job of Shabak chief, which went to Nadav Argaman. The Israeli media is not permitted to publish the names of Shabak officials (except the chief), so it has called him “Y.” But I’ve named him here. Israeli media reported that Yariv was “on loan” from Shabak to the Mossad. In other words, my source was saying in a round-about way, that Yariv was the Shabak agent who would know the case files on wanted Palestinian fugitives like Zaid. He could use all the knowledge and information Shabak could bring to bear to help the Mossad find and kill Zaid. Which is precisely what happened.
There is more irony to note here. Bulgaria’s prime minister was visiting Israel until a few hours before the hit. It happened only five hours after his plane left Ben Gurion according to this tweet (see display) from a Haaretz journalist whose rather unusual hobby is tracking international air traffic:
This is a pattern familiar to those who follow Mossad operations. When Israel wants to kill or capture someone abroad they go as high up the food chain as they can. They buy off the political echelon and especially the security services. This happened in the case of Dirar Abusisi, when high-level Ukrainian security officials colluded with Mossad agents inside the country to kidnap him and spirit him out of the country to face bogus charges in Israel. The reward? Ukraine’s prime minister won premium concessions from Israel in international trade and tourism talks which followed shortly afterward.
Similarly, you will find in the coming months that Israel and Bulgaria have negotiated trade, tourism or arms deals of great benefit to Bulgaria. Mark my words.
Like Ukraine, Bulgaria is a deeply corrupt country in which every politician and security official has a price. For an assassin to gain access to the Palestinian embassy would be relatively easy in that case. It’s even possible that someone inside the embassy was paid off to offer such access.
But when a stronger country exploits the corruption of a weaker one it is the stronger country that carries the greater burden of guilt. Make no mistake: Israel too is a corrupt country. Not just for buying off foreign leaders to execute their plots, but for ignoring diplomatic protocol and international law.
Ynet indicates that Zaid’s case was discussed with the Bulgarian leader during his talks with Netanyahu. The Bulgarian allegedly told Bibi that he must respect the law:
Borisov…said Nayef’s [Zaid] extradition had been brought up in meetings by both the Palestinian and Israeli authorities.
“I told both sides that Bulgaria respects the rule of law and will follow the legal procedures in the case,” he told reporters in parliament on Friday.
Presumably, this meant to Bibi that he could not force Zaid to leave. This refusal apparently gave the green light to the assassination.
To what purpose was Zaid killed, I ask again? Was he a mastermind of terror? Was he even as important as another Palestinian assassinated by the Mossad, Mahmoud al Mabouh? No, this guy was a nebech. A nobody. Yes, he murdered an Israeli. But hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who murdered Israelis have been freed in prisoner exchanges (including his two co-conspirators). Israel wanted this man because he was the one who got away. He escaped justice by fleeing. So he needed to be taught a lesson.
So what? What good is the lesson? How does it help anything or anyone? It puts a feather in the cap of a few Kidon agents who offed him. It gives Bibi & Bogie something to share a schnapps over in celebration. It gives Israeli leaders a few sound bytes and Cheshire grins which they break out when reporters challenge them to take responsibility for the crime.
What heroes those Mossad assassins are! They killed an unarmed man, then threw his body into the street. A heroic deed which does the nation proud!
In the scheme of things what does it really do? Nothing. It’s an empty gesture. It wins the Likud a few votes in the next election because killing Palestinians is good business for Israeli politicians. Killing one is good. Killing 2,300 as the IDF did two summers ago is even better. As long as Israel keeps killing Palestinians the Likud will win elections. Perhaps forever, or until the Messiah comes. Or maybe until a general or prime minister is dragged into the dock at the Hague.
Richard. There are some gaps in your reporting, wide enough to drive a truck through.
First, you never name the victim, stabbed to death by Omar Zaid, Omar’s brother, and a friend.
The victim was 22 year old, Eliyahu Amadi, z”l.
Here is a picture of Eliyahu, and the defaced marker commemorating his murder.
http://antisemitism-europe.blogspot.co.il/2016/01/ireland-sinn-fein-politicians-support.html
No less important, you ignore the link in the UK Telegraph, which states, “”He appears to have died after plummeting from one of the floors of an embassy building, but Bulgarian prosecutors could not confirm if he fell or was pushed.”
So, Mossad got into the Palestinian Embassy, evaded security, and tossed Omar from a window. Sure.
You also omit to mention that Palestinian Ambassador to Bulgaria Ahmad Madbough set Zayed an ultimatum of his own, giving him 24 hours to turn himself in to Bulgarian authorities – to no avail.
So with all the publicity surrounding Zaid’s flight, sanctuary and attempts to extradite him, Mossad brazenly enters the Palestine Embassy, tosses him, and escapes.
Dream on.
You link to a website devoted to ‘finding’ anti-Semitic incidents in Europe. Some people apparently have a need to feel hated. I think it is pathological.
Here is a choice bit of the ‘anti-Semitism’ these people discover:
“Norwegian journalist Fredrik Græsvik is an antisemite of the worst type who thinks Jews have no right to self-determination in their homeland and that Jews are colonialist and racists for living in their own homeland.”
Crazy.
@ Barbarian:
Bulgarian prosecutors can’t tell you whether the sun rises in the east or west. They do what they’re told. It’s not in their interest to pursue a murder investigation, especially if there’s money & other inducements from the Israel side, which there certainly will be. You apparently skipped the part of my post talking about endemic corruption in Bulgaria. So why should I believe a prosecutor who couldn’t find blood on the body of a murder victim shot with 100 bullets??
As for security, there was no security at the embassy when he was murdered by the Mossad. The embassy had withdrawn security in order to pressure him to leave. The Bulgarians had also withdrawn security since they claimed there hadn’t been a security incident there in 20 yrs. Well, guess what…?
The ambassador has no right to expel a citizen of his own country who seeks refuge from murder. My hope is that this ass-bassador will be fired promptly. This entire incident only proves that the PA is in bed with Israel & does its bidding whether it’s on the West Bank or Bulgaria.
Oh, so you know the truth, not the Police who investigated the death. Didn’t realize you were not smart.
@ JunkyMale: I’m not using your nickname since it defames Mad Magazine’s most esteemed character. You may not use his name in vain. And if you use the name Hussein as a form of disparagement it’s Islamophobic and a comment rule violation. But I do like part of your e mail address, so I’m using that as your handle. So I put you on notice, read the comment rules carefully & respect them.
As for Bulgarian police, really? You must be kidding. If anything they’re worse than Israeli police. And that’s hard to believe possible. And btw, when you get the results of that so-called police investigation will you let us know. As far as I know there is no investigation.
Did Israel do it? I wouldn’t say the evidence is conclusive. He’s probably not important enough to warrant an Israeli operation, though making an example does perhaps serve a marginal purpose.
Heck it is even plausible the PA Bulgarian facility did it – to avoid embarrassment – especially as the PA status as a state is a bit ambiguous in this regard (recognized as a state by some, or non-member sate, not by others – it isn’t totally a state). It might have been politically convenient for the embassy to do the deed, blame Israel, and actually politically convenient for Israel to not deny it did (and tacitly taking responsibility). This is an actually win-win-win situation for all state and quasi-state actors involved (Israel, PA, Bulgaria) though obviously not for the dead fella.
Of course, one must not that aiding and abetting an escaped murderer could be seen as an act of war by the PA. While Bulgaria might be bound by diplomatic protocol (with the ambiguity of the status of the PA… Though diplomatic immunity does not usually extend to harboring war related activities (vs. a 3rd party) in an embassy)), 3rd parties are certainly not bound by this protocol – the entire compound could be seen as a legitimate target.
@lepxii: Zionist smoke & mirrors & bullshit. Even a liar & fraud like Bogie Yaalon’s could come with more convincing lies. You insult our intelligence with such horse manure.
You’ve been moderated already. If you attempt to pass off outrageous unsubstantiated horseshit like this again as even faintly credible fact I’ll ban yr ass.
Besides, all nations are bound by diplomatic protocol to respect the sovereignty & inviolability of embassies. Unless Israel wants other nations’ intelligence services to assassinate Israeli nationals in their embassies abroad. I suppose that would be acceptable to you since you”re arguing that Israel may invade Palestinian embassies & murder Palestinian nationals.
In July 1985 a Dutch activist, Klaas de Jonge, who had smuggled weapons into South Africa for the ANC, was arrested there. He made an appearance of cooperating with his captors and offered to show them the various caches where the weapons were hidden. He took care to take a route that led along the Dutch Embassy. Once there he suddenly ran inside but did not come further than the reception. He was dragged out again by the South African secret service men. The Dutch government reacted with a forceful protest and, lo and behold, the South Africans took him back to the Embassy.
Difficulties arose when the Embassy had to move. They couldn’t take De Jonge with them because in transit he would be arrested. So he remained behind in a building that had no longer Embassy status. The then South African President Pieter Botha, nicknamed “Groot Krokodil”, threatened arrest again. A quick diplomatic intervention from the Dutch side prevented that.
Ultimately De Jonge was exchanged for some South African prisoners in Angola. The Dutch Ambassador there, Nol Hermans, who took receipt of him thanked the South African colonel who had accompanied De Jonge for his care at which the man simply said “Ah Mr. Ambassador I would rather have shot him”.
De Jonge had lived in this diplomatic retreat for two years. So even the apartheid regime respected Embassy ground. And that colonel might have wanted to shoot De Jonge but he didn’t. I wonder what his fate would have been in Israeli hands, given similar circumstances.
I also wonder how the Dutch government would have reacted if it had all taken place in Israel.
The Embassy is in Sofia, Bulgaria not Belgrade (Serbia)
“You don’t see MI5 sneaking into the embassy to liquidate him. If it did, there would be a massive uproar. Intelligence chiefs would be fired. Prime ministers would resign, ”
No. I see the United States and it’s cronies committing air piracy, and getting away with it.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/04/forcing-down-morales-plane-air-piracy
@Barbarian: First, you’ve ignored my my request that you not publish more than 3 comments in a day. If you ignore this second warning you will be moderated. Respect the comment rules.
As for the US forcing down Eso Morales’ plane, last I checked no one on that plane had been assassinated. Given the fact that it was an outrageous stunt for the US to ask for Morales’ detention, the U.S. has endured great criticism for what it did.
The state of Israel is strictly criminal. The foundations of the state rest upon
ethnic cleansing and slow drip genocide. The Zionist use tactics of Nazis or any
facist group.
International law recognizes the right of the self-dtermination, and the
right of Return to people who have been ethnically cleansed from their
lands. Justice and moral right is on the side of the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian people have the Right to wage an armed struggle if need
be to regain their homes, lands, farms, fields, businesses. International law,
truth, justice and the weight of morality is on their side, and. It may take
longer for the world’s people and governments to demand an end to
Apartheid in Israel and for a just settlement, but it will happen.
Zionism, like Nazism is a recent political philosophy and sect that destroy
the best qualities in both Jewish and German society and culture respectively.
It is a cancer upon the good qualities in both peoples.
“Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves … politically we are the aggressors
and they defend themselves… The country is theirs, because they inhabit it,
whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to
take away from them their country.”
— David Ben Gurion
This is what I cal investigative journalism “I read this, extrapolated that, add some wild assumptions, ignore some facts and BOOM – here is your proof”.
Impressive!
Nobody had to find Zaid since it was well known where he was and as Barbar wrote, it would be incredibly stupid to act now with PM recent visit and growing pressure on Bulgaria.
My bet is – Zaid felt the walls were closing on him and chose the easy way out.
@Jack Cohen
To commit their evil deed, the crafty Mossadniks shape-shifted into cockroaches and crawled under Omar Zaid’s door in the embassy. Then they returned to human form, killed Zaid, and then shaped back into cockroaches and slithered down a drainpipe into the cool, deserted streets of Sofia.
Later that night, they celebrated with schnapps and hot tea that poured from a glistening samovar.
@Barbarian: Kidon agents as cockroaches. What an apt image.
Also, pleased to see you call this murder “evil.” Are you developing a Zio-conscience?
@Jack Cohen: my bet is that you’re an idiot. A father with 3 children doesn’t commit suicide in such circumstances. BTW, did he put the “marks of violence” all over his upper body as well? Not to mention, are you disputing the lede headline of Der Bibi’s newspaper saying it was an assassination? If so, we’ll have to report you for violating Zio-Comintern hasbara guidelines which explicitly demand that you adhere to the propaganda line in all matters.
Every time the Mossad murders Palestinians outside Israel under mysterious circumstance some Zio-troll publishes the claim that he committed suicide. It happened here with Mahmoud al Mabouh & others as well. What this signals is the fervent desire by Israel apologists that ALL Palestinians would just commit suicide and…JUST GO AWAY. Unfortunately, Palestinians don’t take a hint.
This must the hasbara Meme of the Day. Jack is probably sitting at Hasbara Central reading it from the overhead monitor as he types on his keyboard.
Next time you want to make such a feeble bet let me bet against you. I’ll rake in a fortune!
“Every time the Mossad murders Palestinians outside Israel under mysterious circumstance”
or
Every time a Palestinian killed outside of Israel, conspiracy hunters and unrealized fiction authors make up some facts as far as their imagination takes them.
@Jack Cohen: Or every time a hasbara online warrior is tasked with smoking bombing the Internet with obfuscation. That would be you.
What’s your real name, “Jack?”
[Comment deleted due to comment rule violation. No more than 3 comments published in a 24 hr period.]
Barbar you should establish your own blog where you can describe that your “world view” so lengthy as you want. But why bore us other readers with your countless mostly poorly reasoned comments? If the maximum of allowed comments in a day (24 hours) is three, then why do you write four comments in 6 hours? Maybe mister Silverstein should consider making the comment section less barbaric and reader friendly, at least for a while.
Barbar said:
“You also omit to mention that Palestinian Ambassador to Bulgaria Ahmad Madbough set Zayed an ultimatum of his own, giving him 24 hours to turn himself in to Bulgarian authorities – to no avail.”
Barbar has got this literally from his favourite news source Ynet (he apparently doesn’t like quotation marks) and this bit of “information” facilitated the suicide theory that Cohen promptly came up with:
“My bet is – Zaid felt the walls were closing on him and chose the easy way out.”
Now I don’t know whether the Palestinian Ambassador did give this ultimatum or not but for me it doesn’t tally with the reaction of Abbas (he spoke of a “heinous crime”) and dispatched a team of investigators to Bulgaria.
Why so indignant about the death of man who he was allegedly willing to throw to the wolves (through his ambassador) a few weeks ago.
It also doesn’t tally with the following bits of information:
“In a press release that month (i.e. last December A.B.), the Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to Sofia, Ahmad Madbough, said the embassy would not comply with the extradition order.”
https://behindthenewsisrael.wordpress.com/category/europe/
From CBS-news:
“Palestinian Ambassador Ahmed al-Madbuh told reporters Friday that the death was murder and said it was “a result of the continuing persecution by Israel.”
“Omar is one of the Palestinian fighters who led the struggle against the occupation and fulfilled his duty to his land and his people,” al-Madbuh said.
…
Ambassador al-Madbuh said his embassy had demanded security guarantees several times, but Bulgaria’s foreign ministry had not acted.
Bulgaria withdrew security guards from the embassy seven years ago on the grounds that there had been no attacks on the embassy for 20 years, the ambassador said.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/palestinian-omar-nayef-zayed-dead-sofia-bulgaria-embassy-israel/
@Arie Brand
“Barbar has got this literally from his favourite news source Ynet (he apparently doesn’t like quotation marks) and this bit of “information” facilitated the suicide theory ”
This bit of information was supplied by Al Jazeera.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/palestinian-evades-israel-extradition-sofia-embassy-151229164019733.html
@ Barbarian: Al Jazeera reported Said committed suicide? Really. Doesn’t even pass the smell test.
Actually it does though. If he was given an ultimatum to turn himself in as another commenter posted, he’d rather go out by his own hand than submit to Israeli authorities. Karma’s a bitch, and he refused to accept his karma.
From Ynet 2/26
“Palestinian Ambassador to Bulgaria Ahmad Madbough set Zayed an ultimatum of his own, giving him 24 hours to turn himself in to Bulgarian authorities – to no avail.”
From Barbar:
“Palestinian Ambassador to Bulgaria Ahmad Madbough set Zayed an ultimatum of his own, giving him 24 hours to turn himself in to Bulgarian authorities – to no avail.”
Of course Barbaric Hasbara copied Ynet, the spelling mistake in the name of the Palestinian ambassador Madbough is the same too, whereas al-Jazeera spells it correctly Madbouh.
Even if everything you said is true, it simply makes a great plot point for a sort of Spielberg’s “Munich”, post-millennial edition. In other words, exciting stuff you’ve uncovered, Richard!
@Richard
No.
Al Jazeera reported months ago that the Palestinian Ambassador had given Omar Zayed an ultimatum to leave the embassy.
Shed no tears for Omar Zayed. He found a woman, and they had kids. In his picture, he’s all smiles.
But no love and joy for 22 year old, Eliyahu Amadi, z”l. No laughter and beautiful sunsets for him.
Omar and company stabbed young Eliyahu 40 times before Eliyahu bled out, alone, in a gutter.
Even his memorial plaque was defaced by haters.
@Barbar
You said:
“Al Jazeera reported months ago that the Palestinian Ambassador had given Omar Zayed an ultimatum to leave the embassy.”
Can you provide a source? Allegedly Al Jazeera reported it “months ago” but you literally copied a line from Ynet dating from a few days ago.
Also according to the information I provided above the Ambassador stated in a press release that the Embassy would not comply with the extradition request as recently as last December.
My hunch is that this whole bit about the Embassy wanting to throw him out was designed to enable the Jack Cohens of this world to insinuate that it was suicide. But I am open to RELIABLE information stating otherwise.