Charged, But Guilty?

Israel's diplomats have been called on the rug to respond to allegations of murder without a shred of evidence that Israel was involved in the Dubai assassination of a Hamas terrorist with a record of inviting attention from a country whose people he has murdered and whom his terrorist group relied upon to further furnish them with destructive weapons of murder to be used against the Jewish nation.

It might seem obvious that Israel's Mossad would be involved in the assassination, following a tradition of such events. But it is also generally recognized that the Mossad organization is a highly skilled one, and its history of intelligence gathering and acting surreptitiously undercover on behalf of the state has been one of vaunted, highly admired delicate finesse, not blundering clumsiness.

Does it really seem reasonable then, that it would take a dozen to two dozen operatives to achieve the goal of a relatively simple mission? And that identifying clues might be left here and there to be discovered by any security agency halfway capable of interpreting them? Mossad's use of precise and cutting-edge technology, the skill of its operatives belie the accusations.

Moreover, Israel long ago, in the 1950s, recognized the imperative to act in a manner that would not imperil its people through the activities of Israeli agents. A vital statement of principle was agreed to between the nation's executive administration and its security and intelligence agencies, that those organizations would never make use of local Jews or local Jewish organizations lest they be placed in peril of revenge.

When the use of saboteurs or skilled intelligence agents, or commandos were required, they came from a discrete, well trained, intellectually capable cadre of whom very little trace would be left once an initiative was undertaken. In very few instances were these initiatives apprehended, and fewer yet when the operatives involved were discovered, but when they were, their lives were recognizably forfeit.

Now Dubai investigative authorities insist that a total of 26 operatives were involved in a fairly straightforward dispatch of a target. With individuals holding counterfeit passports reflecting British, Irish, German, Austrian, Australian, French and who knows, by the time they're finished with their theories, what other countries.

Israeli heads of mission have been called in to these nations' foreign affairs departments to be questioned, obviously held accountable for a breach of trust in carelessly making use of these countries' valuable passports for the purpose of carrying out an internationally scandalous act of elimination - a terrorist act, in fact.

Is it likely that a country like Israel, which dearly needs all the friends it can get, is about to deliberately imperil its relations with those countries which have been supportive of her? According to Dubai authorities, "The new list of suspects includes people who offered prior logistical support and preparations to facilitate the crime, and others who played a central role".

Really? The use of credit cards to book hotel rooms, pay for air travel and other incidentals, leaving a trail in other words as the 'team' purportedly flew in from Zurich,Rome, Paris and Frankfurt; then leaving the scene of the crime within minutes, according to Dubai police. Who claim that stolen identities resulted in the 'cloning' of passports.

The thing of it is, many of those 'stolen identities' belong to people living in Israel, and they are speechless with dismay: "I am shocked, it's identity theft - simply unbelievable". And they're right, it is simply unbelievable. Unbelievable that a sophisticated, highly successful, secretive and professional intelligence agency would resort to such schlock methods.

Unbelievable that a state which had recognized soon after its formation that it must never imperil the safety and security of others to achieve their goals, would now undertake to do just that. Unbelievable that a country under siege from its neighbours, suffering existential angst, and hoping to secure the support of Western countries, would deliberately throw all that overboard to achieve a single hit.

There is nothing particularly logical in all of this. Unless one imagines a not-too-clever but sufficiently resourceful group undertaking to emulate what they imagine Israel's Mossad might embark upon and how it might do so, to undermine the legitimacy of the state and cause it embarrassment on the world stage.