Tag Archive for 'Hamas'

The Israel lobby strikes back

Published on 18 March 2010 in General. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Speaking of “journalists” who love Israel like an old wine; juicy if you know where to lick but corrupt to the core. Over to you, Murdoch columnist Greg Sheridan:

The Australia-Israel relationship, normally a byword for geostrategic stability and enduring human warmth, has had some stormy passages lately.

The use of Australian passports by the agents, presumably from Mossad, who assassinated a Hamas terrorist in Dubai led to unusually strong criticism of Israel from Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith. Australia changed its vote from oppose to abstain at the UN on a resolution requiring Israel and Hamas to investigate alleged war crimes as demanded in the widely discredited Goldstone report. This was a clear if unstated punishment of Israel for the passports breach.

Then there were needlessly energetic comments by Foreign Minister Smith condemning Israel over the recent announcement of 1600 new housing units to be built in East Jerusalem, on which more later.

This makes it all the more remarkable, and reassuring, that Smith yesterday hosted a bipartisan ceremony to accept a report – prepared by the Australia Israel Leadership Forum, founded by Melbourne businessman Albert Dadon – with recommendations for enhancing the Australia-Israel relationship.

The forum, in which I have participated, brings together a range of Israelis and Australians for annual strategic dialogue in the broadest sense. The Australian delegation in its two meetings has been led by Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote a letter endorsing the work of the forum and saying he will consider its recommendations.

The report makes four important suggestions.

The first is that Australian military staff colleges should host Israeli officers. This is a brilliant idea. Our staff colleges routinely host Arab officers and this is all to the good. We deploy a lot of Australian forces in and around the Middle East and, as a result, we have developed effective working relations with a number of Arab militaries. But we are a strategic and political ally of Israel. The absence of Israelis from these courses is a serious gap and has a small but ongoing effect on our military culture.

Arab and Israeli officers routinely attend US staff colleges together. It’s good for both of them. They have to put up with each other if they want the benefit of American military staff colleges. It helps dialogue all around and it gives expression to the true nature of the US-Israel relationship. There is absolutely no reason Australia should not do this.

I would add a recommendation the report leaves out. Australia should have an annual or biennial full strategic dialogue with Israel. We do have very high level intelligence exchanges but, given the depth of our investment in the Middle East, we should also exchange deep and wide strategic views. We could learn something, and perhaps we could teach something. Our military work in Afghanistan is overwhelmingly among civilian populations, just as is most of Israel’s military involvement. Operationally, ethically, in every way we have things to talk about.

Recommendation No 2 is for a free trade agreement. This is also a brilliant idea. Australian trade with Israel is small, just about $1 billion a year. But Israel is a world leader in innovation and commercialisation. We could and should do much more together.

Third, Israel’s experience with improving Bedouin health and Australia’s struggle to do the same with Aboriginal health ought to be the basis for co-operation, comparison and mutual teaching.

Finally, the report recommends auditing and giving life to the plethora of bilateral agreements that have become moribund through the years. This is a practical and very useful document.

Smith reiterated at its launch that despite recent controversies there has been no change in Australia’s deep friendship with and commitment to Israel.

Smith did the right thing by accepting the report, committing the government to considering it seriously and reiterating Australia’s support for Israel.

And Opposition Deputy Leader Julie Bishop supported him on behalf of the Coalition.

Overall, the Rudd government displays only marginally less solidarity with Israel than the Howard government did. It has changed a couple of Australian votes at the UN, but not many. No one seriously doubts that this is an attempt, almost certainly forlorn, to curry favour with the Arab League in our quixotic and pointless quest for a non-permanent UN Security Council seat. This worthless bid is distorting our foreign policy, but so far mainly at the margins.

Similar considerations probably animate Smith’s overreaction to the 1600 Israeli apartments to be built, in three years, in East Jerusalem. This is in some eerie ways a minor imitation of the Obama administration’s gross overreaction. Whereas the Rudd government is courting votes for a tawdry UN election, Barack Obama plainly sees the quest to redefine the US relationship with the Muslim world as central to his historic mission, and part of this involves dumping on the Israelis.

Thus the Palestinian Authority for 12 months refused to negotiate with Israel; that was fine. It then named a square after a female suicide bomber who killed 37 civilians, including 13 children. No hint of a US rebuke there. But Israel announcing the apartments is apparently the end of Middle East peace as we know it.

Don’t get me wrong. I think the Israeli government was extremely stupid to announce the apartments while US Vice-President Joe Biden was visiting Israel. But Netanyahu’s temporary freeze on building in the West Bank never included East Jerusalem. There are Jewish parts of East Jerusalem that every serious player knows will stay with Israel in any peace deal. They were staying with Israel under the Bill Clinton mandated offer to the Palestinians in 2000, and under the even more generous plan put by Ehud Olmert in 2008.

In other words, as usual, Israel got the public relations and political management wrong but the substance right. The Obama administration was notably unmoved by rape and murder as a political tactic in Iran; is offering endless concessions to Syria, which treats Washington with studied contempt; and will never criticise the Palestinian Authority. It is developing a very bad tendency to constantly flatter its enemies in the fantastical hope of engaging and converting them, while abusing its friends, to show its even-handedness.

Canberra has no need to go down that same road.

This useful report helps it choose a better road instead.

Adhere to the rule of law, says Labor MP to Israel and her backers

Published on 18 March 2010 in Israel. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Senior Australian unionist Paul Howes wrote recently that Israel’s murder of a Hamas operative in Dubai was a wonderful thing to celebrate.

Retiring Labor MP Julia Irwin disagrees and said the following in Federal Parliament on 15 March:

Mrs IRWIN (Fowler) (9.18 pm)—I rise tonight to comment on an article in the Sunday Telegraph on 7 March
2010. The article, by the National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Mr Paul Howse, highlights three
things: (1) that Mr Howse is ignorant of the concept of justice; (2) that Mr Howse has little appreciation of the
values that Australians hold dear: and (3) that Mr Howse is completely ignorant of why unionists the world
over abhor extrajudicial killings. Mr Howse’s article celebrates the recent killing in Dubai of Mr Mahmoud al-
Mabhouh, a member of the Palestinian group Hamas, which Mr Howse described as ‘an ugly Islamo-fascist
terrorist organisation’. Paul Howse not only praises the extrajudicial killing of al-Mahbhouh, but happily declares his pride in Australia’s accidental involvement by virtue of the use of forged Australian passports to facilitate the travel of those involved in this murder.

While no-one is rushing to claim responsibility for the killing, there is ample anecdotal supposition that the
state of Israel may be responsible for this extrajudicial killing. Anecdotal evidence and supposition do not stand
up in a court of law. In the absence of a direct admission or direct evidence of the real identities of those involved there may be little that can be done, and that is very much the point. We will now never have the evidence against al-Mabhouh presented to a court. Its veracity will never be tested. There will be no due process. Al-Mabhouh will never face his accusers, and the families of his alleged victims will never have the opportunity to see him face public scrutiny for his alleged crimes, nor will they receive justice. These families will never have the opportunity to see the evidence and know for certain that al-Mabhouh was directly responsible for their tragedies.

In the case of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, he was captured, due process was observed, he was tried in a court of
law, evidence was presented, and he was convicted and sentenced. The families of Saddam Hussein’s victims
received justice. The old adage says: justice must not only be done; it must be seen to be done. Extrajudicial
killings fall far short of this standard and they have no place in a true democracy. Yet Paul Howse is happy for
our laws to be broken, for our sovereignty to be impinged upon and for the Australians whose identities were
stolen to be placed in precarious positions—Australians, I might add, who share Israeli citizenship, Australians
who now face the prospect of being detained whenever they travel because of Interpol alerts. They must now
prove their innocence but even then when they travel their doubts will remain, not to mention the other Israeli
dual nationals from various countries who have also had their identities stolen in the commission of this murder.

I am certain that these individuals would object to their identities being stolen for the commission of a crime.

The term extrajudicial killing is a polite way of referring to state sponsored murder, the execution of individuals
without judicial sanction and without due process. Of course the Dubai killing is not the first time extrajudicial
killings have been used as a tool to eliminate those deemed to be enemies of the state or simply undesirable. It has  long been a tool of totalitarian regimes and military dictatorships around the world. Regimes in Europe, Africa,  Asia, Latin and South America have all used this tool to eliminate opponents. In Latin and South America, for  example, those who were opposed to right-wing regimes or military dictatorships were simply eliminated by right-wing death squads. Many of these were unionists representing the working class and defending workers’  rights and many were identified as left-wingers or communists and deemed opponents of a regime. Thousands disappeared in an orgy of kidnapping, torture and murder. In south-western Sydney today the Latin and South  American communities tell of their stories. Many have told me personally of fleeing from their homelands in  order to escape the extrajudicial punishment and extrajudicial murders meted out at the hands of regime thugs,  often police, military or intelligent operatives acting under a cover with a nudge and a wink from those apparently  in charge. Many lost family and friends without justification, and many victims remain missing even today.

It may be easy for Paul Howse to glorify extrajudicial killings from the sidelines, but if we legitimise this
extrajudicial killing we legitimise them all, because each one is based not on law but on hearsay and a subjective
point of view. But such a view may not always be admissible in a court. It has no legal basis and falls far short
of the judicial and community standard. It would be open slather. What would the reaction have been had the
killers in Dubai been discovered and forced to kill others to effect an escape? A hotel worker, a hotel guest or a
tourist—would they have just been collateral damage? What would the reaction of Paul Howse have been had the

killings taken place on the streets of Sydney or Melbourne? Would the Australian media have been as accepting?
Would we have excused this as an act of a friend?

While professing to share those values that we as Australians hold dear, Mr Howes is ready to compromise
them by terminating a life without judicial warrant or excuse. If it is acceptable for one group to act outside
traditional norms and practices and kill, then it will be open to others to act in a similar way. Civilised societies
do not accept this. Democratic and fair societies certainly do not. Australia does not and would not condone
extrajudicial killings, nor can we accept being a party to them, intentionally or unintentionally. Mr Howes needs  to be reminded that in Australia we no longer have the death penalty. In fact, legislation has just passed in this  parliament to extend the current Commonwealth prohibition on the death penalty to state laws. It ensures that the  death penalty cannot be reintroduced in Australia; and extrajudicial killing, therefore, necessarily cuts against  the grain. To be involved in its commission innocently or otherwise is abhorrent and unacceptable.

The killers of al-Mabhouh, and their supporters, were willing to commit identity fraud and commit passport
and visa fraud to travel to a third country to murder an individual declared an enemy of the state by a small,
unknown and unaccountable group of individuals. In so doing, the perpetrators have trampled on the sovereignty of several nations, including our own—Australia. The reaction of the federal government, the Prime Minister and the foreign minister is entirely appropriate. The use of forged Australian passports is now being investigated by the Australian Federal Police and other agencies. Action will no doubt be taken if the evidence obtained warrants it.

Rest assured that any further action by the Australian government will not involve extrajudicial punishment.
As a society Australians have always championed legal rights. Evidence is collected by the police and assessed
by the state’s legal officers. If that evidence warrants them, charges may be laid against an accused. Due process  is observed. The evidence is presented in a court of law. If the accused is found guilty, punishment is handed out according to law—not according to what I think, not according to what Paul Howes thinks, but according to the law. Justice is not only done; it is seen to be done. It is the foundation of our Australian democracy and it is the foundation of our Australian society. I shudder to think where we might be without it,but I shuddered even more when I read the last paragraph of Paul Howes’s article:
Therefore, it is in our nation’s interest to do whatever we can to remove these vile people from power—by any means  necessary.
Paul Howes—judge, jury and executioner.

Time for the media to ask some deeper questions about Israel/American relations (ie. it’s in pretty good shape)

Published on 17 March 2010 in Israel. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Everybody calm down. Hillary Clinton has reaffirmed Washington’s “absolute commitment to Israel’s security”.

Jerusalem is facing growing Palestinian protests, especially since Hamas called for a “day of rage”.

Bradley Burston writes in Haaretz a completely over the top comment:

Washington is beginning to relate to the Netanyahu government as if it were Hamas.

Please. Israel has not suffered any financial or diplomatic pain from America. The occupation continues. Settlements expand. Rightists are emboldened.

Here’s food for thought:

Washington ought to remember one thing, however: The majority of Israelis wholly oppose halting construction in east Jerusalem. They may be angry over the timing of the announcement – but most want building to continue.

Australian mainstream newspaper dares to say a few things about East Jerusalem

Published on 16 March 2010 in Israel. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

For the Sydney Morning Herald, yesterday’s editorial is pretty strong. A sign, perhaps, that the Zionist lobby isn’t always running the agenda in the corporate media:

Stephen Smith, the Foreign Minister, is right to be outraged by Israel’s announcement last week of plans for 1600 houses for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem. Venturing beyond Australia’s usual safe diplomatic language on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Smith called it “a bad decision at the wrong time” and “not a helpful contribution to the peace process”. The timing – just as Joe Biden, the US Vice-President, arrived in Israel to help restart peace talks – could hardly have been worse. Smith was still smarting from unresolved tensions with Israel over the use of forged Australian passports in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai, widely believed to be the work of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. Even more than that episode, the tactless announcement over East Jerusalem highlights Israel’s apparent disregard for the role of goodwill in relations with even its closest allies.

Palestinians see East Jerusalem as their future capital, should a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict ever come to pass. Yet the housing plan is just one more event in a process by which the Israeli government has been busily remaking East Jerusalem in Israel’s own image, often disregarding Arab heritage. Jewish tourist parks, conservation areas and archaeological digs have sprouted in Palestinian districts. There are reports that Israel plans to build another 50,000 housing units in East Jerusalem over the next few years. Shocked, angered and embarrassed enough just by hearing of the plan for 1600 houses, Biden condemned it as “precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now”.

The undermining was a product of the inability of the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to control his coalition of right-wing and religious parties since he took power a year ago. The housing announcement came from Eli Yishai, the Interior Minister, who is head of the right-wing Sephardic-Orthodox party, which champions Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem. Israel’s defence ministry quickly deplored the announcement as “unwarranted”. Yet however deep the divisions are among Israelis themselves, Netanyahu’s failure at least to reprimand his minister publicly leaves questions over how serious he is about pushing ahead with a peace deal.

The affair has harmed prospects for the so-called “proximity talks”, in which Israelis and Palestinians are to meet separately with American mediators. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, has threatened to pull out, saying Palestinians have been “given the finger by Netanyahu”. Since late 2008, Australia has supported a freeze on Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem. We must now follow this through and bring what pressure we can on Israel to grasp the goodwill so vital to the peace process.

The Left is a source of all evil (says extreme rightist)

Published on 15 March 2010 in Israel. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Jerusalem Post writer Caroline Glick – there’s nothing like a good bombing to get her out of the bed in the morning – increases her rhetoric to the point of, well, you decide:

Israel is not the only target of the Red-Green alliance. Its operations span the globe. Sometimes, as in the case of the Goldstone Report, the Left leads the charge. Sometimes, as with the Hamas-led missile offensive against Israel that preceded Cast Lead, the jihadists move first.

In general, jihadists are motivated to attack non-Muslims by their religious belief that Islam must dominate the world. And in general, the Left’s justification of jihadist aggression stems from its neo-Marxist faith that the liberal nation-state is the root of all evil. Whether the Left recognizes that if successful, its collusion with jihadists will lead to the destruction of human freedom, is subject to debate. But whether or not the Left understands the consequences of its actions, it has played a key role in abetting this goal.

…

Here it is the Left that leads the jihadists by the hand. Take the Left’s campaign against Jewish property rights in Jerusalem. In the Sheikh Jarrah/Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood, buildings owned by Jews were seized by Jordan in 1948 after its conquest of the city. For the past decade Jewish property owners have been working through the courts to assert their rights to their buildings and remove the Arab squatters who took them over.

Court after court upheld their rights to their property. And, indeed, more than a decade ago, the squatters reached a settlement in which they acknowledged the owners’ property rights and the owners agreed to let the squatters stay so long as they paid rent. But when the squatters stopped paying rent, the Left pushed them to refuse to vacate the premises and to try to re-litigate the old settlement. Finally, the case made it to the Supreme Court, which also recognized the rights of the Jewish owners and ordered the police to enforce its ruling and remove the illegal squatters.

The police removed the squatters last month and within hours, Jewish residents moved in, in accordance with an agreement with the buildings’ lawful owners. Since they moved in, the Jews have been under constant attack from their Arab neighbors. They have been beaten and threatened with murder.

In the meantime, the Left has turned the case of the illegal Arab squatters into a cause celebre. Last week, thousands of leftists staged an anti-Semitic demonstration outside the compound, demanding that the Jews be removed from their homes. The argument, of course, is that allowing Jews to exercise their legal property rights by peacefully residing in a predominantly Arab neighborhood is an unacceptable “provocation.” The Arab squatters attempting to steal the property, on the other hand, are “victims.”

Israel’s Dubai hit continues the country’s moral decline

Published on 14 March 2010 in General and Israel. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

My following article is published on the Huffington Post:

Israel is facing a revolt from the Jewish Diaspora.

“Intifada” is an Arabic word meaning “shaking off”, as one would violently discard a scorpion. Israel is managing its own “intifada” from within.

I write as a 36-year-old Australian Jew who has recently signed, with 37 Australian Jews, a petition in which I renounced my right of return to Israel. I simply couldn’t accept the dispossession of Palestinians while my rights were deemed more important than the indigenous inhabitants.

Following similar initiatives in America and Britain, Australia – a country long-counted as a major supporter of Israel – now sees prominent Jews, including world-renowned ethicist Peter Singer, claim in the statement that the right of return is a “form of racist privilege that abets the colonial oppression of the Palestinians.”

This could not be more different from the atmosphere surrounding last December’s Australia-Israel Leadership Forum, the largest contingent of Israeli politicians and journalists to ever visit Australia. They found a very receptive audience. The Liberal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was effusive: “I’d like to think that nowhere in the world [does Israel] have stauncher friends than us.”

Israel has always found bi-partisan support in Australia. Ever since 1948 – when the United Nations chairmanship was held by the pro-Zionist, Australian Foreign Minister “Doc” Evatt – Israel has taken Australia’s unquestioning friendship as a given. The current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Labor government is no exception. Rudd once said that support for Israel was in his DNA.

This history makes the current strain in diplomatic relations between Israel and Australia all the more unusual. When it emerged in late February that Israel’s Mossad had allegedly forged Australian passports – as well as those of other foreign nationals – for its assassination of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January, the Rudd government was publicly livid.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith called in the Israel Ambassador Yuval Rotem and used uncharacteristically harsh diplomatic language. If evidence was found that directly implicated Israel, Smith averred, “then Australia would not regard that as the act of a friend.”

A headline in the Sydney Morning Herald captured the mood: “Betrayed PM [Prime Minister] should not be taken for granted by Israel“. The Melbourne Age’s Diplomatic Editor Daniel Flitton argued that, “a long friendship is on the line“.

I was saddened to see the leaders of the Australian Jewish community remain either silent or incapable of condemning the abuse of Australian passports. They will defend every Israeli action like a mantra.

There was almost no precedent for navigating these choppy waters. Australia’s cast-iron backing for Israel in the United Nations began to falter, with the country abstaining from a resolution about the Goldstone Report that demanded Israel and the Palestinians investigate possible war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009. Australia had wholeheartedly backed the original invasion with vigour.

But any short-term troubles in the relationship won’t last. Canberra is too intimately tied to the US alliance to seriously undermine one of Washington’s other key allies. During President Obama’s upcoming Australian visit, the Mossad hit is unlikely to be discussed. Believing in Israeli infallibility is almost a matter of faith within Australia’s governing elites.

One rare example of an ally of Israel pushing back was New Zealand, which suspended diplomatic ties with Israel from two years in 2004 after it was discovered that Israeli citizens were trying to steal the identity of a man with severe physical disabilities. Two Mossad agents were sentenced and imprisoned for conspiring against the country’s sovereignty.

New Zealand until recently had a history of diplomatic freedom. In 1984, then Prime Minister David Lange banned the arrival of American nuclear-armed war-ships, causing a rift with Washington but signalling a world-leading example of fierce independence.

Media coverage of the Dubai scandal has been devastating. London’s Guardian was scathing: “Our government seems to be fine with letting the Israeli secret service wage its war with Hamas under a British flag.”

This incident strikes at the heart of Israel’s declining reputation, benefits the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against individuals and corporations that profit from Israel and highlights frustration over Israel’s intransigence in the West Bank and Gaza.

I am a Jew who feels deeply implicated in Israel’s reckless behaviour and cannot remain silent anymore.

While a recent Gallop poll in America found that for the first time since 1991 more than six in ten respondents said their sympathies in the Middle East lay more with the Israelis than the Palestinians, these figures are deceptive. Studies of young American Jews finds a growing disillusionment with the Jewish state and inter-marriage is contributing to the Zionist brain-drain. The internet has opened my eyes to these trends, a rejection of the post-Holocaust reliance on blind adherence to Israel.

The extra-judicial murder in Dubai merely adds fuel to the growing voices of Jewish dissent. Jewish writers Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv claimed in the Atlantic Monthly that, “Mabhouh’s passing definitely sets Hamas back, at least for a few months.”

I suspect the cost to Israel’s image will last far longer.

Murdoch man proves that a few trips to Israel will help him back killing in Dubai

Published on 9 March 2010 in Israel. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

The list of Australian corporate flaks backing Israel’s hit in Dubai is growing. Israel is a state religion. Must support. Must back. Must love. Must not question.

Take Murdoch hack Alan Howe (a man with a long hatred of Arabs), here in Melbourne’s Herald Sun wildly supporting Israeli state terrorism and encouraging more death in the name of fighting terrorism:

Israelis 1, Palestinians 0.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a virtueless scrap of humanity, is dead. All good so far.

…

Just days off turning 50, al-Mabhouh knew he was a worthy target for assassination. Usually, he travelled with a team of bodyguards, but they couldn’t get seats on his flight, which was said to be the first leg of a weapons-buying trip to Thailand.

To help secure the success of this well-thought-out killing, Mossad’s agents travelled on forged passports appearing to have been issued in Germany, France, Ireland, the UK and Australia.

Foreign ministers from these countries, including our own Stephen Smith, have been mildly critical of Israel, at least compared with the excitable Hamas spokesman who told Israel to “prepare to receive the hellfire of our anger”. What, and that’s new?

Our reaction was more subdued; forging Australian passports was not “the act of a friend”.

Yes it was.

We cancelled the screening in Parliament House of an Israeli film called Noodle.

Take that, Tel Aviv!

…

Quietly, over the years, after having breathed a sigh of relief, most of the world came to understand what a favour that little country [Israel] had performed for them.

These days attention has turned towards Iran and its development of a nuclear program. This, too, is to generate power. Then why hide it at terrific expense under the desert?

Gaza is an Iranian proxy state where that country’s hate for the West is played out in fights against Israel.

This is the War on Terror.

Iran is the terror. Its Gaza agents are the terrorists. We must kill them.

And next on the agenda is Iran’s nuclear plant.

How many Australian passports may have been used in Dubai?

Published on 9 March 2010 in Israel. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

If Australia was an independent nation, it would be outraged. Don’t hold your breath:

A fourth Australian has been named as a suspect in the assassination of a Palestinian militant in a Dubai hotel room in January.

Dubai police last week revealed a 27th suspect in the team of assassins it believed was responsible for killing Hamas commander Mahmoud Al Mabhouh.

More than half those identified share names with Israeli citizens with dual nationality.

Now, Interpol has released details of most of the suspects on its website and has named the latest suspect as Joshua Aaron Krycer.

The real Joshua Krycer apparently lives in Jerusalem and moved to Israel from Australia a few years ago.

A 2006 online newsletter of the Zionist Federation of Australia contains a photograph of Joshua Krycer.

The newsletter says he is a speech pathologist among a group of Australians working at a hospital in Jerusalem.

Three other Australians, Nicole McCabe, Joshua Bruce and Adam Korman, allegedly had their identities stolen and used in some of the fake passports held by the alleged assassins.

All of them deny any involvement in the assassination and say they have no knowledge of how their passport identities were stolen.

Dubai police have said they are 99 per cent sure that Israel was behind the assassination of Mabhouh, who was smothered with a pillow after being injected with a powerful muscle relaxant.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has told ABC2 News Breakfast he will not comment on the latest development.

“So far as we’re concerned we regard this matter very much as operational,” he said.

“We’ve been working very closely with the the UAE authorities on this matter.

“I’m not proposing to be drawn on speculation on what we regard very much as operational matters.”

Interpol says the 27 suspects named by Dubai police worked in two separate groups.

They say a smaller core group carried out the killing, while the second team helped by watching, following and reporting on Mabhouh’s movements.

Dubai police say 12 British citizens, six Irish, four French and one German all had their passport details stolen and used in the assassination.

Being pro-Israeli means backing murder anywhere, anytime

Published on 8 March 2010 in Israel. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Paul Howes is national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union. He loves Israel like it’s a woman he’s dying to take to bed. In other words, any flaws are utterly ignored.

His latest piece, in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph, totally backs Israel’s murder of a Hamas operative in Dubai:

Let’s be clear: the death of al-Mabhouh is a positive outcome for those who believe in peace and justice.

es, I accept that a liberal conscience will worry about the compelling moral arguments against extrajudicial killings.

But we’re talking about a man who has turned Palestinian children into human bombs to murder and terrorise Israeli civilians, not to mention the terror Hamas has waged against Palestinians who are deeply worried about Hamas’ fundamentalism being imposed by authoritarian diktat.

Al-Mahbouh and his Damascus military faction are said to be responsible for undermining the negotiations between Israel and Hamas to release the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The question of the use of Australian passports in the operation in Dubai raises many issues for the Australian Government.

Traditionally, Australia has been a loyal friend of Israel, no matter which party is in government. This is something that should make us all proud.

Some have argued that if Israel has illegally used Australian passports, this is not the action of a friend. Maybe.

But in my view, friends stand by each other in the good times and the bad, and a friend is someone who lends a hand when the going gets tough.

That’s why I’m proud that our nation has played a small, and accidental role, in the removal of the terrorist al-Mabhouh from our planet.

Many may say that’s to be expected of a pro-Israeli. But it should be clear that al-Mabhouh’s death is quietly welcomed by the vast majority of the moderate Arab world.

Al-Mabhouh will be mourned only in the capitals of the despotic Middle East regimes such as Iran and Syria.

Many anti-Israel activists around the world, and in Australia, have seized on the passport issue to develop a new front to push their anti-Israeli propaganda. That, too, is to be expected.

But Australians shouldn’t fall for the giant lie they are pushing. Israelis are actually allied with a clear majority of the Arab world fighting a war against the forces of anti-democratic Islamo-fascism.

The world defeated Nazism. Now the world must support those countries fighting Islamo-fascism.

It is a war that is being fought on the streets of Tehran, where democratic forces battle that Islamic dictatorship; it’s being fought on the streets of Gaza, after Hamas launched their coup there; it’s being fought in Lebanon against Hezbollah and in the mountains of Afghanistan against the remains of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

The fighters had a small victory in a Dubai hotel.

Dubai is no longer a play-thing of Israel

Published on 8 March 2010 in Israel. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Maher Mughrabi writes in the Age that the Jewish state seriously mis-calcuated over its Dubai hit:

If it was Israel that assassinated the Hamas man, then perhaps it counted on Dubai’s long-standing desire to avoid controversy. So what has changed in the past year?

The answer may be that Brand Dubai itself is under intense scrutiny. With growing concerns at the size of its debt — put by the IMF at $US109 billion ($A121 billion) and counting — and at the treatment of its investors, the emirate’s financial advisers have counselled it to go for greater openness, a process that began with the unprecedented public announcement of a detailed budget for 2009.

Having also positioned itself as a tourism and major events destination, the city sets a lot of store by visitors feeling secure. Dubai academic Theodore Karasik’s recent insistence that “security forces in the UAE … are able to mitigate and break up foreign nationals who come here with another agenda” sounded like a man closing the barn door after the horse had bolted. But, as with the debt problem, perhaps the emirate’s rulers have decided the best course is to control speculation rather than be dragged along by it.

Dershowitz backs extra-judicial murder (and torture)

Published on 7 March 2010 in Israel. 13 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz has a love affair with Israel that has no bounds.

It’s therefore unsurprising that he supports Israel’s recent assassination in Dubai:

The complaints leveled against Israel by European countries and Australia, regarding the alleged misuse of passports by the Mossad in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, ring hollow and smack of blatant hypocrisy.  Whoever did kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh—whether it was the Israeli Mossad or someone else—clearly did have their agents use stolen or forged passports.  Big deal.

Every good intelligence agency uses stolen and forged passports.  The British have been especially adept at this means of spycraft.  No country that uses fake passports in their intelligence operations has the moral authority to complain about the alleged misuse of passports in this case.  The only ones that have a legitimate grievance are those individuals whose passports may have been misused without their knowledge.

I guess it’s the job of foreign ministries to complain publicly when other nations do what they themselves do secretly.  Hypocrisy is, after all, the homage that vice pays to virtue.  I’m reminded of the famous scene in Casablanca, when officer Renault declares, “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” A croupier then approaches Renault, and hands him a roll of currency: “Your winnings, sir.”

The hypocrisy in this case seems even more blatant than usual.  Is it because Israel is the alleged offender, and the world has gotten accustomed to singling out Israel for double standard condemnation?

Shortly after the terrorist attacks in Bali, which killed a large number of Australian tourists, I had the opportunity to meet with the Australian Prime Minister.  I was writing a book at the time on preemption, and I asked him whether he would have authorized a preemptive attack on the terrorist who killed Australian citizens, if such an attack would have saved their lives.  His response was that Australia would have done anything it could, to prevent these terrorist attacks.  Anything, I guess, except misusing passports!  Is there anybody who believes that Australia would not have used forged or stolen passports to prevent the Bali massacres?  If Great Britain could have stopped the London subway attack by misusing passports, would M6 have allowed the terrorism to go forward in the name of preserving passport integrity?  Of course not.  The same is true of Spain with regard to the Madrid bombing and to every other country in the world that seeks to prevent terrorism.  Well, if the Mossad did in fact kill al-Mabhouh, they too did it to prevent the killing of their innocent civilians.

Who would be trying to destabilise Gaza (Fatah, Israel or the US?)

Published on 6 March 2010 in Israel. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This is published in the Jerusalem Post, so accuracy cannot be guaranteed, but interesting news:

Ahmed Ja’abri, commander of Hamas’ armed wing, Izaddin al-Kassam, recently sent an urgent letter to Hamas leader in Damascus Khaled Masha’al, warning that the situation in the Gaza Strip was “deteriorating,” and that Hamas has started losing control over the territory, London-based Arab-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Saturday morning.

The letter was reportedly written in light of a series of assassinations and explosions near the offices of senior Izaddin a-Kassam commanders and ofHamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

According to the report, Ja’abri wrote Mahsa’al that “several worrisome explosions recently occurred in Gaza, security anarchy is extensive, and al-Kassam men are being killed.”

Ja’abri also reportedly admits that Hamas has made a number of serious mistakes in ruling the strip.

The paper quoted Palestinian sources as saying that Hamas operatives who oppose Haniyeh were behind the attacks. Others suggested that the explosions were carried out by fundamentalist Islamic jihad groups.

Australia dares not offend Israel even when crimes are clear

Published on 6 March 2010 in Israel. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

The latest on the Australia/Israel Mossad scandal:

The Australian government is far from satisfied with the response so far from Israel on the alleged use of Australian passports by a Mossad death squad.

In an interview with the Herald, a restrained Kevin Rudd said no more information had been forthcoming since Australia first protested last week.

”There is a way to go yet with our friends in Israel to resolving these matters to the satisfaction of the Australian government,” the Prime Minister said.

”We continue to be in contact with them. We’ll continue to work with our friends in Israel through multiple agencies and at the political level as well.”

…

The federal opposition has been conspicuous in its refusal to criticise Israel.

A week ago the Liberal senator Julian McGauran released a statement attacking the government for criticising Israel.

He said the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, should ‘’start acting more like Australia’s chief diplomat and stop publicly pointing the finger at Israel as the culprit of the Mahmoud al-Mabhouh assassination”.

“The government has failed to delink their outrage of the forged passports from the assassination of the Hamas terrorist,” he said. ”They are two separate issues. The tracking down of terrorist leaders is an acceptable act in the context of the war on terror.”

The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, refused to comment when asked whether he stood by Senator McGauran’s statement.

Later, he defended Israel, saying nobody knew the full story.

”Before I start, or anyone else starts questioning the motives of other countries, I think we should get to the bottom of this,” he said. ”I don’t want to assume bad faith on the part of a friendly democracy.”

Mr Rudd did not want to comment when asked by the Herald about the Coalition’s decision to defend Israel.

”I’m a lifelong supporter, defender and friend of the state of Israel …” he said. ”However, when it comes to this particular matter, I have a responsibility as Australian Prime Minister to get to the bottom of it and to establish that Australia’s interests are being properly safeguarded in the future and I will do that.”

If America turns on Israel, they’ll always have Micronesia

Published on 4 March 2010 in Israel. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

The National notes Israel’s growing isolation in the UN (of course, Washington’s tight backing is often all that matters):

Two unrelated diplomatic upsets have underlined growing impatience with the behaviour of the Israeli government among western countries that are traditionally supportive.

Backing from the European Union and Australia in the United Nations to sustain the issue of Israel’s alleged war crimes in Gaza more than a year ago has coincided with controversy over Israel’s apparent use of western passports in the assassination of Mahmoud al Mabhouh, a Hamas official, in Dubai.

Support for an Arab resolution last Friday at the UN – most EU countries voted in favour while others and Australia abstained – gave Israel and the Palestinians five more months to report back on progress in their respective investigations of war crimes alleged in a report by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge.

Netanyahu and Mossad head will be watching where they travel

Published on 4 March 2010 in Israel. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

Interesting:

Dubai’s police chief plans to seek the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the Mossad over the killing of a Hamas leader in the emirate, Al Jazeera television reported on Wednesday.

Dahi Khalfan Tamim “said he would ask the Dubai prosecutor to issue arrest warrants for … Netanyahu and the head of Mossad,” the television said. It did not give details.

Australia’s Israel lobby seem lost for words over Dubai murder

Published on 3 March 2010 in Israel. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

It’s about time Australia’s Zionist lobby was seriously questioned over its inability to find fault with the Israeli policy of state-sanctioned murder (via the Australian):

Dual Israeli nationals will be banned from entering Dubai in a sanction that police say will be enforced by recognising “physical features and the way they speak”.

The announcement, by Dubai police chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, is the first reprisal for Israel’s suspected role in the murder of a Hamas leader in Dubai and could affect dual Australian-Israeli citizens using Dubai as a stopover.

The sanction will be difficult to police given that Israelis enter the United Arab Emirates on second passports because the UAE does not have diplomatic ties with Israel. The Emirates will “deny entry to anyone suspected of having Israeli citizenship”, General Tamim said, adding that police would “develop skills” to recognise Israelis by “physical features and the way they speak”.

The head of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Robert Goot, said last night he would not comment on General Tamim’s declaration.

Meanwhile, the head of the Palestinian delegation in Canberra, Izzat Abdulhadi, said yesterday Jewish leaders in Australia had to decide whether their loyalties lay with Australia or Israel.

His call came as the Zionist Federation of Australia released a statement in which it again declined to criticise Israel’s suspected role in the faking of three Australian passports to support the suspected Mossad assassination.

“The ZFA notes that Israel has not accepted responsibility for, or made any comment in relation to, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh’s death or the alleged misuse of passports and it believes it is not appropriate for speculation to prevail or unsubstantiated conclusions to be drawn in the absence of hard evidence,” ZFA president Philip Chester said.

The row has caused a diplomatic rift, with Foreign Minister Stephen Smith warning that if Israel is found to have sponsored or condoned the misuse of Australian passports, it would not

be seen as the act of a friend.

Mr Abdulhadi, the most senior Palestinian representative in Australia, said yesterday the reluctance of Jewish leaders to criticise the Israeli government meant they were failing to stand up for Jewish Australian citizens.

“I think the Jewish community (leaders) should be more constructive and behave as Australians and protect the integrity of Australian citizens,” he said in an interview with The Australian.

“They should support the Australian government and condemn publicly Israel’s abuse of their own Australian citizens.”

Mr Chester said he understood why the Australian government wanted to investigate any alleged misuse of its passports. “The ZFA acknowledges that it is appropriate for the Australian government and its security agencies to investigate any credible allegations of misuse or theft of Australian passports,” he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade yesterday rejected claims made by Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki that Australia and other Western nations had questions to answer about their role in the killing of Mabhouh because their passports had been used.

A DFAT spokesperson said yesterday: “State-sanctioned assassinations are not a policy of the Australian government.”

Is Hamas learning how to abuse journalists from Israel?

Published on 2 March 2010 in Israel. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

It’s very hard to judge this case except to say that Hamas should either charge the man or release him:

A British journalist who has been held in Gaza for two weeks without charge faces a further fortnight in detention after a court ordered an extension to his arrest.

Paul Martin, a 55-year-old film-maker who was arrested last month, is the first foreign journalist to be detained in Gaza since the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas seized full control of the strip almost three years ago.

Martin had entered Gaza to testify on behalf of a Palestinian accused of collaborating with Israel, but when he began to speak the prosecutor ordered that he be arrested and said he was wanted in connection with the case.

His lawyer, Sharhabil Zayim, said today that the court had extended his detention order for a second 15-day period, after which he would be charged or released.

Martin, who has worked for the BBC and the Times, is being held on suspicion of harming Gaza’s security, a Hamas spokesman said last month. However, he has not been charged and it is unclear what the allegations against him are.

He had reportedly been working on a documentary about Mohammad Abu Muailik, a former member of the Abu Rish Brigades, a Gaza militant group linked to Hamas’s political rival Fatah.

Abu Muailik was arrested several months ago and accused of collaboration with Israel, and Martin went to a Gazan military court to speak on his behalf.

Last month, the Foreign Press Association, which represents foreign journalists working in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said it was “deeply concerned” and called for Martin to be released.

“We expect Hamas, as we do all parties, to respect the rights of every journalist on assignment to work without fear of being arrested,” it said.

Are Australian police on the case to find Israeli friendship or truth?

Published on 2 March 2010 in Israel. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

On the surface, Australia appears to be investigating how our passports were used in the murder of a Hamas operative in Dubai but will any of this really affect Israeli/Australian relations in the long run?

The Australian Federal Police will send a team of agents to Israel this week to investigate how forged Australian passports were used in the assassination of a Hamas leader.

Dubai police believe Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed in his hotel room in the emirate on January 19 by a team of assassins sent by Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad.

They have released photographs of 26 people they believe were involved in the killing, three of whom were carrying forged Australian passports bearing the names of three dual Australian-Israeli citizens.

The three, Adam Korman, Joshua Bruce and Nicole McCabe, are all living in Israel and have said they have no idea how their passports were forged.

Dubai police have said that 12 British passports, six Irish, four French and one German were also used in the assassination. Most of the passports carried the names of real people who were also dual Israeli citizens.

Israel told the Australian government last night that it would allow the federal police into the country to the question the three Australians.

The Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, summoned Israel’s ambassador, Yuval Rotem, for questioning on Sunday over the misuse of the passports.

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has said he was not satisfied with the explanation given by Mr Rotem.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that at least two of the 26 suspected members of the team that tracked and killed Mabhouh had travelled to the US shortly afterwards.

Records show one of the suspects entered the US on January 21 using an Irish passport and another arrived in the US on February 14 using a British passport.

Investigators are uncertain whether the two are still in the US, but believe they may have already left using different passports to the ones they used to enter the country.

Last night the Dubai police chief, Dahi Khalfan, said he was sure that all the suspects in the assassination were now in Israel, where they will be able to avoid arrest.

“If they stay in Israel, they won’t be arrested, but eventually if they leave they will be arrested,” he said.

Time to cool dealings with Israel, says leading Aussie Palestinian group

Published on 1 March 2010 in Israel. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

The following statement is released today by Australians for Palestine:

Secrets and lies between friends over Mossad murder

Published on 1 March 2010 in Israel. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

My following article is published today on ABC Unleashed/The Drum:

Israel is a protected species in the international arena. Many Western states, including Australia, have long tolerated behaviour by the Jewish state that is condemned if committed by any other democracy.

This reality makes the current scandal over the alleged Mossad hit last month in Dubai of a senior Hamas operative, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, all the more fascinating. The Palestinian militant may be dead but Israel’s reputation and credibility have taken a severe beating. The Israeli press are reporting that up to a third of a key Mossad hit squad may have been compromised.

Australia has a long history of bi-partisan support for the Jewish state but I can’t recall another time when the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister have expressed such public outrage over Israel’s apparent use of Australian passports to cover their tracks in the Dubai murder. This is despite a Jerusalem Post columnist insisting that, “it behoves Western democracies not to lose sight of the fact there are instances in which ends do justify means”.

In this case, Australia apparently does not agree. Smith said he told Israel’s Australian ambassador, Yuval Rotem, that, “if the abuse of Australian passports was in any way sponsored or condoned by Israeli officials, then Australia would not regard that as the act of a friend.” Rudd was equally indignant though refused to specify what action might be taken if Israel did not co-operate. Senior ministers in both the ALP and Liberal party were equally vague on ABC’s Lateline on Friday.

Perhaps an early indication of Canberra’s anger was seen in a vote in the UN last week that saw Australia abstain from backing Israel against the serious allegations contained in the Goldstone Report related to allegations of war crimes in Gaza. This is a change from months of unqualified backing for Israel’s onslaught against Gaza in late 2008/early 2009.

The headline of an article by Sydney Morning Herald journalist Peter Hartcher summed up the mood: “Betrayed PM should not be taken for granted by Israel”. The Age’s Diplomatic Editor Daniel Flitton argued that, “a long friendship is on the line”.

Not so fast. Canberra is apparently upset that Israel has abused its deep friendship. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government probably presumed that a strong ally such as Australia would be unfazed by the abuse of its passport system or more likely hoped it would never become public. An Israeli official, anonymously of course, told the conservative Washington Times that the revelation of Mossad’s behaviour in Dubai would not affect intelligence sharing between Israel and the West.

But a former Australian Middle East ambassador, Ross Burns, is pleasantly surprised by the Rudd government’s strong line. It is time, he writes, that Australia matures and gets past its “smitten” love affair with the Jewish state.

It is possible that Australia will briefly downgrade its relationship with Mossad, as Canada did after the botched assassination attempt in 1997 of Hamas leader Khaled Mashal using fake Canadian passports, but backing Israel for Australia is too central to its complicity with the US alliance to seriously question or radically change.

A better example may be New Zealand in 2004, when then Prime Minister Helen Clark discovered Israeli agents trying to steal the country’s passports and suspended diplomatic relations until an apology was forthcoming.

Countless reports have emerged over the years of Israeli allegedly using Australian passports as cover for covert activities but successive Australian governments have never fully pursued the leads. The public should ask why.

The Australia/Israel relationship is not based on shared values, as constantly stated by the elites in both countries. Instead, Canberra’s usual blind backing of Israeli actions is directly related to the relationship with Washington. If US President Barack Obama suddenly cut all aid to the Jewish state due to its intransigence, rest assured Australia would follow. Our foreign policy in the Middle East is not independent.

But there is no doubt that Kevin Rudd, like most Prime Ministers before him, view Israel as a unique state deserving special privileges. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser said on the weekend that Rudd must take a much harder line on Netanyahu.

The Holocaust could no longer be used to justify acts of terrorism in the name of supposed security, he argued: “That happened 65-66 years ago and it cannot be used any longer to prevent proper discussion of Israel’s policies when those policies are counter-productive to world peace. To suggest that those who are critical are anti-Semitic – I reject that utterly.”

Others, such as The Australian’s Greg Sheridan, applauded the murder of the Hamas leader but asked Israel to be more careful next time. In other words, don’t get caught with blood on your hands.

Outright condemnation of Israeli actions has risen in the mainstream press. Amin Saikal in the Sydney Morning Herald accused Israel of committing state terrorism and The Age claimed Israel had “lost friends” over the scandal.

Extra-judicial killings are a central feature of the “war on terror” and Israel is only one of its supporters. The Bush administration (along with the Obama White House) strongly backed the concept of assassinating individuals deemed to be “terrorists” in countries such as Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Salon’s Glenn Greenwald articulates the largely hidden program:

“Barack Obama, like George Bush before him, has claimed the authority to order American citizens murdered based solely on the unverified, uncharged, unchecked claim that they are associated with Terrorism and pose ‘a continuing and imminent threat to U.S. persons and interests.’ They’re entitled to no charges, no trial, no ability to contest the accusations.”

A robust democracy would not allow the executive to engage in wanton killing in the name of eliminating “terrorists” but little has been discussed in Australia that acknowledges the fundamental problems with this post 9/11 reality (despite the occasional exception).

Israel’s actions over the Hamas murder are deplorable and must be fully investigated (and Washington pressured to join the hunt for clues). The image of Israel in the wider Australian society has inevitably taken a welcome hit but it remains highly unlikely that the political and media elites will implement the obvious implications of the latest affair; Israeli behaviour in the Middle East and the occupied territories are not the sign of a responsible or democratic nation.