I am shocked -- shocked! -- to learn that intelligence services use fraudulent passports and stolen identities.
Who would have imagined it? Nobody, certainly, had Israel's Mossad not been accused recently of subterfuge in order to assassinate in Dubai a leading figure of Hamas, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. I am heartened that the governments of Britain, Ireland, France, and Germany have demanded explanations. And I am buoyed to hear loud moral complaints from the usual political quarters that are always wise to Israeli behavior. They are outraged -- outraged! -- that such things take place. Intelligence services of European countries would never do the like. Their secret operatives, if they have any, that is, always travel on their own passports and always check into hotels using their own identities.
Undoubtedly, Hamas also does things solely in public. Well, it is true that this claim may be challenged by the fact that Hamas "martyrs" never went through Ben-Gurion airport on the way to Tel Aviv. Well, yes, that may be due to a lack of Palestinian passports. Just think if they had them! They could have used them on behalf of the sort of "resistance" -- blowing up cafes, shelling towns -- that encourages Israelis to support doves who advocate withdrawal from occupied territories. Besides, doesn't Hamas reveal its 'martyrs' faces after the fact?
And after all, "resistance" is hardly comparable to, say, killing a leading member of the military wing of an organization that declares itself at war with you and acts to prove it in scores of ways over many years.
But, but, but... but isn't it time to de-tox some of the "moral logic" that often animates furious claims about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? We do not know for sure, as I write these words, that the Mossad killed al-Mabhouh. It is improbable that it would admit it. We know Israel had reasons to want him dead, but others did too. It is a little curious that many reports pointing a finger at the Israelis don't mention, or mention only in passing, that two members (or are they ex-members?) of the Palestinian Authority's security forces were deported from Jordan to Dubai for alleged complicity in the slaying, and that a senior Hamas official (or is he now an ex-official?) was arrested in Syria for the same.
Let's assume for the sake of argument that the Israelis did it. But let's also bracket howls by those who would find a way to blame the "Zionist entity" if Mars swerved off orbit and crashed into Jupiter. Hamas and Israel are at war. Both say so. Al-Mabhouh was a founder of the military wing of Hamas, was responsible for the deaths of Israelis, wanted deaths of many more of them, and was a key intermediary between Hamas and Iran. Tehran supplies Gaza's fundamentalist rulers with weapons like longer range missiles; its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, inveighs regularly that the Jewish state should vanish from the earth (like the Holocaust, which never happened anyway, should disappear from memory). Exactly why is a holy warrior like al-Mahbouh not a legitimate target?
Fraudulent passports hardly seem so important in light of this last question. It is valid to ask if the killing was politically intelligent or, more specifically, if should have been done in January and in Dubai. The answer may be yes or no, but is a matter of secondary moral magnitude and skirts the issue. Again: given war -- in which soldiers do shoot at each other -- and given al-Mabhouh's role, why was he not an appropriate target? He was no civilian, much less a blameless soul caught in cross-fire. If he was a justifiable target in warfare, then another poignant issue does arise: is it not better that his enemies struck in a hotel room in Dubai rather than, say, in desperately crowded Gaza where real innocents might indeed have become "collateral damage?"
It is, however, quite normal that irritated protests come from governments whose "passports" were -- what word to use? -- expropriated by the team that went to Dubai. Governments must protect own citizens. Theft or fraudulent use of national passports must, inevitably and rightfully, concern them. But as to shrill moralizers who pose as the world's superego when it comes to the Middle East yet can never make distinctions, and who often seem more concerned to stamp their own self-righteous feet than to alleviate Palestinian suffering -- well, one hopes (but doubts) that they are as angry at al-Mabhouhs as they are about passports. Identity politics is not the sole value in this world.
Mitchell Cohen, formerly co-editor of Dissent Magazine, is professor of political science at Bernard Baruch College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York. His books include Zion and State (Columbia University Press) and TheWager of Lucien Goldmann (Princeton University Press).
I bet Netanyahu and Dagan are shaking in their boots huh!
Funny Sh*t there!.
I have news for you "dude", political assassinations are alive and well, and if you think that they are not I have a bridge that's up for sale right about now which I can offer you. Make sure that you voice the same opinion the next time when one of these makes it to the news (which you probably wont hear much about unless it somehow can be related to Israel :).
of any other, tortures and murders someone accused of resisting their illegal occupation in a country
that it had previously good relations with.
The diplomatic fallout from this debacle will dampen the gloating smugness of the Israeli Taliban's supporters.
of any other"
That's your "perspective"? Do you even share the same planet as, oh, say, North Korea? Iran? Congo? Good heavens.
If Osama Ben Laden were to be assassinated in a hotel room, or anywhere for that matter, would the people who did it be heroes here in America, regardless of where they came from and how they did it? Of course they would.
If Osama Ben Laden was traveling freely around Dubai, and America learned of it, would we be asking why Dubai doesn't apprehend him? Of course we would.
If you have a different set of parameters for terrorists who murder Americans than you do for terrorists who murder Jews, there is a word for it. It is called anti-Semitism.
You are not clever, you are not funny, but you excel at obfustication.
All those who accused Israel, please explain to me why would agents have fled to Iran, out of all places?!?!
yes another value would be that of human life, and the wrongfulness of murder, military occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid and the punishment and ghettoisation of an entire people.
As long as AMERICAN citizens are not having their identities stolen as part of a murder, its just hilarious.
The author writes :"It is, however, quite normal that irritated protests come from governments whose "passports" were -- what word to use? -- expropriated by the team that went to Dubai. "
"what word to use"?
Its not difficult is it? Its not a puzzle, what word to use, so why not use it? They were STOLEN.
S T O L E N.
Not, ho, ho "expropriated". They were not going to hand them back with an apology, were they? They were not going to clear matters up for the people whose Identites were stolen were they?
Why dance around the issue?
The issue is Israel using the IDs of REAL PEOPLE, thus putting the lives of citizens of otherr countries at risk.
The other issue is using forged passports of allied countries. Again, it puts a strain on the relations other countries have with countries around the world. So, thanks to Israel, a British businessman flying in to do business in Dubai is likely to be treated like an Afghan flying to New York.
What proof do you have the Israel used anything? What do you know that the rest of the world doesn't. Do you have any proof that Mossad is actually responsible for this, or are you allowing your personal feelings to speak on your behalf?
do you think they use american passports or canadian ?french even .
do you care?
how many people have been killed for your security?
do you care?
do you think the 2 palestinians have lawyers in the UAE, do you think they are getting 3 meals a day? do you think they are being tortured?
do you care?
Doesn't matter what the subject or the act is there will always be more than enough people to twist it so that the White settler’s acts are moral.