The Dubai/Hamas assassination/Mossad story continues to dominate the news. Gordon Brown has promised a “full investigation” into how fraudulent British passports were allegedly used by the killers of a senior Hamas commander in Dubai.
The national newspapers went big on it this morning, too. The Independent‘s front-page headline was:
The moment Mossad agents got their man?
The Daily Mail front page went with:
Terror of innocent Britons named as assassins
It also included a reference to a “Mossad hit squad” in its standfirst.
The Guardian avoided a Mossad reference in its front-page headline:
Dubai killers stole identities of UK citizens
Here’s the funny thing: in most of the coverage, the shock and outrage seems to concern the stolen passports and identities, and not the unlawful killing itself. As Paul Lewis and Julian Borger wrote in the Guardian:
The Israeli government would not comment tonight on allegations of its involvement in Mabhouh’s killing, which, if confirmed, would trigger a diplomatic row with Britain, and the other three European nations whose passports were used: Ireland, Germany and France.
So as long as suspected Israeli assassins avoid using passports issued by western nations as part of their illegal and murderous activities abroad, that’s fine. We can carry on with our lives. Turn a blind eye. The Israelis, of course, have form when it comes to assassinations abroad.
Let me ask you this: can you imagine the reaction if members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard were suspected of assassinating an Iranian dissident living in Dubai, or an Israeli politician or general visting a foreign country?
But Israel’s long-standing policy of “targeted killings”, or assassinations, is tolerated by the “international community”. Western nations have, in a sense, become complicit — in fact, under Bush and Obama, the US has emulated the illegal and bloody practice in its own so-called war on terror.
Why? Because Israeli assassins, or US assassins, kill terrorists. Baddies. Wanted men. Really? That makes it OK? So which member of the international community will be sending a hit squad to Israel to “take out” that wanted terrorist, Yitzhak Shamir?
UPDATE: Robert Fisk has written an interesting piece on possible “collusion” by western intelligence agencies in the killing.
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