Spies Like Us? - Israeli diplomatic scandal regarding Irish Passports gets thicker, deeper

by Bazooka Joe Fri Feb 26, 2010 09:43

Irish Jews are entitled to Israeli passports on request and some who move there permanently surrender their Irish passports to the Israeli govenment but the Irish passports used for the Dubai murder were not originals. They were either faked using high tech machinery or made by agents inside the passport office in Irealand. There are goups like the Irish Friends of Israel and Irish Christian Friends of Israel (ICFI) and several other groups all involved in promoting Israel inside Ireland. Do any of these people work in the Irish Passport Office I wonder?

by dagenham Fri Feb 26, 2010 10:58

On the day the Israeli ambassador in London was called in by the Foreign Office to explain his country’s conduct, his embassy was wittily tweeting about an Israeli tennis player carrying out “a hit in Dubai” (a reference to Israeli tennis star Shahar Pe’er’s reaching the semi-finals in the Dubai championship, as well as a sly reminder that some of the assassins were disguised as tennis players).

Yet, if Israeli officials can restrain their smirks for a moment, they might consider how much their militarist extroversion has really contributed to the security of the country. First of all, despite its reputation for daring, flamboyance and cold-blooded efficiency, Mossad’s record is mixed, to say the least. More importantly, even Israel’s operational successes increasingly backfire, politically and sometimes strategically – and now at a time when the country’s reputation is under the international microscope.

Israel has had its fair share of botched operations, going all the way back to the Lavon Affair of 1954, when an Israeli spy-ring was caught bombing Egyptian libraries and cinemas.

Israel scored an own-goal by killing Hizbollah chief Abbas Mussawi in 1992; his successor, the wily and charismatic Hassan Nasrallah, has become Israel’s deadliest enemy. Israel even managed to network its enemies shortly afterwards, summarily expelling 400 Hamas and intifada activists and depositing them on the Lebanese border.

As an aide to the late Yitzhak Rabin would ruefully observe, “we might as well have sent them to Hizbollah’s university”.

Lebanon figures prominently in Israel’s balance sheet in other ways. The 1982 invasion of Lebanon is acknowledged even inside Israel as the country’s first war of choice. True, Ariel Sharon drove Arafat and the PLO out of Lebanon, albeit at permanent cost to Israel’s reputation after a siege of west Beirut that killed nearly twice as many people as the siege of Sarajevo in one-twentieth of the time.

But that invasion created Hizbollah. “When we entered Lebanon,” said former prime minister and current defence minister Ehud Barak, “there was no Hizbollah.” Rabin, the slain former soldier-premier, lamented how the invasion “let the genie out of the bottle”.

Israeli officials now portray Hamas and Hizbollah as creatures in an Iranian grand design.

But if Iran did not exist these two Islamist groups would exist – and Israel knows why.

And, as backfires go, they do not come much bigger than Hizbollah.

by Fred Johnston Sat Feb 27, 2010 17:26

If Israeli spies are active on Irish soil - and someone had to check out the Dublin house to make sure it was unoccupied and could be used as a false address - then the Israeli ambassador should be summoned at once and a diplomatic sanction of some order handed to him; perhaps a temporary expulsion. If one goes softly-softly on this through some terror of being accused of being 'anti-semitic' or some-such, then the Israelis will read that as carte-blanche to carry out the kind of activity illustrated by their deeply illegal use of Irish passports to commit murder in a foreign country.

It need hardly be added that if the Irish government dances around this issue, then that makes Ireland complicit in the crime in Dubai.

As things stand, the lives of Irish citizens have been put at risk throughout Europe and the Middle East; the Israeli government cared nothing for Irish people nor their welfare - much as they care little for the lives of Palestinians. By this recent outrage, we have all been made Palestinians. No friendly nation perpetrates the sort of crime on another country such as Israel committed against Ireland when it used Irish passports in the commission of murder.

So our government needs to be firm and show concern for its citizens. The Israelis have not merely lost every last scrap of moral high-ground, but they have made hitherto friendly countries feel betrayed and angry and used. Shame!

by Israeli Sun Feb 28, 2010 14:26

Irish Jews are not entitled to Israeli passports, unless they immigrate to Israel. One could, however, immigrate, and then get back to Ireland, and be an Israeli citizen who lives in Ireland.
Those who immigrate, ARE NOT REQUIRED to surrender their Irish passports to the Israeli government, but they do need to leave and enter Israel with their Israeli passport, like any other Israeli citizen.

by Citizen X Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:34

"What alerted the ASIO to the three Mossad suspects is that all are connected to an apparent Israeli front company in Europe, all three emigrated to Israel within the last ten years, and all three recently changed their names (some repeatedly) from European-Jewish-sounding to Anglo-Saxon sounding. They then used their Australian passports, issued under their new names, to enter countries that are hostile to Israel, such as Syria, Iran and Lebanon, says the paper. One of the three suspects, who also holds British citizenship, is said to also be under investigation by British intelligence."

by dagenham Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:01

Carrickmacross town council voted to remove Zion Evrony's signature in protest at Israel's diplomatic record after his visit to the town was organised without their approval.

Matt McCarthy a local councillor defended the decision in the face of criticism by Minister Micheal Martin, saying he hoped it would send a serious message to Israel.

"I think if a government is responsible for a wholesale disregard for international law then local authorities, as well as our own government, have a responsibility to tell them we expect a higher standard," Matt Carthy said.

He added that although Carrickmacross is a welcoming town, "it was important that we took a stand".

by dagenham Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:10

On Wednesday 27th January I received a phone call from a senior council official. He wanted to know what I would think of the council hosting a reception for the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, at his request. "I think you know what my reaction would be" I replied "I would oppose it and if it were to happen we would mount a protest." I took it from his response that it wouldn't be happening.

Then, at the close of business on Thursday 28th January I received another call from the council - this time to invite me to a civic reception for the said ambassador, Zion Evrony, first thing the next morning. It appears that the Mayor of Carrickmacross Town Council, Mary Kerr Conlon, felt that it would be 'rude' to refuse such a request by a diplomat. Initially I gave Mary the benefit of the doubt. I thought perhaps she didn't understand the record of the Israeli government that Mr. Evrony represents. So I immediately called her and outlined the huge insult that such a reception would be to all of those people in Carrickmacross and further afield who are continually horrified by the actions of the Israeli government, particularly in the Palestinian territories. For some reason she wasn't for turning - she was insistent that the visit would take place despite the fact that she had no mandate from the council to host it.

Considering the short notice it is quite likely that Mary Kerr Conlon believed that there wouldn't be time for Sinn Féin to organise any sort of a credible protest. Thankfully she was wrong. A late night text message ensured that over thirty people were gathered outside of the council offices the next morning.

When the Ambassador was leaving we again informed him that the actions of his government were unacceptable to the people of Carrickmacross. We issued this statement after the protest.

Since then I am told that Zion Evrony wrote to my party leader calling on him to condemn my actions and those of the others who protested that morning.

I don't think its a surprise that Gerry Adams did no such thing - Maith thú Gerry!

by joe Tue Mar 02, 2010 15:30

The cynical response from Israel since the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh shows the level of respect its regime has for international law. Israel and its supporters often cite the failure of international law to protect Europe’s Jews during the nineteen- thirties as justification for the establishment of an exclusively Jewish state; they now act as if Israel has the right to flout international law wherever and whenever it chooses .

Israel’s use of Irish passports in this murder will undoubtedly cast suspicion on all Irish passport holders traveling to middle- eastern countries in the future. Our government should respond by implementing strict security measures against all Israeli passport holders entering this country, including those who hold Irish and Israeli passports. That would be a belated first step towards recognizing Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people and the danger that the Zionist regime now represents to the wider world.

The IPSC presently has a video up on its website of the meeting addressed by Jewish death camp survivor Dr. Hajo Meyer in Dublin last month. Dr Meyer told the meeting that Israel should be treated as a pariah state and that it should be denied the right to invoke the Nazi Holocaust to speak on behalf of Jews and Judaism. Making direct comparisons between the policies of present-day Israel and those of Nazi Germany , Dr Meyer added a chilling warning about the danger posed by Israel’s nuclear weapons .He told the meeting that people should be under no illusions about the Israeli regime’s readiness to use such weapons .
See:
http://www.ipsc.ie/

by dagenham Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:15

Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim said on Friday that Israel should allow Dubai to conduct DNA tests on Israelis that Dubai suspects of participating in the assassination of senior Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January.

"I call on Israel to bring the suspects for DNA tests, so it can be compared to DNA found at the scene,"

Tamim told the Al-Halij newspaper published in the United Arab Emirates.

"If the results don't match, I will resign from my post."

A week ago, Dubai police reported that they had DNA from at least one suspected assassin.

In an interview with the Al-Arabiya television station, Khalfan said that police also hold the fingerprints of additional suspected members of the hit squad.