U.K.-Israeli Tensions Flare Over Assassination of Hamas Official

British and Israeli relations have been strained this week over the duplication of six British passports for use in the assassination of a senior Hamas official in Dubai. The controversy has once again embroiled the British government in charges that it has been slow to respond to a major international event involving its citizens.

On Jan. 20, a senior Hamas commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, was killed in a luxury hotel in Dubai. The Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, was widely suspected to be behind the assassination. New evidence released this week implicated at least seven people with forged passports in the crime. According to an article in The Guardian, Dubai police are almost certain that Mossad was behind the attack.

So far -- and in keeping with state policy -- the Israeli government has neither confirmed nor denied Mossad's participation in the incident. But the reason this has erupted into a potential diplomatic crisis between the British and Israeli governments is that six of the seven victims of the identity fraud are Britons living in Israel. Gordon Brown has already called for an investigation by Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency (Soca).

This isn't the first time that two governments have crossed swords over forged passports. In 1986, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher closed down Mossad's U.K. operation in response to a series of incidents, including the discovery of a bag of forged British passports that had been lost by a Mossad agent. Mossad was allowed to re-establish its presence in Britain only after it promised not to abuse British passports in the future.

While the British government has not accused the Israeli government of any wrongdoing so far, relations between the two countries are in a "deep freeze," according to one senior British official. The Daily Telegraph reports that if it turns out that the Israeli government was behind the Dubai killing, British officials may sever intelligence sharing with Israel. The Israeli ambassador to Britain has been called into the Foreign Office today to explain how this identity theft could have occurred.

But while much of the British government's outrage has been directed at the faked passports, the British public and media are outraged by several other aspects of this case. They all bear a striking similarity to the CIA torture story I wrote about Wednesday. To wit:

1. Did the British government sit on its hands?

Many feel that British officials were slow in addressing this controversy. Some say that Gordon Brown has known about this evidence for at least six days, but launched an investigation and invited a response from the Israelis only after it became a full-blown scandal. Others -- including the Conservative Party's shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague -- maintain that the government may have been aware of the passport issue as far back as late January. If true -- and as with the CIA torture scandal -- then the government looks like it has been complicit in the crime by dragging its feet. As one columnist in The Guardian put it: "If Britain were less supine in its dealings, it would realize it is not in its interests to let Israel wage its war with Hamas under a British flag."


2. Is political assassination ever OK?

Another question raised by this case is under what conditions political assassination, much like torture, is ever warranted. (The argument being the familiar one -- that if you believe Hamas to be a terrorist organization, then by taking out one of its leaders, you are actually saving lives.) The consensus over here at least, even in more Conservative circles, seems to be "Never."

But if you believe extrajudicial killing really isn't OK, this only prompts the question (now being asked in many circles) of why the British government doesn't take a more forceful stand against the United States for its use of targeted political assassinations of key figures in the Taliban and al-Qaeda. BBC Radio Four presenter James Naughtie put it this way when interviewing William Hague this morning: "So we condemn extrajudicial killings . . . except when they happen in Pakistan. And if Americans are doing it."

Ouch.

3. Is the U.K. treating Israel with kid gloves?

A final question that's come up -- again with resonance to the CIA torture case -- is whether the U.K. government, in not pursuing this case more aggressively until now, is treating Israel with "kid gloves" (Naughtie's term.) I've written before about the perception that with the rising power of the Israel lobby in the U.K., both British political parties are inclined to be more sympathetic to the Israeli government than they otherwise might be.

This incident will be an excellent test case as to just how far that tolerance extends.


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