Now, look at the real Israel
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Maswood Alam Khan
IF a student anywhere in the world is today asked to write an essay on 'state terrorism' the student should mention Israel as the best example while narrating how a state can sponsor and control a global network of terrorists and hit any target inside or outside of its border by direct actions, by subterfuge methods or by proxy -- overtly or covertly.
On Tuesday night, 16 March, I was watching in awe the BBC news about Israel's notorious forgeries and the United Kingdom's decision to expel an Israeli diplomat over 12 forged British passports used in the killing of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his hotel room in Dubai on 19 January.
The forged passports used by the murderers were copied from genuine British passports when handed over in the past for inspections to individuals linked to Israel. Later new photographs were inserted in the fake passports using very sophisticated forgery instruments.
After the murder of the Hamas leader Dubai police had used CCTV footage to identify 27 alleged members of the team that tracked and killed Mr. Mabhouh. Dubai officials said they were "99% certain" that agents from Mossad were behind the killing. Passports from France, Ireland, Germany and Australia were also forged and used in the same operation. Following his death, Mr. Mabhouh's family said doctors who had examined him determined he had died after receiving a massive electric shock to the head. They also found evidence that Mabhouh had been strangled.
It is not the first time British passports have been misused by Israel. In 1987 the country was caught forging UK passports for an intelligence operation, and Israel promised it would not do it again. On that occasion, eight British passports reckoned to be for Mossad agents were found in a bag in a West German telephone booth.
As I was hearing in the news commentary the details of the Israeli passport forgery and their history of extra-judicial killings of Palestinian citizens my head was reeling and I was wondering what else in the name of countering Islamist terrorists Israel, now a proven state terrorist, did during the last several decades in their crusade against the Palestinians and other Muslims in order to defame Islam.
Some questions were cropping up in my mind the way pictures of criminals emerge in a victim's mind while trying to detect the perpetrator from a parade of suspects. Was Israel responsible for motivating Salman Rushdie to write against whatever Muslims believe in? Had Israeli intelligence body, Mossad, anything to do with the Twin Tower demolition on 9/11 in the USA? Was Israel responsible for all the bombing and killing activities by militants in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and elsewhere? Is Israel still funding intellectuals all over the world to paint Islam as a symbol of terrorism?
Israel has a proven track record of undertaking covert killing whenever there was an incident that it assumed was instigated by any Palestinian or, for that matter, by any Islamist. Israel undertook a wave of killings of pro-Palestinian elements, mostly innocent, in Paris, Beirut and Athens, carried out in retaliation for the hostage crisis at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
Booby-trapped telephones, bombs planted in beds, chocolates laced with poisons are some of the methods well-trained Israeli functionaries, mostly military personnel, used in the past to kill people in overseas operations. The present Defence Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, was reportedly involved in killing the PLO military leader Khalil al-Wazir in Tunisia back in 1987. Mr. Barak was also believed to have participated in a raid in Beirut when he reportedly dressed himself as a woman to conduct a raid incognito.
Given the sophisticated methods of passport forgery used by Israel one can also wonder how much of the US Dollar bills or Euros or Pounds now in circulation all over the world have been counterfeited by Israel's government machinery.
In a live telecast on BBC the British foreign secretary David Milibund said in the British parliament that there were 'compelling reasons' to believe that Israel was responsible for the forgeries of the British passports. Terming the Israeli sham intolerable, Milibund further said the fact that Israel was a friend of Britain added "insult to injury".
The exposure of Israel's real colour and character must have given a clear message to the world that if Israel, as a close ally of the United Kingdom, can take resort to such a heinous crime misusing the faith of a friendly country what this rogue country could do against those who are loud in their protests against Israel's Zionistic activities.
There seems to have been some interesting turns and twists in Israel's international relationship, following a row with the US over Israel's plans to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem and United Kingdom's latest decision to expel an Israeli diplomat. The row started earlier this month when Israel disclosed their plans of building new homes in East Jerusalem while US Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israel. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton termed the disclosure of Israel's plan to build new homes 'insulting' to the United States as it not only torpedoed indirect peace talks with the Palestinians, which the United States had just painstakingly arranged, but it also came during a trip by the highest-ranking member of the Obama administration yet to visit the country.
The bruised US-Israel relationship, if not feigned or staged, was quite palpable with American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warning Israel of choices if it wanted a peace agreement with the Palestinians or the "right to build" in Jerusalem as asserted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu said "the Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building it today", while Hillary Clinton said the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian occupied territory undermined "mutual trust and endangers the proximity talks that are the first step toward the full negotiations that both sides want and need".
Nearly 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are considered illegal under international law, which Israel disputes.
Netanyahu's March 24 meeting with Obama was perhaps the coldest-ever meeting between an American president and an Israeli prime minister. Israeli leader did not get the reception usually reserved for America's allies. There was no press conference, no lavish welcome, and the White House did not even release a picture of the meeting.
Israel's ambassador to the US has reportedly said relations between Israel and its closest ally are at a 35-year low. In fact, the tone of US-Israel ties has changed since Barack Obama replaced George W Bush in the White House, and Netanyahu took over Israeli premiership from Ehud Olmert.
It's now or never, the United States should dig deep to find out the root cause of the so-called Islamist terrorism and decide how to face it. Not a single person in the world would deny that the root cause of terrorism is the tension prevailing between Israel and the Palestinians. Now the question is: has US-Israel friendship helped defuse the tension?
It is not Israel, it is always the Muslim countries like Pakistan which are helping the United States combat terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. Now, it is up to the West to decide whether to guarantee an independent, sovereign state for the Palestinians and thus remove all the roots of terrorism once and for all or to side with their historic ally Israel only to keep the tension between Israel and the rest of the Muslim world alive.
The whole world would be watching how the big powers behave with Israel now that it has been proven beyond any shadow of doubt that Israel is a terrorist state sponsoring murders and chaos. Is not it the right time to give Israel a lesson?
maswood@hotmail.com
IF a student anywhere in the world is today asked to write an essay on 'state terrorism' the student should mention Israel as the best example while narrating how a state can sponsor and control a global network of terrorists and hit any target inside or outside of its border by direct actions, by subterfuge methods or by proxy -- overtly or covertly.
On Tuesday night, 16 March, I was watching in awe the BBC news about Israel's notorious forgeries and the United Kingdom's decision to expel an Israeli diplomat over 12 forged British passports used in the killing of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his hotel room in Dubai on 19 January.
The forged passports used by the murderers were copied from genuine British passports when handed over in the past for inspections to individuals linked to Israel. Later new photographs were inserted in the fake passports using very sophisticated forgery instruments.
After the murder of the Hamas leader Dubai police had used CCTV footage to identify 27 alleged members of the team that tracked and killed Mr. Mabhouh. Dubai officials said they were "99% certain" that agents from Mossad were behind the killing. Passports from France, Ireland, Germany and Australia were also forged and used in the same operation. Following his death, Mr. Mabhouh's family said doctors who had examined him determined he had died after receiving a massive electric shock to the head. They also found evidence that Mabhouh had been strangled.
It is not the first time British passports have been misused by Israel. In 1987 the country was caught forging UK passports for an intelligence operation, and Israel promised it would not do it again. On that occasion, eight British passports reckoned to be for Mossad agents were found in a bag in a West German telephone booth.
As I was hearing in the news commentary the details of the Israeli passport forgery and their history of extra-judicial killings of Palestinian citizens my head was reeling and I was wondering what else in the name of countering Islamist terrorists Israel, now a proven state terrorist, did during the last several decades in their crusade against the Palestinians and other Muslims in order to defame Islam.
Some questions were cropping up in my mind the way pictures of criminals emerge in a victim's mind while trying to detect the perpetrator from a parade of suspects. Was Israel responsible for motivating Salman Rushdie to write against whatever Muslims believe in? Had Israeli intelligence body, Mossad, anything to do with the Twin Tower demolition on 9/11 in the USA? Was Israel responsible for all the bombing and killing activities by militants in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and elsewhere? Is Israel still funding intellectuals all over the world to paint Islam as a symbol of terrorism?
Israel has a proven track record of undertaking covert killing whenever there was an incident that it assumed was instigated by any Palestinian or, for that matter, by any Islamist. Israel undertook a wave of killings of pro-Palestinian elements, mostly innocent, in Paris, Beirut and Athens, carried out in retaliation for the hostage crisis at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
Booby-trapped telephones, bombs planted in beds, chocolates laced with poisons are some of the methods well-trained Israeli functionaries, mostly military personnel, used in the past to kill people in overseas operations. The present Defence Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, was reportedly involved in killing the PLO military leader Khalil al-Wazir in Tunisia back in 1987. Mr. Barak was also believed to have participated in a raid in Beirut when he reportedly dressed himself as a woman to conduct a raid incognito.
Given the sophisticated methods of passport forgery used by Israel one can also wonder how much of the US Dollar bills or Euros or Pounds now in circulation all over the world have been counterfeited by Israel's government machinery.
In a live telecast on BBC the British foreign secretary David Milibund said in the British parliament that there were 'compelling reasons' to believe that Israel was responsible for the forgeries of the British passports. Terming the Israeli sham intolerable, Milibund further said the fact that Israel was a friend of Britain added "insult to injury".
The exposure of Israel's real colour and character must have given a clear message to the world that if Israel, as a close ally of the United Kingdom, can take resort to such a heinous crime misusing the faith of a friendly country what this rogue country could do against those who are loud in their protests against Israel's Zionistic activities.
There seems to have been some interesting turns and twists in Israel's international relationship, following a row with the US over Israel's plans to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem and United Kingdom's latest decision to expel an Israeli diplomat. The row started earlier this month when Israel disclosed their plans of building new homes in East Jerusalem while US Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israel. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton termed the disclosure of Israel's plan to build new homes 'insulting' to the United States as it not only torpedoed indirect peace talks with the Palestinians, which the United States had just painstakingly arranged, but it also came during a trip by the highest-ranking member of the Obama administration yet to visit the country.
The bruised US-Israel relationship, if not feigned or staged, was quite palpable with American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warning Israel of choices if it wanted a peace agreement with the Palestinians or the "right to build" in Jerusalem as asserted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu said "the Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building it today", while Hillary Clinton said the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian occupied territory undermined "mutual trust and endangers the proximity talks that are the first step toward the full negotiations that both sides want and need".
Nearly 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are considered illegal under international law, which Israel disputes.
Netanyahu's March 24 meeting with Obama was perhaps the coldest-ever meeting between an American president and an Israeli prime minister. Israeli leader did not get the reception usually reserved for America's allies. There was no press conference, no lavish welcome, and the White House did not even release a picture of the meeting.
Israel's ambassador to the US has reportedly said relations between Israel and its closest ally are at a 35-year low. In fact, the tone of US-Israel ties has changed since Barack Obama replaced George W Bush in the White House, and Netanyahu took over Israeli premiership from Ehud Olmert.
It's now or never, the United States should dig deep to find out the root cause of the so-called Islamist terrorism and decide how to face it. Not a single person in the world would deny that the root cause of terrorism is the tension prevailing between Israel and the Palestinians. Now the question is: has US-Israel friendship helped defuse the tension?
It is not Israel, it is always the Muslim countries like Pakistan which are helping the United States combat terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. Now, it is up to the West to decide whether to guarantee an independent, sovereign state for the Palestinians and thus remove all the roots of terrorism once and for all or to side with their historic ally Israel only to keep the tension between Israel and the rest of the Muslim world alive.
The whole world would be watching how the big powers behave with Israel now that it has been proven beyond any shadow of doubt that Israel is a terrorist state sponsoring murders and chaos. Is not it the right time to give Israel a lesson?
maswood@hotmail.com