Ticking off Tel Aviv

The killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel last month has been carried out by a team of 11 assassins carrying stolen passport identities of those belonging to Britain, Ireland, France and Germany. There is little doubt left that Israel’s spy agency Mossad is behind this.

Hotheads in India and elsewhere will be tempted to applaud an apparent act of daredevilry that brazenly violates laws of many countries — the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the killing took place; Britain, Ireland, France and Germany where the passport identities were stolen. Hawks would, in their irrational zeal, argue that this is the way to defend national security — by going to every extreme to kill opponents who are hostile to the country and win glory in the process. This would be nothing but an advertisement for pigheadedness.

As a matter of fact, this killing in Dubai has made the lives of Israelis less safe, not more. All of those stolen identities are those of Israeli nationals with European passports. By carrying out the killing in the UAE, Israel has turned the Gulf country into hostile territory, which does not in any way strengthen the security of Israel. And the Zionist state has shut the door on friendly relations with Arab countries in the future.

The stealing of those passport identities has not only embarrassed Israel-friendly countries in Europe, it has made it difficult for those countries to support Israel and share intelligence as in the case of Britain.  

It is possible to psychoanalyse the Zionist zealots at the helm of the Israeli state and find extenuating motives for their crimes. It is possible to rationalise that Zionists carry the mind of the hunted and in their desperate last stand they commit irrational crimes. But this kind of indulgence is not a luxury that anyone can afford in the real world. The world is not a couch.

Israel has for too long manipulated world sympathy for the sufferings of Jews in Christian Europe and in Nazi Germany, culminating in the unspeakable Holocaust. It expects the world to turn the other way when it breaks the law and commits crimes with impunity.

Israel has today almost become like a rogue state, rivalling North Korea and Pakistan. It is necessary for the international community, especially Europe and the US, to tick off Tel Aviv.

This should be done to protect Israelis from the hubris of their rulers. It is also necessary to rein in Israel to marginalise jihadi terrorists and to maintain peace in West Asia. Zionism and jihadism feed each other but the world cannot be drawn into the deathly duel.