Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Trageting Israelis and Jews


The already complex set of circumstances surrounding the death of Hamas arms procurer and self-confessed murderer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh received an added dimension with news overnight that Arab countries such as Egypt and Jordan were complicit in his assassination.

According to a report in Al-Quds Al-Arabi quoted in the Jerusalem Post (Arabs may have targeted Mabhouh) Hamas official Mahmoud Nasser has said that "Jordanian and Egyptian intelligence agencies had probably tracked Mabhouh prior to his assassination" and that "there was evidence showing that Mabhouh had been targeted by moderate Arab countries because he had handled sensitive information concerning the activities of Hamas and other Islamist elements.

The news appears not to have altered the unshakeable belief of Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim that the Israelis "dunnit". He wants to issue arrest warrants against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his Mossad chief for the murder of al-Mabhouh but he has a problem. How can he get them into the country given he has issued an edict to bar the entry of Israelis into his country irrespective of whether they carry a passport from another nation. And he insists that he will develop profiling skills to recognise Israelis by "physical features and the way they speak." - Babylon & Beyond.

Worse still is the fact that when Tamim was interviewed in Arabic he showed his true colours with some openly racist remarks in the Khaleej Times (hat tip Elder of Ziyyon and Camera) - :

"He said we will train our personnel in the passport of the forms and features of the Jewish people and their names, noting that no one can hide their features of Jewishness. He asked the appropriate departments to prepare nationality and residency sessions to familiarize the staff with [Jewish] forms and names, especially since most Jews hold dual passports [with Israel.]"

He pointed out that the number of Jews, compared with the Europeans, is nothing, and even within Palestine itself."

So the man who is 99% sure that the Israelis doctored passports for use in Passportgate is a racist. That hasn't stopped the Fairfax media from accepting his so-called evidence. Today Leunig and staff writer Julie Szego joined the baying pack in the Age, both totally convinced by the racist Police Chief operating in a country that has no relations with but a lot of animosity towards Israel and the Jews.

These views are no doubt complicated now that Egypt and Jordan have also been implicated though I doubt we're going to hear much in the Fairfax Press about it or about Tamim's racist profiling. Nor will the Keystone Cops in Dubai seek to arrest Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah and there is no word from Canberra as to whether our Foreign Minister will be making a call to the Egyptian and Jordanian ambassadors for a "please explain" session or whether they can throw some light on Passportgate.

1 comment:

  1. jasmine Cookie8:09 pm

    Oops, didnt' read this before I posted the link to the Tamim remarks way up above . Apologies.

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