The Day In Israel: Sunday Jan 31st, 2010

Hamas has vowed to avenge the death of one of their founding Hamasholes, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who they say was killed by Israeli agents accompanying National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau to the United Arab Emirates two weeks ago.

Hamas said over the weekend that it will send a “security delegation” to Dubai to participate in the investigations into the recent killing there of its top operative, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, and hinted that it plans to strike at Israeli targets abroad in retaliation.

The delegation would seek to “learn the lessons from the assassination,” Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said. He said Israel would “pay a heavy price for its despicable crime.”

Somehow, I don’t think the lessons they will learn involve understanding they cannot get away with murdering Israelis and Jews.

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal also vowed to avenge Mabhouh’s death.

Addressing mourners during the slain man’s funeral in Damascus, Mashaal said: “We will avenge the blood of this giant. If today you [Israelis] are happy about his death, your joy will be short-lived, because we will avenge his blessed blood. If you think that we will abandon the option of resistance, you are under an illusion. Our resistance won’t be weakened by settlements, occupation, killings, walls or starvation.”

A spokesman added that Hamas was considering different courses of retaliatory action, among them an attack on Israeli targets abroad. He stressed that the organization was fully capable of carrying out such attacks, but had so far not chosen to do so.

“We in Hamas hold the Zionist enemy responsible for the criminal assassination of our brother, and we pledge to God and to the blood of the martyrs and to our people to continue his path of jihad and martyrdom,” read the statement on Hamas’s Palestinian Information Center Web site. The group pledged to “retaliate for this Zionist crime at the appropriate time and place.”

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Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas’s military wing, Izzadin Kassam, was found dead in a hotel room on January 20, a day after entering Dubai. The Dubai government said in a statement that initial investigations showed the crime was likely committed by a “professional criminal gang” and that the suspects left the country before the body was discovered.

Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, accused Israeli agents accompanying National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau to the United Arab Emirates two weeks ago of assassinating Mabhouh.

Interviewed on Al-Jazeera, Zahar suggested that the agents might have entered the country with forged documents.

He accused Israel of “moving the battlefield abroad.”

Now that’s funny coming from a palestinian. Airline hijackings, Munich massacre anyone?

A senior source in the Prime Minister’s Office said Israel had no comment on the matter.

However, it was pointed out that Landau’s delegation, which consisted of fewer than 10 people, was guarded by an eight-man UAE security team, from the time it landed on a Friday morning in Abu Dhabi – some 120 km. away from Dubai – until the time it flew out of the UAE.

The Landau delegation hardly left the hotel, only taking one brief site-seeing excursion, and was accompanied throughout by the UAE security detail.

According to one government source, it was clear that Hamas – which was plainly unhappy that an Israeli delegation was allowed to attend the International Renewable Energy Agency conference – was now using allegations of a Mossad involvement in Mabhouh’s death as a way to embarrass the UAE.

Meanwhile, Hamas still can’t quite make up their mind as to how Mabhouh was killed by the Zionists.

Talal Nassar, an official in Hamas’s media office in Damascus said, Mabhouh had been “poisoned and electrocuted in his hotel room in Dubai.”

“We know they stunned him with an electric shocker and then strangled him,” said Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzuk, who did not mention poisoning.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:00PM: Here’s a well put together video showing George Galloway’s support of terrorists.

9:42PM: Great reporting, Ha’aretz.

Here’s the headline: Dubai sees Mossad hand in murder of Hamas official

But this does not reflect the report itself.

Dubai Police said Sunday that at least seven individuals were involved in the murder of a Hamas official in a local hotel last week, and would not rule out the possibility that the Israeli spy agency Mossad had a hand in the attack.

“It could be Mossad, or another party,” police chief Dhahi Khalfan told AFP. “Personally, I don’t exclude any possibility. I don’t exclude any party that has an interest in the assassination.”

So an equally accurate headline would have been: Dubai sees Killer Space Ninjas hand in murder of Hamas official.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post is reporting that Dubai authorities said a “professional criminal gang” with European passports was likely behind the killing.

6:08PM: Dead Hamashole Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was reportedly bodyguard-less on his recent trip to Dubai.

According to the report, Mabhouh was not accompanied by security guards on his trip to Dubai, which was scheduled to last several days, although he usually had a regular team of bodyguards as a senior member of Hamas’ military wing. The reason was technical: The guards could not get tickets for the same flight. And so during the assassination, al-Mabhouh was alone in his hotel room, without any bodyguards.

“He would take the bodyguards with him anywhere he went, but there was no room for them on the flight,” said Talal Nasser, a spokesman for Hamas in Damascus. “Therefore he traveled alone, and the security guards were slated to join him the next day.”

Despite previous reports, the Hamas man said Mabhouh visited the emirate under his real identity. “He had five passports, one with his real name and the rest with different names, but this time he traveled under his real identity,” said Nasser. “He had traveled to Dubai many times in the past in the same way, without any problems.”

Despite previous reports, the Hamas man said Mabhouh visited the emirate under his real identity. “He had five passports, one with his real name and the rest with different names, but this time he traveled under his real identity,” said Nasser. “He had traveled to Dubai many times in the past in the same way, without any problems.”

According to Nasser, “We don’t have all the details yet, but it’s possible that he had used a cell phone which was being monitored to make a phone call about his plans. There are also airlines which send their passenger lists by fax, and this may have given the assassins an opportunity.”

He added, “We are carefully checking our security plans for senior figures and looking into steps which should be taken in order to ensure that we are safe, as much as possible.”

Meanwhile, yet another version of his death has been reported.

The Khaleej Times newspaper reported that Mabhouh was apparently suffocated to death by a pillow attached to his face. According to additional information, four masked men entered his room several days before he was murdered. Mabhouh’s brother, Faiq, said  that a joint investigation launched by Hamas and Dubai had revealed that the assassination was carried out by two people.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was alone in his hotel room. For all we know, he Keith Carradine-d himself.

1:15PM: Quote of the day:

“The Goldstone report is a defamation written by an evil, evil man.”

- Professor Alan Dershowitz on his former colleague and close friend Richard Goldstone.

Guess who’s not coming to dinner?

9:50AM: Now there’s reports that al-Mabhouh was injected with a drug inducing a heart attack.

So let’s see what we have so far:

• Terminal cancer
• Poisoned and electrocuted
• Stunned with an electric shocker and then strangled
• Injected with a drug causing a heart attack
• NEW! Suffocated to death by a pillow attached to his face

I’ll update the list as more causes are reported.

About the Author

An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.

Filed Under: General

Tags: Alan Dershowitz, George Galloway, Goldstone report, Hamas, Israel, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Middle East Conflict, Munich Olympics, Palestinian, Richard Goldstone, Uzi Landau