Me? I don’t find it particularly funny and a bit obvious, although I wonder if the choice of “frozen peas” was deliberate (frozen peas = frozen peace. Get it?!)

By the way, the CNN report was filmed in a supermarket down the road from yours truly.

The American envoy also called on “the parties, and all concerned, to refrain from any statements or actions which may inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of these talks.”

Sources in the Prime Minister’s Bureau expressed satisfaction that negotiations are restarting after more than a year, but refused to comment on the details of the process.

The United States has told the Palestinians that if the sides do not meet expectations, it will “act accordingly.”

A senior Palestinian source told Haaretz Monday that the Palestinians and the Arab League have received American assurances that “we will be actively involved in managing the indirect talks, and also proposing ideas and bridging ideas of our own.”

The U.S. has allotted the process four months to reach results. Regarding whether the U.S. would then announce whether the sides’ positions reflect the international consensus on the conflict, the Americans told the Palestinians that the U.S. “expects both sides to behave seriously, with honesty and in good will because, if one of the sides, in our judgment, does not fulfill our expectations, we will make our concerns clear and we will act accordingly in order to overcome every obstacle.”

The announcement that negotiations are resuming came despite disagreements between the three sides over the structure of the talks.

—-

In a Jerusalem meeting with quartet envoys on Friday, Mitchell’s deputy David Hale said the negotiations after Annapolis and the understandings reached by Tzipi Livni and Ahmed Qureia, as well as Ehud Olmert and Abbas, would not be binding.

The talks will be based on agreements signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, including the road map.

Olmert had offered Abbas an Israeli withdrawal from 94 percent of the West Bank, and Israeli territory in exchange for the remaining 6 percent. In addition, Israel would symbolically accept 5,000 Palestinian refugees and enable international governance for the holy sites in the Old City.

Abbas never responded to Olmert’s offer, but the Palestinians insisted that the negotiations resume from where they stopped during Olmert’s term as prime minister.

The U.S. apparently accepted Israel’s position on the matter, which was to ignore everything that was not signed as part of an agreement.

The talks will also be based on the Obama administration’s two statements from the past year: President Barack Obama’s speech to the United Nations, which described the goal of a secure, Jewish state in Israel alongside a viable, independent Palestine and an end to the 1967 occupation; and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement regarding a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with territory exchanges, combined with Israel’s desire for a secure Jewish state that includes “recent developments,” meaning the settlement blocs

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:15PM: More stolen passports. Except something’s different this time.

Three Iranians were caught holding stolen Israeli passports as they arrived in the an archipelago nation of Seychelles, northeast of Madagascar, the Israeli daily newspaper Ma’ariv reported on Tuesday.

The three were reportedly detained at Seychelles International Airport and were returned to Nairobi where their flight originated.

Seychelles authorities informed Israel, who’s authorities allegedly revealed that the passports were stolen from Israeli passengers while they were visiting Thailand.

“Israeli security circles believe the Iranians intended to carry out attacks against Israeli tourists in Seychelles especially as the Jewish Passover holiday nears,” Ma’ariv quoted Israeli security sources as saying.

8:05PM: Today’s must read is from Alan Howe of the Melbourne Herald Sun, who deals with the Mossad’s supposed hit in Dubai, and the resultant backlash.

Here are the latest scores in the war on terror. If you don’t want to know, look away now.

Israelis 1, Palestinians 0.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a virtueless scrap of humanity, is dead. All good so far.

But how he died and who killed him have now become the story.

There are two possibilities about his death in Dubai: that he was killed in a pillow fight gone wrong; or that Mossad agents bumped him off in a daring, indeed thrillingly bold, assassination on enemy soil. Israel isn’t saying anything. That’s the second scenario confirmed then.

On the evening of January 19, four people entered the Palestinian’s room at the Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel using an electronic device that decoded Mabhouh’s pass.

The assassins ambushed their target, injected him with a paralysing sedative and then suffocated him using a pillow. It was all over in 10 minutes. Nothing in the room was disturbed. The killers left calmly, leaving the door locked – from the inside.

The agents – and another 23 colleagues who joined them as plotters, spotters and decoys – then headed for the airport, flying to Asia and Europe.

That’s a slick operation. You have to stand in awe at the audacity of the planning and the courage of the men – and one woman – who volunteered for it. Just 19 hours earlier none of them had even arrived in Dubai.

Al-Mabhouh had been gloating recently about how he killed two Israeli soldiers in 1989. He had a brain-squirming hatred for the Israelis who claim evidence that he spent his days smuggling rockets into Gaza. Ever since the Israelis retreated from their territory and left the locals to their own devices Gazans have thanked their neighbours with an almost ceaseless volley of deadly rockets.

Just days off turning 50, al-Mabhouh knew he was a worthy target for assassination. Usually, he travelled with a team of bodyguards, but they couldn’t get seats on his flight, which was said to be the first leg of a weapons-buying trip to Thailand.

To help secure the success of this well-thought-out killing, Mossad’s agents travelled on forged passports appearing to have been issued in Germany, France, Ireland, the UK and Australia.

Foreign ministers from these countries, including our own Stephen Smith, have been mildly critical of Israel, at least compared with the excitable Hamas spokesman who told Israel to “prepare to receive the hellfire of our anger”. What, and that’s new?

Our reaction was more subdued; forging Australian passports was not “the act of a friend”.

Yes it was.

We cancelled the screening in Parliament House of an Israeli film called Noodle.

Take that, Tel Aviv!

Then we sent a small team from the Australian Federal Police to investigate the passport issue.

Uh-oh. That’s asking for trouble. Yet to recover from the laugh-a-minute leadership of Mick Keelty, the AFP is capable of almost anything. Within hours of arriving in Tel Aviv, these Keystone clowns had screeched out of the underground car park beneath the Australian embassy there, hit a woman riding a bicycle and sped off.

The Mossad team also can be said to have done a hit and run, but I know who I’d want looking after my interests.

The woman they hit, Oshra Bar, 22, wants an apology from the AFP. Maybe that will come after they have worked up the courage to grovel to Dr Mohamed Haneef, the Brisbane doctor they falsely charged with providing assistance to terrorists, ruining his life.

If Australia’s security services had to defend Israel, surrounded as it is by Arabs who attack it regularly and who, with a few Persian nutters running Iran – all of them united under the Koran – now plan its nuclear destruction, Israelis would clog their country’s airports seeking a quick exit.

Even that brave people would know the game was up.

What could the agents of our Australian Secret Intelligence Service do in defence of the Middle East’s lone democracy – don monkey masks and take on Hamas?

That’s what they did during exercises at the Sheraton Hotel on Spring St. Disguised in “grotesque masks” they stormed the 10th floor, destroying property, panicking guests and assaulting the hotel manager. Taxpayers attended to the compensation bill, which ran to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Imagine if they – we – had real enemies. Australia’s security services and federal police are a hopeless embarrassment and that would be a serious problem for us all if we had anything other than oceans for neighbours.

It was reported that a former ASIS agent said last week that forging passports was old hat – indeed as old as the espionage game itself. It’s probably fair to assume we have done the same – if your security agency has the words secret in its title, don’t expect to find out – but there is less need for it. Australian agents don’t need to travel the globe eliminating people who threaten our very existence.

In any case, I can picture now passports forged by ASIS. Two innocents from, say, Nunawading, have had their identity stolen, but the pictures are certainly not of them. Standing before the immigration desk at Ben-Gurion Airport are two men. The talkative one is in a blue jacket, red polka dot bow tie and red-and-white striped bucket hat on which is written Peters Ice Cream. “No, I’m Zig!” he insists.

Security in Israel is no joking matter. Except to the United Nations, which last year hosted a conference against racism unforgivably inviting the unpredictable Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak. He ranted about how the Holocaust never happened – he doesn’t want anything overshadowing the modern nuclear holocaust he plans.

IT’S bad enough that the UN cannot get international action to make a rogue state such as Iran adhere to its Non-Proliferation Treaty on nuclear weapons.

So, mostly alone but always threatened, Israel is forced to police its own future. Its defence must always be in its own hands.

That’s why, on a Sunday afternoon in June 1981, using US provided satellite pictures it sent in its American-made fighter jets to bomb and destroy Iraq’s Osirak nuclear facility just outside Baghdad.

The nuclear plant – being built using technology supplied by the West’s most unreliable “ally”, France – was near completion, but was to have been used only for the peaceful generation of power. Saddam Hussein had promised.

At the time, Israel’s critics condemned it for trying to be the region’s police, and pointed out that it had long been suspected that Israel itself was moving towards becoming a nuclear power. Golly, why would it be doing that?

Quietly, over the years, after having breathed a sigh of relief, most of the world came to understand what a favour that little country had performed for them.

These days attention has turned towards Iran and its development of a nuclear program. This, too, is to generate power. Then why hide it at terrific expense under the desert?

Gaza is an Iranian proxy state where that country’s hate for the West is played out in fights against Israel.

This is the War on Terror.

Iran is the terror. Its Gaza agents are the terrorists. We must kill them.

And next on the agenda is Iran’s nuclear plant.

Bonus: You can also read Alan Howe’s answers to reader questions at the link, using the same software I did to liveblog the last Israeli elections with my pal Barry Rubin.

6:15PM: Israel has reacted as follows to a claim by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Israel accepted Turkey as a mediator for talks with Syria.

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Office denied that Israel has decided to renew negotiations with Syria with Turkish mediation.

“No decision was made to renew the Turkish mediation, but if this reflects Turkey’s wish to strengthen its relations with Israel and support peace in the region – it is naturally a blessed aspiration,” the statement read.

I would have thought a better response would be “Turkish can take its mediation offer and stick it where the sun don’t shine.”

5:15PM: Separated at birth?

4:40PM: Quote of the day:

“A person like Ahmadinejad, who calls openly to destroy the state of Israel, cannot be a full member of the United Nations.”

“A man who calls for acts of terror, and who hangs people in the street … he should be placed in his proper definition. He cannot go around almost like a cultural hero.”

“Ahmadinejad has to be isolated and not be welcomed in the capitals of the world.”

- Israeli President Shimon Peres, as he met visiting U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden in Jerusalem.

12:50PM: Israeli President Shimon Peres meets with visiting US Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden: I hope he doesn’t kiss me.

Peres: “You know, I really like what you’ve done with your hair.”

6:18AM: Here is Colonel Desmond Travers, one of the members of the UN Fact Finding Mission that produced the Goldstone Report, answering a question regarding evidence that Gaza mosques were being used to store weapons, contrary to his assertions.

Notice how a main part of Travers’ answer is “If I was an insurgent – and I have insurgent ancestors – the last place I would place military material into is a place of worship because it is an unreliable repository of military materials. It is too open and too insecure.” Besides the laughable suggestion that he is somehow qualified to make that statement because of his ancestors, the answer ignores a main reason why the palestinian terrorists do use mosques in this way – it is a great hiding place since many people frequent mosques, they know Israel will be loathe to strike them and if they do, it will cause great pressure and condemnation to bear down on Israel (as has been the case). Travers’ inability to see that the terrorists love to use civilian areas – including open and insecure places like residential houses – to store weapons speaks volumes about the veracity of his findings.

Notice also how he avoids another question regarding an anti-Semitic statement of his.

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Want to learn how to shoot with top Israeli anti-terror experts? Click here for more details.

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The system, dubbed “spot and strike,” is operated by the IDF’s Field Intelligence Corps. The footage shows how the system targets a Palestinian terrorist who was involved in an attempted attack that took place in late December 2009.

The system was controlled by a female officer from the Nesher Observation Unit. The officer directed a military helicopter and a Golani force to the location of the terrorist, while also following three other cell members, thus foiling the attack.

The officer stands to receive a special presidential commendation for her actions, as part of the coming Independence Day celebrations.

The new system, which has been operational for about a year, affords the IDF a new and effective way of dealing with terror threats, army officials say.

“The system proves most effective when we’re dealing with real-time events that require immediate response,” Chief Field Intelligence Officer Eli Pollack told Ynet.

Lt.-Col. Eran Gabai, head of the Nesher Unit, added that the observers’ work is very complex: “They canvass the area constantly to spot potential threats among otherwise mundane parameters.”

The IDF found a ladder, ropes and explosives in the documented incident, indicating that the terrorists were planning to climb over the security fence in order to carry out their attack.

Field Intelligence officers employ state-of-the-art technology in their reconnaissance efforts. “It’s a 24/7 operation which involves both mobile and stationary teams,” said Pollack.

“Our officers and observers are part of almost every military operation today. Our challenge is to keep misleading the enemy,” he concluded.

Of course, all of this would be unnecessary if the palestinians were not trying to commit terrorist attacks, a fact worth noting next time a pro-palestinian claims the security fence is a “land grab.”

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:15PM: Oops!

Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants fall off of a truck after one of them was injured, center, during a training session on the outskirts of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, March 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)

(hat tip: Brian)

If only a similar mishap had occurred at Hamas training…

Palestinian security forces from Hamas demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony at a training area in Gaza City, Monday, March 1, 2010.

6:24PM: Photo of the day. Presumably taken on Purim, but given Jerusalem Syndrome, who knows (hat tip: Eli)

“Must..resist…urge…to….climb..”

6:06PM: According to Facebook’s head of strategy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Israelis spend over one billion minutes on Facebook every month, making it by far Israel’s most popular site and more than the time they spend on Google, Walla, and YouTube combined.

Here’s a case in point.

The Israel Defense Forces called off a raid in Palestinian territory after a soldier posted details, including the time and place, on the social networking website Facebook, Army Radio reported on Wednesday.

The soldier – since relieved of combat duty – described in a status update how his unit planned a “clean-up” arrest raid in a West Bank area, Army Radio said.

“On Wednesday we clean up Qatanah, and on Thursday, god willing, we come home,” the soldier wrote on his Facebook page, refering to a West Bank village near Ramallah.

The soldier also disclosed the name of the combat unit, the place of the operation and the time it will take place. Facebook friends then reported him to military authorities.

The Israeli military spokesman’s office had no immediate comment.

Israel says raids in the West Bank are aimed at detaining militants suspected of planning attacks on Israelis. Palestinian officials say the incursions undermine efforts by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority to enforce law and order in the territory.

Next status update from the IDF soldier in question: Guess who just did a really stupid thing?

11:35AM: Despite yesterday’s report that Hamas believes Egypt or Jordan were behind the Mahmoud al-Mabhouh hit, the Dubai police chief plans to pursue the arrest of the Israeli Prime Minister and Mossad chief.

Dubai’s police chief plans to seek the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the Mossad over the killing of a Hamas leader in the emirate, Al Jazeera television reported on Wednesday.

Dahi Khalfan Tamim “said he would ask the Dubai prosecutor to issue arrest warrants for … Netanyahu and the head of Mossad,” the television said. It did not give details.

Tamim has said he is “almost certain” Israeli agents were involved in the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh at a Dubai hotel in January, calling for Mossad’s boss, Meir Dagan, to be arrested if it is proved responsible.

6:15AM: Relations between Israel and New Zealand seem to be thawing after the horrible Helen Clark years (hat tip: Zak)

A reciprocal deal has been struck between New Zealand and Israel on working holiday visas.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully signed the arrangement in Jerusalem overnight. It allows up to 200 people aged from 18 to 30 to stay and work in Israel for a year. The same applies to young Israelis travelling to New Zealand.

Mr McCully says the move will help to deepen tourism and education links in time, lead to better trade and investment between the countries.

“Israel is already our largest tourist market in the Middle East, and it is an affluent economy that will present opportunities for New Zealand,” Mr McCully said.

6:08AM: Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank, who worked for Israel’s Shin Bet, talking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

Twenty one-year-old Elad, who served in an Israel Defense Forces combat unit and resides in a kibbutz in southern Israel, has been dreaming about joining the Mossad for years.

On Thursday, following ongoing reports about the spy agency’s link to the assassination of senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, he decided to finally pursue his dream. “I ran to the computer and applied for a job on the organization’s website,” Elad said with excitement.

“I’ve always had a dream to work for the Mossad,” he said, “It’s obvious why – it’s exciting, dangerous and special. Nobody really knows what people do there, and now I suddenly understand how it works – it’s cool. I hope they accept me; I think I have all the required skills.” As it turns out, there are many more just like him.

The Mossad website has become extremely popular in recent weeks, particularly its job openings page, through which one can apply for a position with the agency. Global media reports on Mossad’s alleged involvement in the assassination of the Hamas commander has led to a soaring number of civilian applicants who wish to join the secret service.

The agency, which did not post any new job openings for over six months, posted a statement on February 12 – almost a month after the Dubai operation – that read: “You have an opportunity to create a reality in which you play the lead role. If you possess, intelligence and sophistication, you can make a difference and fulfill a national and personal mission. If you can engage, charm and influence people – you may have the qualities we are looking for.”

As for the job requirements listed, the ideal candidate must hold an academic degree, diverse life experience, good communication skills, flexible thinking and creativity, curiosity, and the ability to work individually and in a team as well as good command of second language. A preference, the ad noted, would be given to those with a background abroad and willingness to leave for an immediate mission abroad, right after the training period.

According to media reports, the publication of the assassins’ pictures exposed almost a third of the Mossad’s “Kidon” hit team. Whether or not the reports are true, the agency is surely in need for some new recruits.

In many high schools around the country, the covert operation has become the main topic of discussion, said a high school teacher from Ashkelon. “My students only want to talk about this story. They keep looking at the pictures of the agents and the videos from the hotel. They can talk about it for hours; each student offers their perspective – it truly excites them,” she said.

In a response on behalf of the Mossad, the Prime Minister’s Office said, “We do not respond to media reports pertaining to the organization.”

Not to mention Mossad t-shirts!

I’m just glad the damage done by Adam Sandler seems to have been reversed.

Australia has warned Israel it would regard any involvement in the forging or abuse of Australian passports for the killing of a Hamas militant as “not the act of a friend”.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told parliament this morning that three Australians suspected in the assassination of  Hamas militant Mahmud al-Mabuh in Dubai last month appear to have been the victims of passport fraud.

The assassination has been linked in the media by Dubai police to the Israeli security agency Mossad.

Mr Smith said ASIO and the Australian Federal Police were investigating the probable identity fraud involving  Australians Nicole Sandra Mccabe, Adam Marcus Korman and Joshua Daniel Bruce.

Mr Korman, who like the other two Australians lives in Israel, has denied any involvement, while Ms McCabe’s mother says her daughter is heavily pregnant.

“Preliminary analysis by the Australian Federal Police together with the Australian Passport Office shows that the three Australian passports appear to have been duplicated or altered,” Mr Smith said.

“At this stage Australian officials have no information, no information to suggest the three Australian passport holders were involved in any way other than as victims as passport or identity fraud”.

In his strongest comments on the matter, Mr Smith said Australia made “no conclusions” about the investigation into the killings but said it would appear a serious abuse of Australian passports had occurred.

Mr Smith called in Israeli ambassador Yuval Rotem this morning, urging Israel to “fully co-operate” with the Australian investigation.

“If the results of that investigation cause us to come to the conclusion that the abuse of Australian passports was in any way sponsored or condoned by Israeli officials, then Australia would not regard that as the act of a friend,” Mr Smith said.

“Australia, of course, is a longstanding friend of Israel”.

Mr Smith said the passports were all issued in 2003, and since then there had been major improvements in passport security.

“The Australian government condemns in the strongest possible terms the misuse and the abuse of Australian passports,” he said.

The three Australians involved have been offered consular assistance.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

8:05PM: Wow, that Mossad is REAL GOOD!

6:54PM: FU, EU.

5:46PM: Curious caption of the day:

Palestinian children run to take cover during clashes between Palestinian and Israeli soldiers, not seen, in the West Bank city of Hebron, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010. Palestinians in Hebron continued to protest Thursday over the Israeli decision to recognize a disputed West Bank shrine as one of its national heritage sites. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned earlier this week that the region could plunge into a “religious war” over the decision. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

Doesn’t look like running to me.

Also, the girl on the left looks suitably distressed (I guess she didn’t hear the photographer’s request to turn on the tears).

1:00PM: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to froth at the mouth against Israel, further displaying the peaceful motivation behind his country’s nuclear program.

Arab nations will usher in a new Middle East “without Zionists and without colonialists,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday.

But with midgets, I assume.

Naqba Dwarf adds: What’s wrong with that?

Ahmadinejad was speaking during a trip to Syria, which follows a string of US efforts to break up Syria’s 30-year alliance with Teheran.

He said that “if the Zionist regime wants to repeat its past mistakes, this will constitute its demise and annihilation.”

12:22PM: It is not often that I will reproduce a Ha’aretz editorial and laud it as making sense, so enjoy this rare moment.

The story just gets more and more complicated, which on its face at least leads us into territory that is more than amazing – wild even – which is hard to judge by rational and professional means.

Twenty-six agents, perhaps even 30, sent to assassinate one person? Granted if they could flee the scene by sea, how could one think that Mossad agents would take cover in Iran? I ask myself. Even if they have unprecedented self confidence the likes of which are unknown?

Without disparaging the skill of Dubai’s chief of police, he took pride that his investigators are much more professional than the Mossad people (whom he accuses of carrying out the operation). One must take into account that he might have gotten carried away in the success of what he had uncovered.

There is no doubt that more than a little of the information that he is disclosing or leaking to the media is part of an ploy in which bits of disinformation are planted. He’s throwing out a lure in the hope that someone in Israel will swallow the bait and respond by incriminating himself or disclosing confidential information.

It began with a leak that on Mabhouh’s body there were signs of brute force that were evident that he was tortured before he was killed. There was even a report that his assassins tied him up with wire. In fact it turned out that for 10 days the Dubai police thought he had died of natural causes, so clearly had he not been tortured.

Now the world is being fed new, allegedly even more dramatic, information about 15 additional suspects, which was released by the Dubai Information Ministry and not the police.

The police chief, who attracted international coverage, apparently isn’t itching to advance the investigation. Last week he was out of the office for personal reasons and now it has been announced that he is on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

It is hard to believe that, if the Mossad intelligence agency carried out the operation, the planners were so irresponsible as to dispatch nearly 30 agents and to expose an entire select operational unit on one assassination operation. This is true even if we assume the planner thought the target should be hit no matter what, and even if hypothetically Mabhouh was on his way to Iran to arrange an arms deal that Israel had seen as changing the balance of power.

Either the new revelations are another salvo in Dubai’s psychological warfare or the police investigators are groping in the dark. It is doubtful we will ever know the truth. The evidence linking Israel to the affair is still weak, certainly for courtroom purposes but also in the diplomatic sphere. But the saga also sends a message of deterrence to Hamas that the long arm of whoever carried out the operation can hit another senior Hamas official.

6:08AM: Heh. (click to enlarge)

(hat tip: Martin)

The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service’s most valuable source in the militant organization’s leadership, Haaretz has learned.

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder and one of its leaders in the West Bank. The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the exposure of a number of terrorist cells, and to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures.

The exclusive story will appear in this Friday’s Haaretz Magazine, and Yousef’s memoir, “Son of Hamas” (written with Ron Brackin) will be released next week in the United States. Yousef, 32, became a devout Christian 10 years ago and now lives in California after fleeing the West Bank in 2007 and going public with his conversion.

Yousef was considered the Shin Bet’s most reliable source in the Hamas leadership, earning himself the nickname “the Green Prince” – using the color of the Islamist group’s flag, and “prince” because of his pedigree as the son of one of the movement’s founders.

During the second intifada, intelligence Yousef supplied led to the arrests of a number of high-ranking Palestinian figures responsible for planning deadly suicide bombings. These included Ibrahim Hamid (a Hamas military commander in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti (founder of the Fatah-linked Tanzim militia) and Abdullah Barghouti (a Hamas bomb-maker with no close relation to the Fatah figure). Yousef was also responsible for thwarting Israel’s plan to assassinate his father.

“I wish I were in Gaza now,” Yousef said by phone from California, “I would put on an army uniform and join Israel’s special forces in order to liberate Gilad Shalit. If I were there, I could help. We wasted so many years with investigations and arrests to capture the very terrorists that they now want to release in return for Shalit. That must not be done.”

The story of Yousef’s spiritual transformation appeared in Haaretz Magazine in August 2008. Only now, however, is Yousef exposing the secret he kept since 1996, when he was first held by Shin Bet agents seeking to enlist him in infiltrating the upper echelon of Hamas.

Their efforts proved successful, and Yousef was released from prison in 1997. His former handler, who no longer serves with the security service, says Yousef collaborated with Israel because he wanted to save lives.

“So many people owe him their life and don’t even know it,” said the handler, named in Yousef’s book as Captain Loai. “People who did a lot less were awarded the Israel Security Prize. He certainly deserves it.”

Loai makes no secret of his admiration for his former source. “The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money,” he says. “He did things he believed in. He wanted to save lives. His grasp of intelligence matters was just as good as ours – the ideas, the insights. One insight of his was worth 1,000 hours of thought by top experts.”

Loai recalled one time when the Shin Bet received information that a suicide bomber was going to be picked up at Manara Square in Ramallah and be given an explosives belt.

“We didn’t know his name or what he looked like – only that he was in his 20s and would be wearing a red shirt,” he said. “We sent the Green Prince to the square and with his acute sense, he located the target within minutes. He saw who picked him up, followed the car and made it possible for us to arrest the suicide bomber and the man who was supposed to give him the belt. So another attack was thwarted, though no one knows about it. No one opens Champagne bottles or bursts into song and dance. This was an almost daily thing for the Prince. He displayed courage, had sharp antennae and an ability to cope with danger. We knew he was one of those who in any situation – rain, snow, summer – give their all.”

With his memoir, Yousef hopes to send a message of peace to Israelis. Still, he admits he is pessimistic over the prospect of Israel signing a peace agreement with the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, let alone Hamas.

“Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis. That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels, only a cease-fire, and no one knows that better than I. The Hamas leadership is responsible for the killing of Palestinians, not Israelis,” he said. “Palestinians! They do not hesitate to massacre people in a mosque or to throw people from the 15th or 17th floor of a building, as they did during the coup in Gaza. The Israelis would never do such things. I tell you with certainty that the Israelis care about the Palestinians far more than the Hamas or Fatah leadership does.”

I previously blogged about Mosab and his admiration for Israel almost two years ago.

There’s also a number of YouTube videos of him, including this one. It is part 1 of 6 installments; be sure to click on each subsequent part once it is done.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:16PM: Hamas has denied the Ha’aretz report that Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas founder, worked for Israel’s Shin Bet security service for 10 years.

Hamas parliament member Mushir a-Masri said that the article was not worthy of a response and called it Zionist propaganda against the Palestinian people.

Haaretz has learned that senior Hamas officials pressured Yousef not to pursue the publication of his story.

Which, of course, means it’s true.

9:45PM: The (fake) names and photos of the additional 15 suspects in the killing of Hamashole Mahmoud al-Mabhouh have been released. And I’m glad to report my name was not included amongst the Australian passport holders.

The British passport holders were identified as: Daniel Marc Schnur, Gabriella Barney, Roy Allan Cannon, Stephen Keith Drake, Mark Sklur and Philip Carr

The Irish passports holders were named as Ivy Brinton, Anna Shuana Clasby and Chester Halvey.

The French passport holders are David Bernard LaPierre, Melenie Heard and Eric Rassineux, while the Australian passport holders were identified as Bruce Joshua Daniel, Nicole Sandra Mccabe and Adam Korman.

Fancy that, an Australian called Bruce.

You know where I’m going with this, don’t you.

9:38PM: Israeli traitor Mordechai Vanunu has asked to be removed from a list of Nobel Peace Prize nominees, since he does not want to be “associated ” with former Nobel Peace Prize laureate and current president of Israel Shimon Peres.

Apparently being “associated” with arch terrorist Yasser Arafat is just fine.

3:58PM: Old and busted: How many people does it take to change a light bulb?

New hotness: How many people does it take to knock off a Hamashole?

Dubai has identified 15 new suspects in the assassination of a Hamas official at a Dubai luxury hotel, bringing the total number of people believed involved in the death to 26, the government said on Wednesday.

Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed last month in his hotel room in what Dubai police have said they are near certain was an Israeli hit. They said the killers travelled to the Gulf Arab emirate on European passports.

Of the new suspects, six carried British passports, three held Irish documents, three Australian, and three French, the Dubai government’s media office said in an emailed statement.

Three Aussies? I hope I don’t wake up tomorrow to find Interpol is after me.

Dubai authorities last week released the identities of 11 people whom they said travelled on fraudulent British, Irish, French and German passports to kill Mabhouh. Two Palestinians suspected of providing logistical support were in custody.

“Friendly nations who have been assisting in this investigation have indicated to the police in Dubai that the passports were issued in an illegal and fraudulent manner,” the statement said.

Dubai police also released passport photos and closed-circuit television footage of the suspects, and said two of them had left Dubai by boat for Iran.

Leaving for Iran would suggest it may not have been the Mossad.

3:06PM: You know how you sometimes read something so logical that you wish you had thought of it first? Well, Michael Totten has done just that in this excellent article on the recent killing of arch terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Excerpt:

Even as European Union officials perfunctorily squawk about the use of forged passports by the assassins, few others have grounds to complain. Al-Mabhouh was a terrorist commander on a mission to acquire Iranian weapons for use against civilians. He was a combatant. Unlike his victims, he was fair game. He would have been fair game for even an air strike if he were in Gaza. As he was, instead, in Dubai, he was taken out quietly without even alerting, let alone harming, any of the civilians around him.

If only Israel could fight all its battles this way. It would be the cleanest and least-deadly war in the history of warfare. Even some of Israel’s harshest critics should understand that.

“The Goldstone Report,” Alan Dershowitz wrote in the Jerusalem Post, “suggests that Israel cannot lawfully fight Hamas rockets by wholesale air attacks. Richard Goldstone, in his interviews, has suggested that Israel should protect itself from these unlawful attacks by more proportionate measures, such as commando raids and targeted killing of terrorists engaged in the firing of rockets. Well, there could be no better example of a proportionate and focused attack on a combatant deeply involved in the rocket attacks on Israel than the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.”

10:52AM: From the Department of Blissful Ignorance: Santas Little Helpers of Purims Past

Apparently taken in the Mea Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem (hat tip: Mrs Aussie Dave).

6:20AM: Islam Jihad is already threatening to perpetrate terror attacks within Israel following the government’s decision to declare the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb national heritage sites ahead of their renovation.

“If the Israelis continue to damage our mosques and holy places, we will respond within the Zionist territory,” the al-Quds Brigades spokesman told Ynet.

Israel has not damaged any palestinian mosques or holy places, except those used as weapon storehouses.

Meanwhile, Joseph’s Tomb anybody?

The Serious and Organized Crime Agency (who I guess are serious and organized -ed.) or SOCA is investigating how the identities of British citizens were stolen.

“He made clear that we were concerned about the implications of the killing of Mr. al-Mabhouh on stability in the region, and he stressed that we require full cooperation from the Israeli authorities with the SOCA investigation,” Bryant told lawmakers.

The minister said Miliband told Lieberman that Britain and Israel can only cooperate on “the basis of trust and mutual transparency.”

Miliband said Lieberman “had no information to give me.”

The Israeli FM, for his part, said in a statement there was no proof Israel was involved in the killing, and later told reporters: “I think you have all seen too many James Bond movies.”

He said while petting his white cat…

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

10:00PM: Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman introduces Prime Minister Avatar! (hat tip: Joe)

9:50PM: It looks as though the Prime Minister has developed somewhat of a backbone.

At least when it comes to the following issue.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel is obligated to ensure the freedom of religion for all faiths at all holy sites, in a response to allegations from Palestinian leaders that Israel’s heritage sites could spark a religious war.

“We are talking about a campaign of lies and hypocrisy,” read a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, issued after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Israel’s addition of two West Bank sites to its national heritage list a dangerous provocation, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called for a new uprising against Israel.

“Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs are burial sites dating from more than 3,500 years ago of Israel’s forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the nation’s foremothers, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel – and are worthy of preservation and renovation,” said the statement from Netanyahu’s office.

8:16PM: Quote of the day:

“The entire world must support those fighting terrorism: an American, British or Israeli soldier regardless if he is in Gaza or Dubai. The fact that a terrorist was killed, and it doesn’t matter if it was in Dubai or Gaza, is good news to those fighting terrorism.”

- Israeli Opposition leader and Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni

4:10PM: In case you thought the Knesset was a boring place..

A heated debated arose in the Knesset House Committee on Tuesday, following a request to hold a plenum session on the “forged passports affair”. Member of Knesset Talab El-Sana (United Arab List – Ta’al) asked if the Knesset was run by the Mossad, while MK Carmel Shama (Likud) called the assassination  of Hamas  commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh a “mitzvah”.

The Knesset House Committee session was held following a decision by the Knesset presidency not to authorize the matter for discussion on the Knesset plenum’s agenda. El-Sana filed an appeal to the committee, which was also rejected.

“Why isn’t the Israeli Knesset holding a discussion?” El-Sana asked the committee. “Anyone trying not to hold a discussion has a reason not to hold a discussion… Does (Mossad chief) Meir Dagan decide which matters are discussed in the Knesset?”

El-Sana added, “There is no doubt that this is a matter of public concern and that the Knesset should discuss the issue.”

Regarding the alleged forged passports reportedly used by the Hamas commander’s killers in Dubai, he asked: “Is assassinating in another country using mafia methods a victory? It was an act of terror. As in the attempt on (Hamas politburo chief) Khaled Mashaal, they were caught red-handed in Dubai, every movement, including the glasses, was captured. Whoever is behind this should be prosecuted. Don’t be surprised when arrest warrants are issued against Meir Dagan.”

In response MK Shama said, “If my passport could help in the assassination of Mabhouh, I would be willing to give it to you. I would be willing to give you my regular passport as well as my diplomatic passport.”

MK Yariv Levin (Likud) sarcastically added, “Firing rockets at kindergartens – that’s heroism. Don’t threaten us. Don’t sit here and threaten us.” Shama then said, “I would be very sorry if the State of Israel did not carry out this mitzvah.”

MK Ahen asked, “Why do the MKs feel threatened by having the matter discussed? A matter that has been spread over pages, down to the smallest detail. The media had a field day, almost like Carmel Shama’s euphoric spirit.”

Tibi and Shama then exchanged words, and a number of MKs chimed in. Shama said: “Meir Dagan did good work quietly. He is dear to Israel.” Tibi said he does not agree with Shama and named a different hero: “The real hero in this story is the Dubai police commander, who exposed the assassins.”

Shama asked: “That clown?” In response, Tibi said, “That clown caught you with your pants down.” At this point MK Levin intervened and told Shama: “Let Dubai’s ambassador in Israel speak.”

MK Meir Sheetrit of Kadima tried to calm his comrades and said the debate was unnecessary. Tibi had the last work and said, “I fear for Shama, he has an Arab name, he could also be assassinated tomorrow.”

1:08PM: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi reportedly avoided meeting PA President Mahmoud Abbas while the latter was visiting Tripoli despite his explicit requests.

9:35AM: Spot the grave of the airline hijacker:

Palestinians recite Koranic verses over the grave of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a former Hamas commander, at the tombs of Palestinians who were killed during conflicts Israel, at al-Yarmouk camp near Damascus February 22, 2010. Dubai has accused Israel of involvement in the killing of Al-Mabhouh in a hotel in Dubai last month. Israel has declined to confirm or deny it had any role. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri (SYRIA – Tags: CRIME LAW POLITICS)

6:20AM: More on our latest Zionist Death Drone^TM (reported by someone who sounds a bit like a drone herself).

6:15AM: Yet another Israeli ethnic cleansing fail of large proportions.

Ibrahim, a 20-year-old Galilee Muslim whose failed circumcision two years earlier left him with too little penile skin to perform his matrimonial duties, was abandoned by his fiancee prior to their wedding. But plastic surgeon Prof. Yaron Har-Shai eventually enabled Ibrahim to get engaged to another woman by adapting – for the first time in the world – a technique used on hand and facial burns to rehabilitate his penis, restoring normal function.

Har-Shai and colleagues at Haifa’s Carmel Medical Center and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine have just published their report on the highly unusual case in the British Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery, which presents not only the details of the procedure but also ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos. The doctors’ careful search of the Medline database showed that the technique had not been used previously to correct such a problem.

The man, now 21, is due to wed a different woman who accepted his marriage proposal after hearing about the normal appearance and functioning of his penis.

That’s some grape vine.

Upon hearing the news, the Carmel staff who treated him sent the couple a huge bouquet of flowers and wishes for good luck and many children.

Instead of undergoing a ritual circumcision at the conventional age for Muslims – 13 years – the man waited until 18, apparently because he comes from a secular family and didn’t think it was important, Har-Shai told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

The procedure was performed by an overzealous traditional practitioner, who botched the job. Instead of removing just the foreskin, he also cut off ventral penile skin, a complication that occurs in 0.2 percent of circumcisions.

Although able to have erections before the accident, the unfortunate man found that the error shortened his organ by causing the development of scar tissue that prevented the skin from expanding with increased blood supply. Skin webbing developed from the sub-coronal groove to the anterior scrotal base. Intercourse was impossible, and when his first fiancee learned about his condition, the wedding was off.

An anesthesiologist who knew the family turned to Har-Shai, a Technion graduate who worked at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center until he was invited to head the plastic surgery department at Carmel.

Surgeons abroad trying to treat similar injuries in the past took skin from other parts of the patient’s body and transplanted it onto the penis; the result, however, was not only of a different color but the penis also sometimes developed a web texture and became too small to allow for intercourse.

First, Har-Shai performed a known procedure called Z-plasty, a technique used to improve the functional and cosmetic appearance of scars. It can elongate a contracted scar or rotate the scar tension line. The procedure, however, was unsuccessful.

Har-Shai’s father, Prof. Bernard Hirshowitz, was a pioneer in plastic surgery at Rambam before his retirement and years ago developed the “flap technique-5” procedure to enable webbed skin between fingers to become flexible after suffering a burn and shrinking, as well as for treating facial skin injuries. But it had never been used to rehabilitate a shrunken penis.

Har-Shai decided to adapt his father’s innovation – for the first time in the world – to the young man’s problem. He created five flaps from small bits of skin left on the man’s penis itself so they were not rejected and did not turn into webbing.

“Although previous surgery had been executed at the surgical site, uneventful healing of the skin flaps and complete relaxation and elongation of the skin web [was] achieved,” the team wrote.

The man’s penile length measured 11 centimeters after the procedure – eight centimeters longer than it was after the complications from the circumcision set in. Two months after the operation, the patient had functional erections, Har-Shai told The Post.

“It also looks great, very aesthetic,” he enthused. He added that his father’s flap technique-5 could also be used on baby boys if they have a shortage of skin.

There have been no previous reports of such a complication in circumcisions in Israel, even though some 50,000 ritual procedures are performed here each year. Har-Shai said he saw references to the complication occurring in Iran.

“I would have no problem treating Iranians who need it,” he said, though there are no diplomatic relations between the two countries.

6:08AM: The latest Turkey-Jerkey:

Israel is turning a blind eye to a huge poster showing President Shimon Peres seemingly bowing to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was unfurled from a crane in an Ankara suburb on Sunday.

Neither the President’s Residence nor the Foreign Minister would comment on the poster, which superimposed an image of a bowing Peres in front of Erdogan, over the caption “Erdogan, a leader whom the world bows down to.”

While at first glance this seemed to be Turkish retribution for the public hazing of Turkey’s ambassador to Israel in January, when Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon sat him on a lower chair and reprimanded him over an anti-Semitic television show broadcast in Turkey, the Turkish press reported that Erdogan’s office had the poster taken down before Erdogan appeared at the site to inaugurate a new road network.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the poster, with some diplomatic officials in Jerusalem saying it obviously came from the top, while others said it was quite possible that this was an independent act of protest that was not choreographed by the government.

A leader bowing down to another leader? As if that really happens.

The AJC said in a statement that it was “dismayed that a guest on BBC Radio 4 was allowed to state unchallenged” that the Mossad relies on Jews for assassination plots.

“This baseless accusation crosses every red line between legitimate public discussion and bigoted fear-mongering,” said AJC executive director David Harris. “In less than a minute, the BBC has cast a shadow on the lives of Jews worldwide.”

BBC Radio 4’s PM program interviewed Gordon Thomas, author of Gideon’s Spies, a book about the Mossad, about the January 20 assassination of Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

Local authorities and many international media outlets believe that the killing of Mabhouh, who bought rockets for Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip, was carried out by the Mossad.

In explaining the Mossad’s operating methods outside Israel, Thomas told PM host Eddie Mair, “They have a whole backup system called ‘asylum.’ These are people, local residents, Jewish people, who help the Mossad. It is estimated to be in the world about half a million; some people say a million; I tend to say it’s about half a million, all of them Mossad people.”

“Of course, Mr. Thomas is irresponsible in making such unfounded assertions on a radio program heard around the world,” said Harris, “but even more shocking is BBC, a premier public broadcaster with a far-reaching global network. How can the interviewer allow such aspersions to be cast on a community without the reporter calling the so-called expert to order?”

The comments also drew condemnation from observers of the BBC.

“Unfortunately, such ugly and nonsensical statements on the BBC come as no surprise. The BBC often handpicks interviewees who are likely to say such things as part of a wider pattern to demonize the State of Israel,” said Tom Gross, a former Middle East correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph and a Middle East analyst who has long been critical of BBC coverage of the region.

The AJC called on the BBC “to examine this disgraceful transmission, apologize to Jews around the world and remove from its archive the slanderous words.”

Reached for comment, the BBC press office in London said, “This interview was part of a wider piece about the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh which involved contributions from a number of people including Gordon Thomas, an author of a book about [the] Mossad.

“The sentiments expressed by Gordon Thomas were clearly his own opinions. They came at the end of the interview when it was being wrapped up and there was no time to come back on them.”

You can hear Thomas’ accusations here (from 17:30 onwards).

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

9:16PM: Oy to the vey: Someone thought this would be a good way to sell Israel.

SIZE DOESN’T MATTER – BIG PARADISE from Size Doesnt Matter on Vimeo.

6:30PM: Interesting (CNN!) report on Israel’s Winter Olympics ice skating hopefuls.

6:20PM: G-d bless Colonel Richard Kemp (who you will recall from here and here).

A former senior British army officer has said international media including the BBC are being exploited by “dark forces” who want to harm Israel.

Col Richard Kemp, who was a commander in Afghanistan, said some international criticism of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) was motivated by anti-Semitism.

He was speaking at a dinner in London hosted by a pro-Israel lobby group.

Col Kemp had defended the actions of the IDF at the UN Goldstone Hearings into the Gaza incursion of 2008.

The Israeli minister for Information and the Diaspora, Yuli Edelstein, was also present at the dinner hosted by the Zionist Federation.

He refused to comment on rumours that the Israeli secret service Mossad had fraudulently used the passports of British citizens during an operation to kill the Hamas boss Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

Col Kemp, who is now retired from the Army and makes a living from writing, said the advice he received from the Israeli armed forces on how to tackle Afghan suicide bombers had been invaluable, and formed the basis of official army guidelines used by soldiers on the ground there.

There were some “bad” soldiers in the IDF, Col Kemp acknowledged.

But he added that despite similarities between the IDF and British forces, UK soldiers did not have to deal with the same amount of criticism from the international community.

“When we go into battle we do not get the same knee-jerk, almost Pavlovian response from many, many elements of the international media and international groups, humanitarian groups and other international groups such as the United Nations which should know better… of utter automatic condemnation. We don’t have to put up with that.”

The event, which was attended by over 400 British Jews, heard Mr Edelstein criticise the Goldstone report, which is widely regarded as biased within Israel, and warn against the rise of what he called a “new” anti-semitism.

He said that although it was important to investigate any allegations of wrongdoing by Israeli forces, the Goldstone report had influenced the enemies of his country to continue their campaign of hatred.

“Yes, we have to investigate, yes we have to check ourselves. Yes, I am ashamed of the soldier who stole some credit cards from a deserted house in the Gaza Strip. But between this and war crimes?”

6:12PM: Noah Pollak looks at Israel Derangement Syndrome in the British press.

6:08PM: David Hartwell, a security analyst at IHS Jane’s, talks about the use of European passports in last month’s killing of a Hamashole in Dubai and its impact on Israel’s relationship with European governments.

5:10PM: Earlier today, EU foreign ministers condemned the use of forged European passports by the assassins, but made no direct reference to Israel.

“The EU strongly condemns the fact that those involved in this action [assassination] used fraudulent EU member states’ passports and credit cards acquired through the theft of EU citizens’ identities,” a declaration on behalf of EU foreign ministers said.

—-

According to the European source, the UAE government did not blame Israel for carrying out the assassination nor did it request that Israel be cited in the EU statement.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has gone on the offensive in responding to claims Israel was behind the hit.

“The Arabs have a tendency to blame Israel for anything that happens in the Middle East,” the Israeli FM said, adding that the region “has many internal struggles within groups and states which are not as democratic as Israel is.”

5:05PM: The Dubai police chief has tied the killing of arch terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh to the Mossad.

Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim said, ‘The police investigation has turned the assassination mission from a political crime – to a scandal, to a diplomatic crisis for Israel and has exposed the Israeli Mossad and the outrageous modes of operation its cells employed in order to murder Mabhouh.”

In an interview to Emirati paper al-Bayan published on Monday, Tamim said that “despite Israel’s attempts at denial, claiming there is no evidence that a Mossad cell carried out the assassination, the Dubai police are in possession of dozens of items of incriminating evidence against the cell which attest to the Mossad’s involvement.”

He further noted that “the tactical success of Mabhouh’s assassination is equal to its strategic and diplomatic failure.”

Tamim praised the Dubai police, saying, “Thanks to the Dubai police’s vigilance and capabilities and the strength of the evidence it holds and has handed over to the relevant countries, Mabhouh’s assassination has turned into a scandal and a diplomatic crisis for Israel.”

He rejected claims that western intelligence bodies cooperated with the Israeli Mossad in the operation.

The police chief added with satisfaction that this is the first time the Arab spectator has been able to witness the “crime of assassination.” He said the killing was a subject of interest in the West, to the point where western countries summoned Israeli ambassadors a number of times to demand official clarifications on the use of passports of four European countries.

Tamim stressed that the passports in question were not stolen or forged – but were real. “We do not rule out the possibility that Israel has a printer that prints passports of countries around the world, and this confirms that Israel is country that violates international law,” he said.

Meanwhile, one of the “dozens of items of incriminating evidence against the cell which attest to the Mossad’s involvement” was recently leaked to the media.

9:48AM: The PA reacted to Israel’s decision to include Rachel’s Tomb (in Bethlehem) and the Cave of the Patriarchs (in Hebron) in a national plan to rehabilitate some 150 Jewish and Zionist heritage sites by calling it “dangerous.”

“This particular violation is especially dangerous because it will add to the religious component of the conflict in a way that might bring dangerous consequences,” said Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’  government in Ramallah.

Aussie Dave’s rules of Palestinian Authority lexicon #37: When the PA speaks of “dangerous consequences” in relation to an Israeli action, it is almost always a threat of violence.

6:10AM: According to a new Gallop Poll regarding Americans’ perceptions of 20 nations that figure prominently in the news or US foreign policy, Israel ranked fifth amongst the countries viewed most favorably, Iran came in dead last, and while the PA was low down the list, there was a slight improvement in views over the past year (from 15%).
.

Meanwhile, Israel was the most favored country amongst Republicans, while not faring as well amongst Democrats.

In early January two black Audi A6 limousines drove up to the main gate of a building on a small hill in the northern suburbs of Tel Aviv: the headquarters of Mossad, the Israeli secret intelligence agency, known as the “midrasha”.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, stepped out of his car and was greeted by Meir Dagan, the 64-year-old head of the agency. Dagan, who has walked with a stick since he was injured in action as a young man, led Netanyahu and a general to a briefing room.

According to sources with knowledge of Mossad, inside the briefing room were some members of a hit squad. As the man who gives final authorisation for such operations, Netanyahu was briefed on plans to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a member of Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza.

Mossad had received intelligence that Mabhouh was planning a trip to Dubai and they were preparing an operation to assassinate him there, off-guard in a luxury hotel. The team had already rehearsed, using a hotel in Tel Aviv as a training ground without alerting its owners.

The mission was not regarded as unduly complicated or risky, and Netanyahu gave his authorisation, in effect signing Mabhouh’s death warrant.

Typically on such occasions, the prime minister intones: “The people of Israel trust you. Good luck.”

My first response to this report was “Wow, that is a lot of detail, especially considering it is coming from sources with mere knowledge only of the Mossad.” Then I looked at the reporter’s name – Uzi Mahnaimi.

Nuff said.

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)

6:40PM: More on today’s new UAV unveiling ceremony, some of which was livestreamed here.

The Israel Air Force on Sunday introduced a fleet of large unmanned planes it claims can fly as far as Iran.

Air force officials said the Heron TP drones have a wingspan of 26 meters, making them the size of passenger jets. They said the planes can fly 20 consecutive hours, and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying payloads.

The drones, built by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, were first used during Israel’s Gaza war last year.

At an inauguration ceremony Sunday, officials refused to say how large the new fleet is or whether the planes were designed for use against Iran.

6:22PM: Ever wondered what a “martyr” being greeted by 72 virgins looks like?

Ever wondered what happens to a female palestinian when she is “martyred”?

Thanks to Fatah, we need wonder no more!

5:25PM: From the Department of Unfortunate Names (taken from the Ha’aretz site earlier today).

2:35PM; The livestream is up and running.

2:00PM: From Brian of London, over 30 mins ago:

Just got on base for the UAV demonstration. Not sure if I can stream. Waiting for confirmation

It’s not looking good.

1:00PM: Remember to check out our special live coverage of the demonstration of Israeli’s newest Unmanned Aerial vehicle (UAV), set to start in about 15 minutes, courtesy of special Israellycool correspondent Brian of London.

12:55PM: A man hurled a makeshift bomb at Cairo’s main downtown synagogue this morning, but luckily his throwing skills would not even get him in to an Egyptian cricket team (Yes, apparently they do play cricket in Egypt).

In other news, there is no anti-Semitism in the Arab world.

6:15AM: It seems I am not the only one who noticed the IAEA finally seems to have become honest now that Mohamed ElBaradei is no longer in charge.

Israel praised an International Atomic Energy Agency report released on Thursday that says Iran may be developing a nuclear warhead.

“The new IAEA report deals more sharply and clearly than its predecessors with the military aspects of Iran’s nuclear program,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Friday.

Noting that the report is the first during the term of new IAEA chief Yukiya Amano of Japan, Israel said it “establishes that the agency has a lot of trustworthy information about the past and present activities that testify to the military tendencies of the Iranian program.”

A member of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, said the Foreign Office was also told hours before a Hamas terrorist chief was assassinated in Dubai.

The tip-off did not say who the target would be or even where the hit squad would be in action. But the claim from a credible source that the Government had some prior knowledge of the abuse of UK passports will strengthen calls for ministers to come clean about what they knew and when.

It came as more details emerged of how Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was lured into a trap by Palestinian double agents last month before being smothered with a pillow. The killers tried to make his death look like an accident.

A British security source who met the Mossad agent, and has a track record of providing reliable information, told the Daily Mail: ‘This is a serving member of Israeli intelligence. He says the British Government was told very, very briefly before the operation what was going to happen.

‘There was no British involvement and they didn’t know the name of the target. But they were told these people were travelling on UK passports.’

The security source said that the tip-off was not a request for permission to use British passports but more a ‘courtesy call’ to let the security services know ‘a situation’ might blow up. The Mossad man said Israeli intelligence chiefs understand British authorities will have to ’slap them on the wrist’ and added: ‘The British government has to be seen to be going through the motions.’

The Israeli’s claims contradict Foreign Office assertions that the UK knew nothing of the affair until shortly before the Dubai authorities went public over the assassination earlier this week.

However officials in the Gulf state have claimed that British ministers may have been alerted by Dubai last month about the use of the passports.

If MI6 received a tip-off from Mossad it is not certain it would have been passed to Foreign Secretary David Miliband, particularly if it was vague. Intelligence officers may have preferred to wait before alerting ministers.

But any suggestion that officials turned a blind eye to an extrajudicial killing will strengthen calls for a public inquiry into the UK’s involvement in the war on terrorism. Judges have already ruled that British spies have been complicit in the torture of terrorist suspects.

It will also fuel suspicions in some Arab countries that Britain was ‘complicit’ in the killing of al-Mabhouh.

A Foreign Office spokesman insisted last night it was ‘not correct’ to claim that Britain knew in advance about the passports.
He said: ‘We received the details of the British passports a few hours before the press conference [by police in Dubai]. We were able to respond to the Dubai authorities on the authenticity of the passports the next day.’

The British source told the Mail he has known the Mossad man for more than 20 years and they met as part of a longstanding arrangement. He said British-Israeli intelligence relations were ‘jogging along very nicely when nobody knew – then it all became public’.

The Israeli agent rejected suggestions that intelligence-sharing between the two nations might be damaged. He said Mossad was handling several sources within the UK Muslim community and added: ‘There is no question of jeopardising that information flow.’

Meanwhile, in another possible indication that Israel was behind the hit, the Israeli embassy in the UK tweeted this yesterday (hat tip: readers):

They were of course referring to Shahar Peer’s victory in the Dubai Open.

Come to think of it, I made a very similar joke yesterday.

I could handle them stealing my identity, but not my jokes!!!