Israel Asks Poland To Deliver Mossad Agent

The state of Israel seems to be incapable of existing for more than a few weeks without another diplomatic crisis. But before you feel any sympathy for the Israelis remember that all these crises are self-inflicted. It was Israel that decided to launch an indiscriminate attack Gaza killing hundreds of civilians, it was Israel that decided to violently attack a civilian ship in international waters killing nine civilians, and it was Israel that decided to forge Western passports in order to kill a Palestinian official in Dubai. Furthermore, in all these crises, the state of Israel has had to contend solely with diplomatic backlash while Palestinians and now Turks have lost their lives. These two points, especially the latter, need belaboring.

And this new crisis is due to the Dubai hit. As you may recall, a few months back the Israeli intelligence agency the Mossad sent over thirty of its agents to Dubai under the cover of forged Western passports to kill a mid-level Hamas official. Although they got their target, they left an incredibly amateurish trail which allowed the Dubai police to put together a timeline documenting their activities of the agents and to identify all of them with photos and passports. Western governments were furious that Israel has forged their passports in order to commit a crime in Dubai, a city-state with good relations with Europe and America. But using French, Germany, British and Australian passports, the state of Israel - the respective governments argued - had, first, engaged in a breach of trust and was endangering their nationals.

It was because of this that both Britain and Australian kicked out the Mossad chiefs in their capitals. And now Germany itself has requested that a Mossad official be extradited from Poland.

Polish authorities, at the behest of the Germany government, arrested a Mossad agent believed to have fabricated German passports for the purpose of fellow Mossad agents being able to enter Dubai.

“He was arrested in Warsaw and is suspected of being involved in illegally obtaining a [German] passport,” spokesman for German federal prosecution said. “It’s now up to the Poles to decide if they are going to hand him over to Germany,” he added.

The Germans want to prosecute the official, but Israel is demanding that Poland send him back to Israel:

Israeli ministers want Uri Brodsky, a suspected Mossad agent, who was arrested at Warsaw airport on June 4, brought home to Israel and not extradited to Germany for prosecution, according to German weekly Der Spiegel. [...]

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"Poland needs to tell Germany that it is sending an Israeli citizen to Israel and if there is some complaint against him, we have legal procedures [that] have great credibility with the international legal system," Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov told reporters in Jerusalem.

"First they have to prove that he has done what he is accused of," he said. "[But] for the time being, we are talking about an Israeli citizen. We are obliged to bring him home and this is what we shall do."

The Polish government has good relations with Israel, but relations with Germany are far more important. And this would be a stain on Poland if it sent him to Israel in breach of German law and European Union custom.

The Poles have done the right thing:

Poland will transfer an Israeli man accused of aiding in the January assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai to Germany, prosecutors say.

Do not be surprised if Israel now seeks to guilt trip the Germans by bringing back memories of the Holocaust and the idea of sending Jews to Germany for state prosecution. Of course, the analogy would be so wrong and offensive, but Israel has never known any decency when it comes to respecting the memories of the Holocaust victims and it not above petty exploitation in an effort to shield itself from any criticism and accountability. It is a self-righteous nation which believes it can get away with anything.

But the Germans would see through such a ploy and be deeply offended, and would not give in to such cheap tactics.