Maybe Israel didn’t do it?
As I’ve said in the past, I’m entirely in favor of Israel traveling to Dubai to kill terrorists in a manner that harms no civilians. Again, I don’t really understand the complaints against it, especially from people who support aerial strikes by the United States against terrorists in countries with which we are not at war.
But maybe Israel didn’t do it?* From a Washington Times piece by my former colleague Eli Lake:
Nonetheless, some details have emerged that do not track with traditional Israeli intelligence tradecraft. The Dubai authorities this week said two of the operatives fled to Iran.
Michael Ross, a retired officer for the Mossad’s covert-operations division, said it would be a breach of Israeli protocol for an operative to flee to another target country like that after an operation.
He also said that it was unlikely that Israel would use 26 people for a job that would require far fewer people. “The Mossad believes if two people can do something instead of three people, then send two.”
Now Hamas is saying that it thinks Egypt and Jordan were behind the killing:
Hamas suspects the security forces of an Arab state were behind the assassination of a senior group operative in Dubai earlier this year, the Al-Quds Al-Araby daily reported on Tuesday.
Mahmoud Nasser, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, told the newspaper that slain commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was likely being tracked by agents from Jordan and Egypt prior to the January 19 killing.
It’s an interesting wrinkle. For the record: I have no problem with Egypt and Jordan sneaking into Dubai and killing a terrorist either. In fact, I’m kind of excited about it. Maybe they’re finally on board with this whole “Hamas is no good for the Middle East peace process” thing.
*You have to imagine me writing that line as if I was saying “Well, everyone knows Custer died at Little Bighorn. What this book presupposes is… maybe he didn’t?”** Because that’s exactly how I wrote it. I even shrugged my shoulders a little as I was typing.
**I wonder how many people will get that reference.