Several weeks on, there are two main theories about what happened at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai on January 20: the first is that although one of Israel's well-known enemies, Mamhoud al-Mabhouh, was killed, it was a botched operation by Mossad. Surely no intelligence agency would leave fingerprints everywhere ending in photographs of its agents being plastered over newspapers around the world.
The second common theory is that it was a masterful operation. Those who push this theory argue that Mossad wanted to send a very loud message -- to Iran in particular -- that its fingerprints are everywhere and that it can kill anyone, anywhere.
Immediate past Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert hinted at this "anyone, anywhere" world view after an attack in Egypt on a convoy of trucks from Sudan last year. Israel claimed the convoy was moving weapons that had come from Iran through Sudan and Egypt and were destined for Gaza.
As with the Dubai assassination, people in Israel accepted -- with a wink, a nod and a smile -- that it was an operation by Israel.
As with Dubai, Israel would not actually come out and say it had done it. There was, of course, "no proof".
On Dubai, Israel is not admitting to anything. Its Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman speaks for the government when he says there is no proof it was them.
But inside Israel it is now generally accepted that it was done by Mossad or should have been. For a couple of weeks Israelis were coy about it. The media in Israel went out of its way to be careful -- Israeli media operates under serious military censorship.
Israeli newspapers got around this for the first two weeks after the Dubai assassination by running reports which said material was "according to foreign media reports".
But in the past week the Israeli media has rebelled. The country's largest-selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, carried a story this week headlined A Joke Called Military Censorship.
Things are heating up in the Middle East. They are getting worse rather than better.
Unless the pattern of history has suddenly changed, Hamas and its supporters will now do everything they can to target and kill a senior Israeli or Jewish figure abroad.
Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/locals-accept-dubai-assassination-was-mossad-operation/story-e6frg6nf-1225834934957
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