Forged passports, and an assassination, a "mistake"

Greg Sheridan is the Foreign Editor for Rupert Murdoch's "The Australian" newspaper. To say that he is an apologist for anything Israel says or does is a mild understatement. Whilst he hasn't disclosed it, he has been to Israel courtesy of Australian and Israeli Jewish bodies.

Yesterday, Australia, rightly, expelled an Israeli "diplomat" - most likely a Mossad agent one would assume - because of Israel's use of forged Australian passports when in Dubai a few months back to assassinate an alleged Hamas operative. Forget about the fact that in addition to that infraction, the killing amounted to an extra-judicial killing in a foreign country.

How does Sheridan address the expulsion in his column in The Australian? He describes it an "overreaction" and "bad mistake" on the part of the Australian Government, and then concludes his piece with this astounding proposition:

"Whether this bad decision was the sign of government weakness in the face of the bureaucracy, or yet another move in the pathetic effort to court Arab votes for our meaningless bid for a UN Security Council seat, or just a bad misjudgment by Mr Smith which Kevin Rudd ratified, it is a poor and misjudged move against a close friend which made a mistake in exceptionally difficult circumstances" [emphasis added]

"Mistake?"

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Mahler's Prodigal Son

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