"Excuse me, we need your identity to kill someone..."

How would you feel.... if you were innocently living your life and discovered that your identity had been stolen, used in the assassination of a senior leader of Hamas, and then your name and face sprayed all over the world as being connected?

Dubai police have released the names of the holders of 26 Western passports they say are suspects in the killing of Mahmud al-Mabhuh, electrocuted and suffocated, in a Dubai hotel room on January 20th.

Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan of the Dubai police stated he is “99, if not 100 per cent” sure that the Israeli eternal intelligence agency, the Mossad, was behind Mabhuh's death, and said there was evidence, including wiretaps, of their role. Israel has only said there is "no evidence" linking them to the killing.

I'm basically pro-Israel in as much as I recognize the country's right to exist, and defend itself within ethical limits.
That does not extend to potentially framing my countrymen for murder, or anyone else's for that matter.

The fake passports were British, Irish, French, German and those of two Australian men and one Australian woman.
Five very pissed off governments.

Australian foreign affairs minister Stephen Smith called in the Israeli ambassador this morning. He warned Israel that its relationship with Australia could be damaged if evidence is found it was involved in forging Australian passports.

Smith said "I've made it crystal clear to the ambassador that 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".

Ronen Bergman, a security analyst writing for the Yediot Aharonot newspaper in Israel commented:

"Was Mabhuh worth this? It depends whom you ask. Most of the people involved agree that the enormous risk, whose full details will never be revealed, would have been justified only if he himself had been smuggling a nuclear warhead from Tehran to Gaza....Other than that, there is no terror activist who is worth it."

How about we ask the 26 passport holders if they think it was worth it?