Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard was wholly controlled by top intelligence officials in Tel Aviv, not part of a “rogue” operation, says the U.S. Navy counterintelligence agent who took his confession. Israeli ambassador Michael Oren caused a bit of a stir Monday when he told a Washington radio station that Pollard, a naval intelligence analyst who [...]

Ireland today ordered the removal of an Israeli diplomat from the country’s embassy in Dublin in protest at the use of forged passports in the killing of a Hamas official in Dubai. The Irish decision was the latest sign of diplomatic fallout following the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, described by Israeli sources as the Hamas [...]

Israelis spent the first day of Passover reading headline stories about 15-year-old Mohammad Zeid Al Farmawi, shot dead by the IDF, according to Palestinian sources. (The IDF but denied the death report). I don’t know if Mohammad was a first-born son. But his mother and father are surely crying tears as bitter as any the Israelites ever [...]

Expulsions of Israeli diplomats from Britain are few and far between. The last one took place in 1988 and only after serial provocations – when a Mossad agent left an envelope containing eight forged passports in a German telephone box, and when, a year later, a Palestinian working as a Mossad double agent was found [...]

The rather extraordinary dust-up between the U.S. and Israel has, among other benefits, shined a light on two of the most taboo yet self-evidently true propositions: (1)our joined-at-the-hip relationship with Israel is a significant cause of anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world, fuels attacks on Americans, and entails a very high price for the U.S. on multiple levels; and (2) many [...]

The America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has done a very unwise thing: It has issued a statement criticizing the Obama Administration, rather than Israel, for its reaction to the Netanyahu government’s recent announcement of more illegal settlement blocks in East Jerusalem–an announcement that was made during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit last week, an act of [...]

By its continued settlement expansion, Israel makes the two-state solution ever harder to realise… Politics is ultimately about interests. Morals and highfalutin principles have their place, but a more reliable truth is that governments and countries usually act in their own self-interest. Usually. The way Israel greeted the visiting US vice-president, Joe Biden, this week offers an [...]

Fast forward 18 years to the assassination of Hamas military leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on Jan. 20, and it is a graphic reminder of just how much the world has changed. Nearly the entire hit was recorded on closed-circuit TV cameras, from the time the team arrived at Dubai’s airport to the time the assassins entered [...]

Here’s some interesting reading that warrants some follow-up investigating… Last week’s breakin at Senator Mary Landrieu’s office in the New Orleans Federal Building was more than it seemed, much more.  All of the 4 arrested had been trained by the CIA and, possibly, Israel.  One arrested, Stan Dai, is listed as an Operations Officer of the Department [...]