Dubai Hit Squad

Despite some reports, Israel is playing it very coy about whether or not it sent the hit squad which assassinated the leader of the Hamas military wing, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in a hotel in Dubai one month ago. This is Israeli policy.

Is it legal to murder a terrorist? Alan Dershowitz writes that, if Israel killed the Hamas chief, they can mount a strong defense.

Israel does not confirm or deny responsibility. This is and has been its policy for a very long time. And the Hamas Representative in Lebanon Osama Hamdan did insinuate that it was possible that the Palestinian Authority was involved in the assassination. Plus, a preliminary investigation conducted by Hamas suggested that the assassination was likely carried out by agents of an Arab government. There are even suggestions that he was kidnapped, not killed, though this seems fanciful.

Nevertheless, it is commonly assumed throughout the world that Israel's Mossad was behind the hit.

And it is a fascinating story.

The Times of London has managed to put together the most detailed chronology of the hit, but there is and probably will be a lot we do not know.

What we know is that Mabhouh was the senior Hamas official behind the smuggling of Iranian arms to Gaza. We also know that the last person who saw Mabhouh alive other than his killers was probably Muhammed al-Massoud, a Hamas commander who is reported to have met with Mabhouh in Dubai and who was subsequently arrested.

One guess is that the real target of the Mossad was not Mabhouh himself, but documents that Massoud gave him in their meeting, which likely related to Iranian weapons being supplied to Hamas. There are reports these documents were photographed by part of the assassination team, but no reliable sources I can find to confirm this.

Mystery writer Roger Simon has taken an interest and finds himself fascinated, purely from the story aspects. Indeed, it would make a great thriller, and audiences would cheer to see it on the big screen.

But this is not the big screen, and, in the real world, people are prepared to blame Israel, even without facts.

That Mabhouh was a terrorist is beyond question; he confessed his central role in the 1989 abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers, Avi Sasportas and Ilan Sa'adon, along with several other attacks. Like the members of the hit squad, he was traveling with a false passport. Unlike them, he was not planning a surgical strike, but the purchase of weapons which would be used against large numbers of Israelis and Palestinians.

His death is no greater tragedy than his life.

But what a story.