国际英语新闻：EU-Israel relations in spotlight over spy affair

JERUSALEM, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Master spy novelist Frederick Forsyth told the BBC last week he would never have written a book in which his heroes botched their mission as did the hit team that killed a Hamas operative in Dubai a month ago.

The fact that at least 11 of the alleged killers were caught on the myriad closed-circuit television cameras around the emirate has most likely ensured those spies will never work in the field again.

The enormous media interest in the incident, coupled with the claims that Israel's famed Mossad intelligence agency was behind the assassination, has led to a backlash from European states.

Passports from four countries were used in the operation, with at least 10 of the travel documents being used without the knowledge of the people in whose names they were issued.

Israeli ambassadors have been hauled into meetings with the foreign ministries in their host states and European officials have been telling the media they want clarifications from Israel.

However, despite the current palaver, analysts in Israel believe the storm will eventually blow itself out and Israeli relations with European Union members will remain on track.

MEDIA INTEREST

There has been intense media speculation regarding all aspects of the assassination since Dubai police officers released film footage a week ago showing the events leading up to the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a member of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas.

That interest was further fuelled by the publication of mug- shots of six Brits, three Irish, and nationals from France and Germany. These were the faces of those said to have killed al- Mabhouh, entering Dubai on the passports of 11 Europeans.

Several newspapers asked how the agents could obtain the original passports of the Europeans in order to make highly accurate forged copies.

The London-based Jewish Chronicle suggested that when individuals are approved for immigration to Israel they hand in their passports to their local Israeli consular office for some 10 days. The passports could well be intercepted and copied at that point, the paper said.

Meanwhile, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph argued that the British government knew of the nature of the operation some two weeks prior to its being made public by the authorities in Dubai.

If true, that would mean the British government was possibly hoping it would not have to go public with its questioning of Israel, not would it have had to dispatch to Israel members of its Serious Organized Crimes Agency.

The suggestion of prior knowledge was denied by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in a report published by another British daily, The Guardian.

OFFICIAL ANGER

The issue will be a hot topic when European foreign ministers gather in Brussels this week.

British and Irish foreign ministers David Miliband and Michael Martin have told reporters that they will press their Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman, when he flies into Belgium for the European parley. Martin also said he will raise the issue for debate with his European peers.

While the story is great for the public with its espionage and international intrigue, former Israeli diplomat to Paris and Brussels Freddy Eytan believes the brouhaha is outweighed by other, more pressing shared interests between Israel and Europe.

"All European states, and especially those who are NATO members and fighting in Afghanistan against the Taliban, have a common goal with Israel. The same can be said for the Iranian issue," Eytan said on Sunday.

Rather than criticism, there should be close cooperation on such issues, he added. That cooperation clearly exists and there is no reason why one incident should blow that relationship off course.

One possibility is that the public condemnation of the killing, coupled with the assumption that Israel was behind the plot, is a case where Western leaders have to be seen to do the right thing, said Eytan.

WHAT NEXT

All eyes are now on Dubai, waiting to see if the police there will produce any more evidence. So far the Gulf Arab emirate has said it is 99-percent sure that Israel was responsible for al- Mabhouh's death.

However, because the alleged killers successfully escaped, it will be extremely difficult to prove beyond all doubt that it was indeed a Mossad operation.

This lack of certainty leaves people scratching their heads when it comes to what to do next.

"There is no dogma for handling matters such as this, no fixed rules of practice. Does one tell the full truth, half the truth, lie brazenly?" said the editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post, David Horovitz.

"Everything is a function of the particular circumstance, the nature of relationships, other areas of cooperation, internal politics -- these and a host of other factors," he said.

While the affair is deeply embarrassing and frustrating for London, Dublin, Paris and Berlin, the truth is that the intelligence agencies of Europe do work extremely closely with the Mossad, according to local analysts.

Intel from Israel has reportedly lead to the prevention of terror attacks around the world and European intelligence community heads hold regular meetings with their Israeli colleagues as they update one another on developments and new technologies.

It was perhaps calculated by the Mossad and Israeli government that European countries value their intelligence relationship with Israel so much that Israel could take the liberty of "borrowing" the identities of European nationals with no major harm coming to its relations with European states.