Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oy, oy,vay!

What is the world coming to? Three clean-cut young Aussies are named as persons of interest in the assassination of a "Hamas operative", Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, smothered to death in his hotel room in Dubai. Israel's Mossad is widely considered to have organised and carried out the murder. That great master of the spy genre, John Le Carre, couldn't have thought up a more twisted and sinister plot.

Three of the suspected assassins carried Australian passports, in the names of Nicole McCabe, Adam Korman and Joshua Bruce. All are citizens of Australia and all have dual citizenship with Israel. None of them live in Australia, all live in Israel. All deny any knowledge of the illicit use of their (Australian) passports.

Meanwhile, back in Oz, our erstwhile Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd (who famously declared that support for Israel is "in my DNA"), has complained about the use of fake Australian passports in this affair. To the best of my knowledge, however, he has failed to condemn the assassination for what it was - the state sanctioned murder of a political opponent. Seems like you can go around killing off your enemies, just don't use an Australian passport while doing it.

Meanwhile, back in Israel, the war criminal Tzivi Lipni, she who presided over the Gaza Massacre, has voiced her opinion that the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was justified. Most Israelis seemed to agree; when polled, 87% of them went along with Mossad's actions.