‘The Palestine Cables’: Other countries want to ’smoke out’ Israel on NPT and Mossad use of passports

This is the fourth installment of my new column on WikiLeaks and Israel/Palestine at Mondoweiss.  You can read all the installments here.

Whether it’s the Mossad’s use of foreign passports or the refusal to open up about its nuclear weapons program, Israel is developing a reputation as a rogue state.  Some of the nearly 2,000 secret State Department cables so far released by WikiLeaks and its media partners reveal that governments around the world are getting impatient with these practices.

Israel joins India, Pakistan and North Korea as the only states to possess nuclear weapons without being a party to the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), the key pillar in the international effort to limit the spread of nuclear weapons.

Some governments want to put an end to Israel’s official policy of “ambiguity” over its nuclear weapons program:

–In February 2010, an Egyptian military official “called on the United States to not ignore the Israeli nuclear program. He stated that Israel’s nuclear program only gave Iran justification for creating its own nuclear weapons. If Iran obtained nuclear weapons, it would only embolden Iran to use Hezbollah and Hamas with impunity.”  Juan Cole comments that this cable is proof that “Israel’s nuclear stockpile inspires neighbors with fear and trepidation, and impels them to try to get a nuclear bomb themselves.”

–An American Assistant Secretary of State, Rose Gottemoeller, held meetings with a number of foreign diplomats about the NPT in May 2009.  Canadian ambassador Marius Grinius, whose country is one of Israel’s staunchest allies, told Gottemoeller that “it was time for the [Conference on Disarmament) to 'smoke out' Pakistan, Iran and Israel on their positions [regarding the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty].”

–An April 2009 cable meant to prepare Dennis Ross for a visit to Egypt states that the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs “believes that a harder U.S. line in UN fora on Israel’s nuclear program would strengthen the U.S. position on demanding Iran cease working to develop nuclear weapons.”

–A February 2010 cable describes efforts by the French and U.S. governments to entice Egypt to get on board with efforts to stop nuclear weapons spreading around the Middle East.  One way to do that, the French government suggested, was to push “Israel to accept CTBT [Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty].”

Ire has also been directed at Israel because of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, using foreign passports:

–After two Israeli citizens were sentenced to jail in New Zealand on charges of attempting to obtain a false passport, a U.S. diplomatic cable reported in July 2004 that, “Prime Minister Helen Clark suspended high-level contact with Israel and announced a range of diplomatic sanctions, including placing Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) officials under ‘strict constraints’ in their contact with Israelis.”

State Department cables are also beginning to trickle out about the Mossad’s involvement in the January assassination of Hamas member Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, again with the misuse of passports being an issue.

But it is the U.S. that is shielding Israel from accountability on both NPT and passport abuse.

Despite calling for a world free of nuclear weapons, in August 2010 the Obama administration said that “Israel has [the] right to nuclear capability for deterrence purposes.”  A December 2009 cable reports that a U.S. diplomat strategized with the Israeli government on a “potential strategy in addressing Egyptian insistence on pushing for the establishment of a nuclear weapon free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East, as a way to divert attention from Iran to Israel.”

The U.S. also “declined a request from the United Arab Emirates to assist an investigation into the assassination of a top Hamas commander,” according to a February 2010 cable.

For more WikiLeaks news and analysis relating to Israel/Palestine, see:

–Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam: Wikileaks: State Department Lied, Denying Dubai Asked for Assistance in Tracking Mossad Assassins

–Asa Winstanley, New Left Project: Wikileaks: Insights on Palestine from the Cables

–Reuters:  UAE considered keeping Mabhouh hit under wraps, WikiLeaks cables reveal

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Promises 3700 Files on Israel

The Arabic-language news outlet Al Jazeera aired an interview last Wednesday with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.  Some excerpts from this translated version:

When will you publish the files related to Israel on your website?

We will publish 3700 files and the source is the American embassy in Tel Aviv. Prime Minister Netanyahu was traveling to Paris to talk to the US ambassador there. You will see more information about that in six months.

Do these Israeli files speak about the July 2006 Israeli war against Lebanon?

Yes there is some information about that and these files were classified as top secret.

Is there any relation with these files and the assassination of Hamas military leader Al Mabhoh in Dubai?

Yes there are some indication to this and may be some special reports published by newspapers. Mossad agents used Australian, British and European passports to travel to Dubai and there are diplomatic files about that…

The English-language Jerusalem Post adds in this intriguing tidbit:

“The Guardian, El-Pais and Le Monde have published only two percent of the files related to Israel due to the sensitive relations between Germany, France and Israel. Even The New York Times could not publish more due to the sensitivities related to the Jewish community in the US,” [Assange] added.

Lawrence Swaim of the Interfaith Freedom Foundation had interesting insights on this interview.  He told me that the most interesting answer Assange gave was when he said that he needs “more journalists including Arabs to read and analyse and put everything in the context for the benefit of the readers.”  Swaim comments:

This indicates the increasing collaboration of Assange with established media. And the more he collaborates, the more selectivity in releasing date will occur, and the more political that selectivity will become. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing–I think it’s a great thing. And the selectivity was inevitable, since a cold drop of thousands of piece of data on the internet wasn’t really working for Assange. The point he is trying to make–about systemic evil in government–was getting buried in plain sight under the weight of a great deal of useless material.

Assange is simply saying at this point that he’s going to release stuff about Israel, a great deal of which originates with the Israelis themselves. Therefore he is in a position to retaliate if the US keeps using CIA assets and allies to imprison him by releasing things that will embarrass Israel. He may not have had that it mind at the beginning, but that’s the way it’s shaping up. But Assange is playing a dangerous game. He’s too high-profile now to be assassinated, but the US security establishment may decide they need to punish Assange as an example. Thus they may keep trying to run him to ground while drafting new law preventing the free flow of information to and in the internet. But that way, they will recieve very strong opposition from hacktivists.