SEVEN years ago Australia expelled a Mossad agent and publicly cut ties with the intelligence agency as it admonished Israel for using forged Australian passports in its assassination plot of a Hamas military chief.
But in the murky world of intelligence, nothing is ever what it seems and yesterday the Australian Government hailed Israel’s intelligence network as heroes for making the initial tip off that led to the 11th hour thwarting of an alleged terror plot to bring down an Etihad flight from Sydney last year.
“I wish to thank the Israeli’s very much,” Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said.
“We did get intelligence advice from Israel and it meant that ASIO then reached out to other partners and with all of the information packaged together, it resulted in arrests.”
No doubt hundreds of lives were saved by that tip and what followed but the change of attitude toward Israeli intelligence was as much to do with those actions as it was the politics behind both the breakup and now the make-up.
Read the article by Charles Miranda, News Corp Australia Network in The Daily Telegraph.