Heather Roy's Diary - The Israeli spy fiasco

Heather Roy's Diary

TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY
Truth, they say, is stranger than fiction. The Israeli spy fiasco that has led the news for the past few days is a plot Le Carre might be tempted to write, or perhaps more likely, not even have entertained for its incompetence.

So what is really going on? The story started this week with the revelation that a young Israeli was killed in the February 22 Christchurch earthquake. Initial reports said the dead man had 5 passports and his three backpacking companions had fled the country within 12 hours because they were all spies. As the week progressed it transpired that he really had two passports – one Israeli, one European - and his three friends had handed his Israeli passport to the Israeli Ambassador on their way out of the country.
By Friday morning the news reports were this:

Among the further mysteries that emerged yesterday was confirmation from Key's office that Michal Fraidman, Guy Jordan and Liron Sade left Christchurch on one of the earliest flights out after the February 22 earthquake, on an air force 757.

They were met at Wellington Airport the next day by a local police officer, who questioned them about the identification of their dead friend Ofer Mizrahi, according to an Israeli woman who lives in Christchurch and met the three in an emergency shelter at Hagley Park on the night of the quake.

So, it would appear that after investigation approved by the Prime Minister that the group really were what they said – backpackers, not Mossad agents.

There has also been much speculation about the Israeli Search and Rescue team. On Thursday the Prime Minister’s office said that the SAR team was escorted from the Christchurch CBD ‘red zone’. On Friday however the team manager has said that they never entered the ‘red zone’ and so were never evicted. The team manager has been open about his prior involvement as a special operations paratrooper and his service in the Israeli intelligence community but this just appears to have fuelled the ‘spy ring’ rumours. It may be that the SAR team was turned away because it was made up of army personnel.

One thing overlooked by the conspiracy theorists is everyone serves in the military in Israel, including the women. So to have excluded them for that reason is extremely short-sighted, if not ignorant. New Zealand SAR teams have commented on how efficient the Israelis were in finding all their nationals and identifying three Israeli citizens killed in the earthquake.

Add to the mix the more recent suggestion that someone within the New Zealand SIS may have leaked information which revealed concern at the agency about Israeli spies operating in Christchurch. It was a journalist at the Southland Times who seems to have had the scoop on this bizarre story. Prime Minister John Key has ordered an inquiry.

The story broke while the Prime Minister was travelling in the United States and his initial and subsequent comments to media were confused. Although the opposition has made much of cover-ups it is more likely that the PM didn’t have all the information he should have. Prime Ministers don’t take kindly to not being fully briefed and particularly when information they don’t have finds its way to the media. They also have a great dislike of any threat to international relations harmony and the disquiet of the Israelis is embarrassing to the nation.

Like any good espionage novel, the story will eventually be told now that it is in the public arena. But one thing shouldn’t be forgotten – not all Israeli’s are spies, just as not all Australians wear hats with bobbling corks and not all Kiwis are sheep-shaggers.

The last word goes to the Kiwi SAR team member embarrassed at the treatment of the Israeli team. "I've got to say, over the last few days with all this spy rubbish, I feel ashamed to be a Kiwi, mate."

Lest We Forget - 22 July 2011Carrisbrook's Last Test

On Friday the All Blacks played Fiji in what was the last test ever to be played at Carrisbrook - the famous Dunedin Rugby field where most Otago University students have spent at least a little time on the Terraces. It was also one of the few fields where the really hard up or fugal could sometimes get a view from the Scotman's Grandstand, the elevated roadside outside the ground.

Carisbrook was named after a castle in the Isle of Wight for James Macandrew, a colonial settler in Dunedin. The sportsground was developed during the 1870s and was first used for international cricket in 1883, when Otago hosted a team from Tasmania. Rugby union internationals have been held at Carrisbrook since 1908 and full cricket internationals since 1955.

Home to the Highlanders, Carrisbrook will be fondly remembered when future tests are played in the new Dunedin Stadium.

ENDS