by Ganesh Sahathevan
The Australian has reported:
..rest assured, Israeli intelligence has saved Australian lives – hundreds of them.
Future prime minister Bob Hawke, then president of the Australian Labor Party, bravely wanted none of ( then Prime Mnister Gough Whitlam's "neutrality' towards Israel)“I know that if we allow the bell to be tolled for Israel it will have tolled for me, for us all,” he told the Zionist Federation in a Sydney meeting in January 1974.
“For me”? If only he had known. Palestinians were already arranging his assassination.
One of their agents, posing as a journalist, was given a visa to enter Australia in 1974. Munif Mohammed Abou Rish arrived here that year and planned to return to Australia the following year with a hit list that included Hawke, the then Israeli ambassador to Australia Michael Elizur, prominent Jewish Australian Isi Leibler and my old mate, and this newspaper’s one-time foreign editor, Sam Lipski.
The man who planned to assassinate Hawke, Munif Mohammed Abou Rish, was provided with fake passports by Australian supporters.
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BeyondWords Text to Speech David's voice
No wonder they call it Five Eyes. Its official title is AUSCANNZUKUS, an acronym covering the multilateral security and intelligence sharing agreement between Australia, Canada, New Zealand the United Kingdom and the United States.
Since 1946, those five nations have gathered intelligence about threats to themselves and the others and share it in a uniquely trusting manner, with the Islamist threat to us all front and centre.
But perhaps the country whose intelligence gathering counts most to monitoring this multipronged menace is not a member: Israel.
Israel’s legendary intelligence achievements have not just saved lives, but preserved the Jewish state, notwithstanding its neighbours never-ending attacks and commitment to its destruction.
We may be girt by sea; Israel is girt by existential danger.
I once asked Danny Yatom, who was boss of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, from 1999 to 2001 would Israel ever seek to become a sixth eye.
It wasn’t that Israel would dismiss the invitation, but he said his nation did not need membership. It already shared intelligence about threats to Australia and the others at the highest level. And Australia and the others reciprocate.
It’s a high stakes game and one of the reasons the Albanese government’s disregard for the relationship with Israel is dangerous.
Because, rest assured, Israeli intelligence has saved Australian lives – hundreds of them.
In July 2017, the Australian Federal Police arrested two Lebanese brothers from Lakemba. Khaled and Mahmoud Khayat were apprehended as police swooped on various addresses around Sydney. They had planned to blow an Etihad flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi on which would have been 400 passengers. And they came close to success.
Over some months a third brother, Tarek, a murderous jihadi fighting in northern Syria, posted components and instructions to the Sydney Khayats and they assembled bombs in a meat-grinder and a Barbie doll.
How the explosive substance arrived undetected in Australia remains a mystery and authorities have never named it. The brothers communicated using the encrypted Russian- based Telegram messaging system preferred by terrorists.
The Khayats took the baggage to Sydney Airport, but the meat grinder was deemed to heavy and they took it home, disassembled it and went back to the drawing board to investigate other ways of killing their fellow countrymen.
And that might have happened, but Mossad was on their trail, and alerted the AFP to the plotters and their plans. The brothers were arrested 14 days later.
The Khayats were charged and convicted of “an act in preparation for a terrorist act” with Khaled Khayat sentenced to 40 years in prison and Mahmoud 36.
In January, 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed to a group of ambassadors that Mossad had given their countries intelligence that had thwarted “several dozen” significant terrorist attacks, including the Khayats’.
The following year, the then retiring ASIO director-general of security, Duncan Lewis, praised Israel for its help in unravelling this danger to Australian lives.
“This plot involved a direct attack … against aviation targets here in Australia … This was an example where Australia benefited from an intelligence lead from an international partner, in that particular case, the State of Israel.”
In the early 1970s, Palestinian terrorists tried to build a network of Australians sympathetic to their cause and saw Australia as a soft touch, not least of which because of then prime minister Gough Whitlam’s policy of neutrality in the Middle East notwithstanding the Palestinian program of terror that had up to then included the Munich Olympic Games massacre, the assassination of the Jordanian prime minister and plane hijacks across Europe.
At the Sydney Town Hall on in May 1973, Whitlam said: “Australia’s policy towards the Middle East is one of neutrality and of sympathetic interest in a settlement.”
Future prime minister Bob Hawke, then president of the Australian Labor Party, bravely wanted none of it.
“I know that if we allow the bell to be tolled for Israel it will have tolled for me, for us all,” he told the Zionist Federation in a Sydney meeting in January 1974.
“For me”? If only he had known. Palestinians were already arranging his assassination.
One of their agents, posing as a journalist, was given a visa to enter Australia in 1974. Munif Mohammed Abou Rish arrived here that year and planned to return to Australia the following year with a hit list that included Hawke, the then Israeli ambassador to Australia Michael Elizur, prominent Jewish Australian Isi Leibler and my old mate, and this newspaper’s one-time foreign editor, Sam Lipski.
Israeli intelligence warned Australia about the risks. One Palestinian was expelled and the rest were watched.
The man who planned to assassinate Hawke, Munif Mohammed Abou Rish, was provided with fake passports by Australian supporters.
Later, he was “accidentally” killed by Israeli security forces.
Nationwide News Pty Ltd.
Document AUSTOL0020250808el88002gx
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