The Age, the Melbourne newspaper, and my favourite newspaper in country, conducted a poll today. " Do you think relations between Australia and Israel will be permanently damaged by revelations Israel faked Australian passports?" 62% of the respondents do not think relations will be damaged. 38% think they will be damaged. What is going on?
Michelle Grattan is Age political editor and wrote the article today on the issue. She wrote, "Australians have the right to believe the passport system is secure and that the government will do everything possible to ensure that. The expulsion of an intelligence official from the Israeli embassy comes after a thorough federal police and ASIO investigation. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told Parliament there was ''no doubt'' of Israel's involvement.
The expulsion will carry consequences for the Rudd government and perhaps for Australia. Many in the local Australian Jewish community, a politically powerful lobby in the run-up to the election, will be unhappy."
England also is expelling an official. The British Foreign Office on Tuesday issued a travel advisory to citizens traveling to Israel and the Palestinian territories, just hours after it decided to expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of forged British passports used by the killers of a Hamas commander in Dubai
Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed in January in what Dubai police have said they are 99 percent certain was a hit by Israel's Mossad spy agency. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied a role in the killing of Mabhouh.
Four fake French passports were allegedly used by suspected members of the hit squad.
I doubt this was the first time fake passports were used in a democratic society. I doubt this will be the last. Terror and espionage and counter-intelligence...it's the stuff NCIS and CSI and 24 and all those Bond, James Bond, movies are made. We want justice and yet we want to see the just come out ahead and deserving.
God knows what we need in the world, and justice is still one of those very missing realities. No wonder the Bible says, "Justice, justice shall you pursue" Often on the golf course, I hear guys say after a very good shot, that hits an unfortunate rock or cart path, "That's just not fair." or worse, "There's no justice." I think to myself, or say to them, "Never demand justice. Never fail to give it, but please, don't demand it for yourself." We simply have too much of a warped, mostly self-centred view that disallows real justice, as it relates to us.
No matter if you are of the 62% or the 38%, if you are a golfer or a British, French or Aussie diplomat, or if you are a terrorist or Jack Bauer, within each of us is an aching for justice.
And the only One from whom it comes is the Just One, the Tsadik of all, Y'shua, the Messiah of Israel and Saviour of the World. To know justice is to know God and His Son, Y'shua.
Ask Him about justice and read a bit of Bible, today, maybe right now. See what you can learn. And, keep your passport locked up safely somewhere, ok?
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