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Auckland, New Zealand, Tuesday, September 21,
2004
Goff likely
to face Israel at UN debate
Phil
Goff, NZ Foreign Minister
By Fran
O'Sullivan
FOREIGN
Affairs Minister Phil Goff and his
Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, may
cross paths at the United Nations this week for
the first time since Mossad- linked agents tried
to steal false New Zealand passports.
The two will be in New York for a meeting of
the UN's General Assembly, which is expected to
hold a major debate on anti-Semitism. The
Government has sought an apology from Israel
over the passports incident but nothing has been
forthcoming.
Mr Goff said nothing was planned. "If I meet
up with the Israeli Foreign Minister in passing,
or whatever, I will be making the same points
that have been made previously. "The onus is on
them at this point to come clean with us and
give whatever assurance they are capable of that
they don't intend to exploit our citizens and
undermine the integrity of our passports."
He
said Israeli agents Eli Cara and Uriel
Kelman (right) would be deported at
their own expense immediately they were released
from prison in Auckland. "These guys are going
to be in a real rush to get out of here. They
will be out of here as quickly as they can and
on a plane back to Israel." Mr Goff has not
sought any direct communication with Israel.
But Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs says
once the pair have gone, diplomatic efforts to
repair the rift will be swift. "We plan to
answer all the New Zealand Government's
questions," said Israeli official Michael
Ronen. Mr Goff said the ball was in Israel's
court once the agents were released "to say this
is what we did, we're sorry we did it and we
won't do it again".
The Foreign Affairs Minister will also
discuss the passports affair with his Canadian
counterpart, Pierre Pettigrew. Israel was
caught using Canadian passports as part of a
botched attempt to assassinate a Jordanian
leader in 1997. Herald inquiries
established that Kelman used his Canadian
passport on an earlier trip to New Zealand.
There
are unconfirmed reports
that [Israeli
assassin] Zev Barkan, left,
the alleged mastermind of the attempted
passports fraud, has since used the identity of
a Canadian citizen, Kevin William Hunter,
in Asia. "The Canadians feel very sensitive
about this," said Mr Goff, "and there is further
evidence that, contrary to assurances given to
them, their passports continue to be misused by
Mossad agents. "I would expect that if they
confirm that, they will get very angry about
it." New Zealand police would likely seek
extradition orders against Barkan if he was
found.
And Mr Goff said missing Aucklander Tony
Resnick, suspected by police as the fourth man
in the affair, would be questioned if he
returned. The minister condemned the tactics by
the Israeli pair's lawyers to seek an appeal
against the convictions as an obvious attempt to
"stop open discussion" of the affair. 
"They
can't claim their conviction was wrong - they
pleaded guilty. They can scarcely claim that the
sentence was extraordinarily harsh. If anything,
I think they got off lightly."
A Herald inquiry has
found:
A high-profile Israeli MP believes the state
of Israel "wants to do killings" but should
penetrate hostile countries using identities
gained with the help of friendly intelligence
agencies.
Charges of anti-Jewish sentiment against the
[Helen] Clark Government within New
Zealand and Israel could just as easily be
laid against most European nations, judging
by their UN voting records.
Some New Zealanders living in Israel are
prepared to "lend" their New Zealand
passports to Mossad to help fight
terrorists.
Israeli security analysts believe Mossad was
operating a "passport factory" here and in
Israel, using disabled people's
identities.
Tony Resnick is well-known to Israel's New
Zealand community, but they are not
disclosing his whereabouts.
The strategy Finance Minister Benjamin "Bibi"
Netanyahu is using to turn Israel around is
"pure Rogernomics".
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