Israel - a stormy relationship: Passports fraud an excusable war tactic

By FRAN O'SULLIVAN

Up on the Golan Heights, Israel and the surrounding Arab nations look a bit like a patchwork quilt.

Treading these historic hills, it is simpler to understand the passions and concerns that drive Israel.

Into the haze stretch Syria and Lebanon, two Arab nations that Israel believes are opposed to its very existence.

On the border with Lebanon, an hour's drive away, two soldiers were shot by the Hizbollah guerrilla group as they worked on a communications antenna.

"We have retaliated," said Israel Defence Force spokesman Ben Rubenstein. "But it is a parsimonious retaliation - we do not want to start a war."

Lebanon lies above the Galilee, where many New Zealanders have come to build a new nation.

The "passports affair" has been a point of anguish for some of these expatriates, as for others living in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

They have been rocked since Prime Minister Helen Clark slapped sanctions against their new home after two Israeli agents were caught trying to obtain a New Zealand passport.

To some in Israel - including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - there is incomprehension at Clark's inability to understand "we are at war".

The wave of suicide bombings that led to the construction of the controversial security fence are palpable here, where each person has a tale to tell of lost lives.

A leading Christchurch-born figure on Kibbutz Yizrael says he would lend spies his own passport "if they wanted it".

Shimon Zelas is quick to add he has not done so.

Israel's security agencies commonly "borrow" passports from smart, bilingual young Israelis with dual nationalities.

"I know instances where friends have had their passports taken for two months, three months and come back with all sorts of stamps in them," says South African-born security analyst Hirsh Goodman.

But another former Mossad official says such "passport farming" is becoming more difficult as countries introduce biometric identification in the wake of growing international terrorism.

"Many of those Israelis who don't travel much but hold passports from other countries are well above the usual age range for active Mossad agents."

The passports affair, or "the scandal" as it has become known, was common currency at a Knesset luncheon.

Labour MP Issac Herzog, whose father is a former President of Israel, deplores the attempted use of New Zealand identities. He heads the Knesset's Australia and New Zealand Friendship Committee and wants relations to be mended as soon as possible.

A line had been well sewn in advance that Clark had played the affair for all it was worth.

"She is facing election and just wants to push the Maori issues off the front-page," was the refrain.

Another charge was that New Zealand was focused on its meat trade in the Middle East and did not want to help Israel out by keeping the affair quiet because of growing ties with Arab nations.

But the affair is more complex than that.

The issue of the "Sayanim" - Jews who assist Israel in its undercover activities in foreign territories - has now been raised.

Herald inquiries disclose that Aucklander Tony Resnick - believed by New Zealand police to be the "fourth man" in the passports affair - frequently stayed at Kibbutz Yizrael in the 1990s.

Resnick fled New Zealand the day after the two Israeli agents were apprehended. Kiwis the Herald spoke to believe he is at the kibbutz now.

Shimon Zelas describes Resnick as a "very good man".

"He used to come here and visit his cousin a lot but never formally joined the kibbutz."

At the time, Resnick worked with the Star of David ambulance service.

In New Zealand, he is suspected as the spotter who identified the young cerebral palsy sufferer whose passport the agents tried to obtain.

One New Zealand-born Israeli suggests that giving information about paraplegics is "not a major crime".

Another says Resnick is "passionate about Israel's future and aware that we are surrounded by enemies who wish to push us into the sea".

Goodman says the spy agency probably ran a passports factory in Israel as well.

"Good move by Mossad ... The damage to Israel is primarily in getting caught."

But Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff is unhappy that Resnick took flight.

"He was, of course, a New Zealand citizen and possibly still has family in New Zealand.

'It is possible that the police will require him to return to New Zealand for questioning."

What grates with Goff are statements by an Auckland Jewish Council member suggesting Resnick could not have been part of the affair.

Goff challenges the council to call on Resnick to come back and talk to police.

His bigger beef is the absence of any condemnation by the council of the Israeli agents' actions.

"I would have expected people to have been quite straightforward - to say we don't condone anyone coming to this country and committing acts that are against the law, particularly those that undermine our sovereignty and the integrity of our travel documents.

"I would have expected that comment would have been made quite clearly. Perhaps it hasn't been as clear as it should have been.

"For those who are claiming this has nothing to do with the Israeli intelligence agencies - [the agents] are just common criminals who happen to be Israelis - then I'm amazed that they have any criticism of the treatment they have received."

Expatriate New Zealanders in Israel certainly want the affair resolved.

Jon Boock and his wife, Marion, have lived in Tel Aviv for many years.

"It is difficult enough here without all this," he says midway through a tour of the city to point out the sites of suicide bombings and "where Saddam's scud missiles came in".

Auckland businessman Mike Nathan is one of a number of New Zealanders who went to Israel in 1967 to live and work under the "Bridge" programme.

It was a "euphoric" time for the young Kiwi who found work in the orange groves at Kibbutz Yizrael.

(Goff was also caught up in the fervour of the new nation, going to Israel in the 1970s to work on a kibbutz.)

Nathan now runs the NZ Israel Trade Association, which is in turn funded by the Australia New Zealand Israel Chamber of Commerce.

He has brought a number of thinkers and intellectuals to New Zealand in recent times.

"We try and inform people about the realities of the Middle East where it touches on New Zealand's interests ...

"Our job will be easier when this is over."