Political cartoonists working for Israeli newspapers this week turned their attention away from Rafiq Husseini, the Palestinian Authority official who disgraced by a sex tape.
The new target of the cartoonists is a subject that is usually off-limits: Mossad. The shift in focus took place as suspicion mounted that the spy agency was involved in the assassination in January of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai.
The details of the plot itself provided ample fare for satire: CCTV footage showed the assassins were dressed as tennis players. Dubai police said the operatives used wigs and false beards.
In keeping with its policy of "ambiguity" on the matter, Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the killing. But the cartoons, like Israeli press at large, simply assume that Mossad was behind the hit.
A caricature in the newspaper Haaretz depicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking Mossad chief Meir Dagan, “I have one question about the Mossad operation in Dubai: Why do all the agents wear the same kind of glasses?”
He replies, “this operation was sponsored by Opticana Vision.”
Another cartoon shows former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni warning her Kadima rival Shaul Mofaz, who is wearing tennis clothes, “Do not forget that I can easily detect all of Mossad’s games.”
Other cartoons made light of another aspect of the story: the apparent revelation that some Israelis with dual nationalities had their identities stolen.
The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth printed a cartoon showing an Israeli woman is crying while telling her husband: “I can’t believe you’ve been touring Dubai with blond women!”
He replies, “For the tenth time I tell you it’s not me, they’ve stolen my identity.”
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