A British columnist writing in The Telegraph referred to it as “the Keystone Spooks,” while ordinary Israelis who, initially, were gleefully patting one another on the back aren’t grinning any longer.

Yes, the assassins smothered their target and successfully fled the country but they didn’t reckon on the sophistication of Dubai’s security apparatus that led to their passport mug shots and clear CCTV coverage of their movements being circulated around the world. They didn’t imagine that Dubai’s police force would be able to connect the dots and discover where they purchased their flight tickets, details of their US-issued credit cards and method of encrypted communication.

Their faces are now so recognizable -- with or without their crude pantomime disguises -- that they will be forced to hole up for a very long time. Unless they’ve been hiding out in caves, someone somewhere must know who they are. Dubai’s authorities should offer a mega reward to anyone who has information leading to their capture and set up a website with Photoshop-manipulated images of each one with differing hairstyles, hair and eye colors -- and with and without beards or moustaches. At the very least that would ensure that they won’t be gaily popping out from their hidey-holes in downtown Tel Aviv any time soon to buy cigarettes from their favorite corner shop.

Yes, the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh was audacious. But, given the fallout, was it worth it from Israel’s perspective? Al-Mabhouh was by no means indispensable and will soon be replaced if he hasn’t been already. Okay, so Israel has one less enemy out there but his assassination is likely to produce many more. During decades past, the Mossad has murdered a slew of PLO and Fatah leaders only to find that their successors were even more determined to continue the fight.

Israelis who just 10 days or so ago were cheering on their clandestine heroes are now saying, “Hang on a minute; was it worth it?” The answer is a glaring “no.”

First of all, the hit has alienated several of Israel’s European allies whose passports were cloned or forged and threatens to hurt Israel’s relations with the EU. 

Secondly, it has infringed the sovereignty of the UAE, which is a moderate Arab state almost as wary of Iran’s ambitions as Israel.

Thirdly, it has put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who would have had to sign off on the murder, on par with a sinister mafia godfather. Quite honestly, how can anyone take his continual bleating about Palestinian “terrorism” seriously when he’s blessed a terrorist act himself?

You would think that he had learned his lesson after the Mossad’s failed 1997 attempt on the life of Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Jordan, when he practically had to grovel to the late King Hussein for forgiveness by releasing Hamas’ spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin from prison. Most importantly, it erodes whatever credibility Israel still possesses as a state that abides by the rule of law and gives ammunition to those out to turn Israel into an illegitimate pariah.

Britain’s fresh-faced foreign secretary, David Milliband, is particularly peeved; not because he gives a hoot whether Al-Mabhouh is alive or dead but because someone in Israel let it be known that the UK Foreign Office was tipped off in advance that cloned British passports would be used by Israeli intelligence. Naturally Britain has vehemently denied this charge.

Similarly aggrieved are six dual-nationality British-Israelis, who woke up to find approximations of their passports splashed over their television screens. But they needn’t have worried. Britain has responded to their concerns by quickly issuing them new travel documents -- rather too quickly for my liking. According to British newspapers, the Foreign Office has been told that Israeli immigration officials at one time copied the passports of the six Britons involved in order to duplicate them later.

That may well be true. It probably is true. After all, Israel has a record of harvesting the passports of innocents. But, unfortunately, my naturally suspicious mind has come up with an alternative scenario that deserves some consideration. The fact is that dual-national Israelis resident in Israel, as the six, indeed, are, must enter and exit Israel using their Israeli passports. Once dual-nationals arrive on Israeli soil, they are considered Israelis; so, in this case, why were they even asked to hand over their British passports?

It is true that any of the six who immigrated to Israel in recent years would have had to use their British documents before they took Israeli nationality, but several of the Britons had enjoyed dual nationality for several decades. In this case, their original British passports -- which Israeli immigration would, indeed, have had sight of -- would have long expired and new ones issued with different numbers. 

The question is this: Could they have agreed to their passports being used to help Israeli intelligence? Norman Spector, a former Canadian ambassador to Israel, admitted in 1997 that Canadian-Israelis are routinely asked to turn over their passports to the Mossad. Could those Britons have handed them over, perhaps even unwittingly?

Further, it is coincidental that none of the dual-nationals were out of Israel at the time of the assassination. How could the Mossad have been assured that there was no chance of them turning up in Dubai -- or on a flight via Dubai -- and thus blowing the whistle? Something similar has happened before. Robert Fisk has revealed that “an American entered the UAE” in June 2006 on a British passport issued in the name of a UK citizen who was already in prison in the Emirates.”

It’s interesting, too, that former Mossad insider Victor Ostrovsky has warned the dual-nationals not to travel outside Israel for two years or risk being killed by persons seeking revenge. He doesn’t say why anyone would want to take revenge on persons unconnected with the crime and who claim they, too, have been victimized by it.

The latest twist in this convoluted tale is that some of the killers may have been traveling on diplomatic passports, but the London Times reports that Dubai isn’t ready to make this potentially worrying development public yet. Looks like there might be more red faces to come!