Perhaps we are displaying hubris to conclude that Mossad agents killed Hamas chief Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month, but we believe it is the assassination that perfectly reflects the hubris of overconfident and unaware people.

The hit reveals a cabal oblivious to how things have changed in the world around them on a number of levels. For over 40 years the Israelis have lorded over this region thanks to their superiority in many fields – airpower, intelligence gathering, luring US foreign aid, etc. – but those advantages have grown tainted with an overconfidence that began to bubble over after the 1967 war.

Israelis acquired a sense of impunity. They saw how many things went unreported, how many incidents and wrongdoings went unrecorded; many of those events took place here in Lebanon, we should add.

Israeli hubris increased – but what happened in Dubai should be a lesson. Records from closed-circuit cameras and cell phones should tell the Israelis something: even if they still believe Arabs do not read, at least Arabs can afford the technology that others developed to document nearly every action. The record of events in south Lebanon in 2006 should be a lesson; the record of events in Gaza just more than year ago should be a lesson. Israel’s impunity has been punctured.

But Israel has clearly not understood; when the Goldstone report came out, Israel dismissed its evidence of the use of phosphorous – but the record of its use exists.

Israel is displaying a dangerous and false self-confidence. Now they have been caught again, and it will have effects. They have exposed their allies. With a record of apparently false British, Irish and French passports, now all those nations’ passport holders will become suspicious.

The killing in Dubai is adding to a rapidly thickening file of Israel’s self-satisfied flouting of international law. To be sure, this file makes ideal propaganda for Islamic fundamentalists of every stripe, but these hubristic black acts create an ever-expanding range of consequences that work against the interests of those who want peace in this region. Every instance of Israeli hubris helps break down support for the peace process; it harms the positions of Arabs who want peace.

Israel is being observed, and its acts are being recorded. Limitations exist, even if Israel does not seem to see them. But perhaps Israel can learn; perhaps the spankings awaiting their ambassadors in the UK and Ireland will teach them something. Perhaps the Israelis will even realize that the Arabs are not animals who can be mistreated with impunity.

Israel craves recognition, and recent reports show Israel is aware at least of its deteriorating image. When will they realize that their worsening reputation springs from their own actions and their hubris? When will they do anything about it? When will the age of hubris end?

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&article_id...