{"id":242652,"date":"2025-07-20T12:25:37","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T06:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=242652"},"modified":"2025-08-06T08:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T03:19:18","slug":"understand-the-beginning-consider-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/understand-the-beginning-consider-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Understand The Beginning; Consider The End"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tisaranee Gunasekara<\/a> –<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe seek to make Sri Lanka a loyal supporter of Israel in International Fora. We also champion the cause of recognising the inalienable right of Israel and the Jewish people to her Ancient Indivisible Capital of Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.\u201d ~ <\/i>Israel Sri Lanka Solidarity Movement<\/p>\n

Place: Egypt. Time: Summer of 1954. Targets: British and American civilian assets. Perpetrators: Islamists, Communists or Nationalists.<\/p>\n

On 2 July, action began. Over the next several days, targets in Cairo and Alexandria were bombed, including the libraries of the American Information Centre and a British-owned theatre. None of the bombers were Islamists, Communists or Nationalists. They were Israeli intelligence agents and a handful of Egyptian Jews. The plan was hatched in Israel by the head of Aman, Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate, with the blessings of Defence Minister Pinhas Lavon. Named Operation Susannah (after an Old Testament character), it entered history under another name: Lavon affair. Its purpose was to prevent Egypt from gaining control of Suez Canal by persuading the British not to cede control and the Americans to back Britain\u2019s continued colonising. The bombing was supposed<\/a><\/span> to \u201cmake it clear to the whole world that Egypt\u2019s new rulers were nothing but a group of foolhardy extremists, unreliable and unworthy of taking charge of an asset as important as the Suez Canal\u201d.<\/p>\n

When the real perpetrators were caught and the whole affair blew up, Israel did what it does whenever it\u2019s caught breaking laws and norms: denied (like when the IDF bombed the last standing Catholic church in Gaza this week). It didn\u2019t work. Defence minister Lavon was forced to design, probably to assuage American and British anger at being made fools by their supposed ally. Israel accepted the truth only in 2005 when the country\u2019s president presented certificates of appreciation to surviving agents of the Lavon affair.<\/p>\n

False flag operations are not uncommon. Israeli ones are in a class of their own because of their propensity to betray allies and patrons including the United States. For example, in 2007 and 2008, Mossad operatives met up with members of an anti-Iranian and hardline Sunni-Salafi armed group called Jundallah based in Balochistan, an organisation on the US\u2019s terrorism list. Using American passports and pretending to be CIA officials, Mossad operatives recruited Jundallah members to carry out terrorist operations within and outside Iran. According to an expose in the Foreign Policy<\/i> magazine, American officials were \u2018stunned by the brazenness of the Mossad\u2019s efforts.\u2019 An American intelligence official interviewed on the matter said<\/a><\/span>, \u201cIt\u2019s amazing what the Israelis thought they could get away with\u2026 Their recruitment activities were nearly in the open. They apparently didn\u2019t give a damn what we thought\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

None of this should interest us Lankans, except at a purely academic level, had it not been for the rapid growth of Israel\u2019s footprint Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

With the genocide in Gaza, Israel\u2019s soldier-tourists<\/a><\/span> face the threat of being arrested abroad for war crimes; or simply being unwelcome by people appalled at the sight of murdered babies. The arrogant conduct of some Israeli tourists have created non-political backlashes even in famously tolerant countries like Thailand.<\/p>\n

Many IDF tourists behave with the same sense of entitlement in Sri Lanka, as even an Israeli-made film, The Wave<\/i>, admits in its introduction: \u201cIn Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka. It is often said that Israel surfers feel entitled to every wave. Either because they\u2019re eighteen years old and they\u2019ll most likely get killed in the military service. Or because they\u2019re twenty-two years old and they\u2019ve managed to survive it.<\/p>\n