294 Mossad agent in 2004 NZ passport fraud now suspect in Dubai killing of Hamas official

(1) Kissinger letter to Nixon on Israeli nukes
(2) Mossad agent in 2004 NZ passport fraud now suspect in Dubai killing of Hamas official
(3) Dubai police hunt for Israeli suspect Zev Barkan over Mabhouh killing
(4) Greens urge NZ Govt to help investigate Dubai killing
(5) River Jordan near death
(6) Israeli opposition leader Livni urges Peace, calls for ultra-Orthodox to be sidelined
(7) Our Condolences to Neturei Karta, over death of its leader Rabbi Moses Hirsch
(8) Eustace Mullins Obituary. "Nationalise FRS before FRS privatises you" - Israel Shamir
(9) Pro-Israel group monitoring, intimidating Professor Joseph Massad of Columbia University

(1) Kissinger letter to Nixon on Israeli nukes

From: The Patriot Dames <subie-sisters@thepatriotdames.net> Date: 09.05.2010 06:18 PM

Kissinger letter on Israeli nukes. .... always good to have in your library

Keep a copy of this document. It is often referred to but never produced in writing.

http://nixon.archives.gov/virtuallibrary/documents/mr/071969_israel.pdf

(2) Mossad agent in 2004 NZ passport fraud now suspect in Dubai killing of Hamas official
From: Iskandar Masih <iskandar38@hotmail.com> Date: 10.05.2010 08:49 AM

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/national/3671757/Spy-in-NZ-scandal-linked-to-hit-squad

Spy in NZ scandal linked to hit squad

By JOHN HARTEVELT - The Dominion Post

Last updated 05:00 08/05/2010

An Israeli spy at the centre of a New Zealand passport scandal has been named as a suspect in the execution of a Hamas commander, as Israel finally restored its diplomatic presence in Wellington.

The new ambassador to New Zealand, Shemi Tzur, dismissed reports yesterday that Zev Barkan was involved in the murder of Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Barkan was among five new suspects being investigated after the assassination of Mr al-Mabhouh when a team of assassins broke into his five-star Dubai hotel room and silently killed him.

A "Do not disturb" sign was left on the room door. Security camera footage showed the alleged killers sharing a lift with Mr al-Mabhouh before the killing.

Dubai police have blamed the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, for the killing, but Israel denies the charge.

In 2004, prime minister Helen Clark said there was no doubt that Mr Barkan and two others who tried to fraudulently obtain New Zealand passports were Mossad operatives.

The three men were charged, but Mr Barkan eluded capture. Police still have a warrant for his arrest. The other two were jailed and later deported.

Diplomatic relations with Israel were suspended for more than a year, before Israel finally apologised in 2005. The two countries' governments have hailed strong recent progress on their relationship.

The Israeli embassy, which was closed in 2002 for financial reasons, reopened in Wellington late last month and the new ambassador, Mr Tzur, presented his credentials yesterday to Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand.

Mr Tzur, a career diplomat with experience in Middle Eastern peace talks, said the 2004 passport scandal was in the past. "I can tell you now, when I came to New Zealand we were not discussing that. My delegation and in all my meetings, we were talking about how we are building strong ties in many fields that we can co-operate."

Mr Tzur said he was not in a position to comment on the Dubai killing.

However, he had read about the case in the newspapers. "Like many others, I see every second day something come from Dubai – now it's what, I don't know, 100 people [accused] almost."

Victoria University Associate Professor Jim Veitch, an expert on international relations, said the murder of Mr al-Mabhouh was a "major blunder" by Mossad.

Mossad was very active all over the Western world in getting passports and tracking people from the Islamic world.

"The Israelis are just so paranoid about security and protection that they will go to any lengths to make sure that they keep a gap between themselves and those that they perceive to be the enemy," Dr Veitch said.

However, it was much better to have the Israeli embassy restored in New Zealand. "Having them here means we can have conversations with them.

"It's just normal that they act in this way. We just have to accept that right now, it's part of what the situation in the world is like."

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said the Israeli Government's 2005 apology over the passport scandal had been accepted and the matter was closed. The new embassy in Wellington was welcome.

(3) Dubai police hunt for Israeli suspect Zev Barkan over Mabhouh killing

Report: Dubai police hunt for Israeli suspect in Mabhouh killing

Zev Barkan, wanted in New Zealand over passport fraud allegations, one of 5 new suspects in Dubai probe.

May 6, 2010

By Haaretz Service

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/report-dubai-police-hunt-for-israeli-suspect-in-mabhouh-killing-1.288740

United Arab Emirates officials on Thursday named five new suspects, including one Israeli citizen, in the probe surrounding the killing of Hamas strongman Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Quoting a person familiar with the details, one of the suspects in the Dubai investigation could be Israeli Zev Barkan, who is also wanted in New Zealand since 2004 for passport fraud, The Journal reported.

Barkan has been sought by New Zealand police for alleged involvement in a case in which two Israeli citizens were sentenced by a New Zealand court to six-month in jail for attempting to obtain a New Zealand passport under fraudulent circumstances.

According to the Journal, the five new suspects carried passports from Britain, Australia and France.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed in January when a team of assassins broke into his hotel room and killed him silently, leaving a 'do not disturb' sign on the door. The hotel security cameras caught images of the alleged killers sharing an elevator ride with Mabhouh prior to the assassination.

Since the killing, Dubai police have identified over 32 suspects, releasing photos of 27 people who were allegedly involved in the assassination based on alleged forged passports.

The Mossad has been implicated by the Dubai police as having masterminded the assassination, but Israel has said there is no proof tying Mossad to the incident.

According to the journal, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry denied Mr. Barkan ever worked for the government.

Interpol Secretary-General Ronald K. Noble praised the Dubai police for their "in-depth" investigation, saying that "that's what is most extraordinary, the depth, thoroughness and openness of the Dubai police's investigation of an assassination that took months to plan, but only hours to execute," The Journal reported.

(4) Greens urge NZ Govt to help investigate Dubai killing

Updated at 8:20am on 9 May 2010

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2010/05/09/124803b3dc3a

The Green Party says the New Zealand Government should be helping Dubai investigate an assassination, in which Israeli agents are suspected of using stolen passports.

Police in Dubai say 32 people are wanted in connection with the assassination of a Hamas military commander in a hotel room on 19 January.

The Guardian newspaper in Britain reports one of the suspects is Zev Barkan, who is still wanted in New Zealand in connection with a 2004 case in which two other Israelis were jailed for passport fraud.

Police in Dubai say the suspects used false passports from Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and Australia.

Green Party MP Keith Locke says the Government told him it won't assist and the fraud case involving New Zealand passports has been laid to rest.

Copyright © 2010 Radio New Zealand

(5) River Jordan near death

From: Sami Joseph <sajoseph2005@yahoo.com> Date: 09.05.2010 05:10 PM

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/05/07/River-Jordan-near-death/UPI-62481273239235/

Published: May 7, 2010

AMMAN, Jordan, May 7 (UPI) -- Without fresh water flowing into the River Jordan soon, the river could run dry as early as next year, Jordanian environmental activists warn.

The Project of Friends of the Earth Middle East said in a report that Israel is diverting millions of gallons of saline water into the River Jordan every year. Meanwhile, more than 100 million cubic feet of raw sewage pours into the river every year from Israeli municipalities.

Baha Afaneh, the Jordanian coordinator for FOEME, said that the River Jordan could run dry unless 1.4 billion cubic feet of fresh water is allowed into the river.

"If immediate action is not taken the River Jordan will run dry by 2011," he said.

The report said Israel diverts more than 46 percent of the water from the river. Syria draws around 25 percent, Jordan 23 percent and 5 percent is drawn by the Palestinians.

The flow of the River Jordan dropped from an annual rate of nearly 46 billion cubic feet to less than 3.5 billion feet per year during the last 50 years. The report from FOEME added that sewage is the only thing keeping the river flowing.

(6) Israeli opposition leader Livni urges Peace, calls for ultra-Orthodox to be sidelined

May 7, 2010

Livni urges Likud and Kadima to join forces against Haredim

Opposition leader: Parties must combine forces to reach peace agreement with Palestinians, bring about a social shift.

By Aluf Benn

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/livni-urges-likud-and-kadima-to-join-forces-against-haredim-1.288822

Opposition leader MK Tzipi Livni (Kadima ) on Thursday called to combine the forces of "the two large Zionist parties in Israel" - Kadima and Likud - to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians and bring about a social shift.

"The prime minister is the one preventing the change," Livni said in an interview with Haaretz. "The parties he called 'our natural partners' before the elections are his means of preventing the change. There is no connection between what they represent and the Zionist vision. Neither the one [Theodor] Herzl outlined nor [Ze'ev] Jabotinsky, whose civic doctrine they have cast aside."

Livni blasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "paying off" the ultra-Orthodox so that he could avoid making a decision on the peace process. She said Netanyahu is also evading a decision on social issues.

After the elections last year Livni met Netanyahu, who told her "the right-wing bloc won," she said. "I told him, there's another option, combining the two large parties' forces to advance peace [with the Palestinians] and internal agendas."

"Israel 2010 is a country in which women ride in the back of the bus, dry bones take precedence over saving lives, conversion is a mission impossible, the Zionist vision has blurred and defining the Jewish state has been given to a monopoly of ultra-Orthodox politicians that are taking advantage of the system and politicians. Society is divided into cloistered groups, each studying in its language - Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish - the curriculum it sees fit," she said.

The public's attention has focused on the ultra-Orthodox community and core curriculum in recent days, Livni said, "and rightly so. We must act now, before the situation turns into mutual hatred that will bring no solution. Change is possible and the keys to change are in the hands of the Zionist parties representing the majority in Israel."

The change must consist of three co-dependent elements - education, military or national service and work, she said.

"The core curriculum is necessary from two aspects - creating a common basis reflecting Israel's values as a democratic Jewish state. Judaism and civic studies [must be taught] in every school. The second is providing every student with tools to join the labor force in the future and make a decent living. This is the only interpretation of equality - equal opportunity to students and a fairer distribution of the burden among the population. This, with joint values and vision, are critical to our existence as a society. Pluralism is not a substitute but complementary."

Livni said the state must cut off funding immediately for schools that don't teach core curriculum.

"Change is possible, but it will not be done with the agreement of the ultra-Orthodox parties. They have no reason [to agree], as long as Likud is the ruling party. Likud has bound its political destiny and all Israelis' fate to the ultra-Orthodox politicians' whims," she said.

"Kadima in my leadership refused to mortgage its world view. True, Kadima governments paid in the past. In my leadership it won't do so any more," Livni said.

Had Likud not dealt with the ultra-Orthodox, the two large Zionist parties could change the collision course Israel is on, both on the domestic and international fronts, she said. We could turn to a democratic Jewish-Zionist track, which protects individual rights in a democracy and creates a national common basis for the Jewish state, she said.

"The two parties could change the system of government to reduce the extortion power of the small parties, condition education funding on teaching the core curriculum and encourage anyone who can to join the labor force. They could also reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians based on two states. This is the only way to preserve the Jewish democratic identity," she said.

The peace goals and social goals are not contradictory, she said.

"In the past people used to say it was a matter of priorities, that it was worth paying and giving up [certain goals] to do the really important things, like a peace agreement. But this government is paying so that it won't have to reach an agreement. We can't wait and mend society only after we win all the battles. Otherwise it will be too late," she said.

(7) Our Condolences to Neturei Karta, over death of its leader Rabbi Moses Hirsch

From: Israel Shamir <adam@israelshamir.net> Date: 06.05.2010 05:19 AM

Our Condolences to Neturei Karta

Israel Shamir

http://arabnews.com/opinion/columns/article51101.ece

The unique Jewish group, famous for its strong anti-Zionist position and for its religious fundamentalism, Neturei Karta, had lost its leader Rabbi Moses Hirsch. He was succeeded by his son Rabbi Meir Hirsch, a man of equally strong views.

Yesterday May 5, I went with my friend and spiritual light, Archbishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna of Sebaste to comfort the family and followers of the late Rabbi Moses Hirsch, the head of the Neturei Karta.

We went into the very heart of Mea Shearim, the Jewish Orthodox ghetto, and we were amazed: every house had a sticker condemning Zionism. The slogans called Zionists Out; Zionism is worse than Holocaust; Jews hate Zionism. In Canada or in Germany one would be imprisoned for such a slogan. Some people would argue that this feeling is not universal even in the Mea Shearim; but if majority would object, they would deface the slogans in no time at all. Every wall had a mourning announcement for Rabbi Moses Hirsch.

We treaded lightly and fearfully: who knows how these most fundamentalist Jews would treat us, a Christian Arab Bishop and his ex-Jewish sidekick. But they received us well, womenfolk smiled to us, and a small boy was sent to accompany us to “keep Zionists away”.

In the Heart of Mea Shearim

The Orthodox Jewry’s Fortress

Moses Hirsch was 87, and for the last year he rarely went out, but the organization did not stop to act. Not just anti-Zionists, they went to Tehran and participated in Holocaust conference, they had met with Ahmadinejad, and demonstrated all over the world for their Jewish values. The late leader was a friend of Yasser Arafat, and even had a title of Minister for Jewish Affairs in PNA. There were other Palestinians, as well as multitudes of Jews who came yesterday to express their condolences to the family. 

With Rabbi Meir Hirsch

We express our sincere condolences to these great and brave men who are the just men in Sodom, and wish them to be comforted.

(8) Eustace Mullins Obituary. "Nationalise FRS before FRS privatises you" - Israel Shamir

Eustace Mullins: Obituary

http://www.israelshamir.net/English/Mullins.htm

Eustace Mullins has died forty days ago. The reports of his demise went out and around for last ten years from time to time, and were invariably disproved; for this reason we did not pick up the real news of his death when it occurred. Now we know it is true. http://cofcc.org/2010/02/eustace-mullins-one-of-the-greatest-historians-of-the-20th-century-has-passed-away/

Eustace Mullins was a unique personality; a disciple and biographer of Ezra Pound, and the explorer of Federal Reserve System Conspiracy. If you ever have heard of this conspiracy, and chances are you had, Mullins was the ultimate source. His book on the subject, http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Federal-Reserve-Eustace-Mullins/dp/0965649210 was published and republished many times; some say that over a million of copies were sold altogether. No mainstream media would ever touch him, no reputable publisher would print it. It is available on the web http://www.whale.to/b/mullins1.html as well.

This is a complicated subject, whether some of his claims are true, and we won't go into it. However, conspiracy or not, the subject is well alive.

In a recent report http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-brown/growing-number-of-candida_b_470411.html by Ellen Brown, we learn that

"Nationalizing the Federal Reserve (which is not actually federal but is owned by a consortium of private banks) was advocated by 2008 Presidential candidates Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat, and Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party candidate. In 2009, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz said the government would have been better off funding a federally-owned bank than doling out trillions of dollars to private investment banks and CEOs who speculated their way into bankruptcy." Ellen Brown speaks highly of North Dakota, the only US state with a bank of its own. It appears that other states, and even the US are toying with the idea of getting rid of FRS. But, she continues, "nationalizing the Federal Reserve faces powerful opponents in Congress."

Please remember that doing anything against wishes of Israel also "faces powerful opponents in Congress". This interesting coincidence - but is it coincidence? Surely not in the eyes of late Eustace Mullins. He saw it is a proof of Jewish influence in the FRS. FRS was the heart of the beast, he thought, and this heart is Jewish bankers' heart.

As this position was closely linked with Mullins and anti-Jewish stand, even with the radical right, the US post-war Left was never too keen to speak against the FRS and the banking system in general. They preferred to defend the rights of minorities.

In 1930's, the radical right positioned itself as a possible friend of the industrialist and an enemy of the banker, usually Jewish banker. The radical left was against the industrialist AND the banker.

Both radical tendencies had lost their way since then. Nowadays, the heirs of the left usually condemn the Military-Industrial Complex as the father of all sins, while the radical right condemns the communists. The banks succeeded to get out of the argument. The ongoing financial crisis in the US again attracted attention to the banks. They make too much money, and they squeeze it from you. If there is a subject where the radical left and radical right could meet, this is condemnation of the bank system.

Much of what Mullins wrote seems to be dated; but his main message of his most important book is still relevant: Nationalise FRS before FRS privatises you.

(9) Pro-Israel group monitoring, intimidating Professor Joseph Massad of Columbia University
From: Sadanand, Nanjundiah (Physics Earth Sciences) <sadanand@mail.ccsu.edu> Date: 05.05.2010 11:00 PM

Pro-Israel group monitoring, intimidating Columbia faculty

Jared Malsin, The Electronic Intifada, 30 April 2010

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11239.shtml

In the summer of 2000, preeminent scholar Edward Said sparked what became conventionally known as a "controversy" when he was photographed hurling a small stone into the no-man's land between Lebanon and Israel.

What Said, one of the 20th century's most important literary theorists, considered a trivial gesture of jubilation following the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon was, for pro-Israeli groups like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an act of violence and evidence of political extremism. In February 2001 Said was disinvited from a conference on Freud he was to have spoken at in Vienna.

The stone-throwing fracas created by the ADL and other groups was the first salvo in a series of Mideast-related convulsions at American universities, and particularly at Columbia, where Said had attainted the vaunted rank of University Professor.

The latest iteration of this saga concerns one of Said's students, Professor Joseph Massad, who is labeled "controversial," perhaps as frequently as any contemporary American scholar.

Specifically, a student group at Columbia called Campus Media Watch (CMW), backed by the pro-Israeli media monitor the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), recently violated university regulations while urging students to "report" on allegedly biased utterances by Massad and other professors, according to faculty members and students.

According to documents, news reports and interviews with students and professors familiar with the incidents, documents and news reports, Columbia senior Daniel Hertz falsely claimed this semester to be a registered student in the class "Palestinian and Israeli politics and societies." Hertz criticized the content of the class on CMW's website, and urged other students to report on any perceived bias in Massad's teaching.

Hertz' father, Eli E. Hertz, is a prominent pro-Israeli businessman and activist, who among other roles, serves as the chairman of CAMERA's board and sits on the Executive Council of the powerful Washington-based pro-Israel lobby group the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

If the university administration does not take a firm stand in the case, professors and students argue, the incident could hamper freedom of expression in the classroom. The apparent attempt to eavesdrop on Massad's classroom also coincides with a resolution denouncing the professor introduced in the New York City Council (Res 0050-2010, 3 March 2010).

For Columbia faculty members, the case also raises the specter of a six-year-old dispute concerning Massad, who was granted tenure last year after top Columbia officials rejected claims that he intimidated students in lectures. Massad was branded as an extremist in a film, Columbia Unbecoming, which was produced by another pro-Israeli pressure group, The David Project.

"Extremely upbeat and congenial"

The incident began in January when Hertz began attending Massad's class without registering, and wrote an anonymous blog post on CMW's website, under a section titled "class watch" ("CMW Class Watch: Palestinian and Israeli Politics and Societies," 21 January 2010).

Hertz founded CMW in the fall of 2009 after completing a summer internship with CAMERA. Hertz also identifies himself as a CAMERA campus fellow.

"Professor Massad initially caught me off guard," Hertz wrote in his report on the class. "Extremely upbeat and congenial, it did not seem as though he could be someone guilty of delegitimizing the State of Israel, which is a common claim against Professor Massad's work."

He goes on to note that the syllabus for the class includes not only the works of Edward Said (The Question of Palestine), Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi (Palestinian identity) and Massad's own book The Persistence of the Palestinian Question, but also the writings of the founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, and those of Israeli Jewish critic Shlomo Sand (The Invention of the Jewish People).

"A majority of the listed authors are among Israel's greatest detractors," Hertz wrote. "And while many are in fact Israeli, some of them, especially Shlomo Sand, have written pieces that many have considered virulently anti-Semitic."

Hertz' article ends by urging other students to report on this and other classes: "If you are taking this class or any other Middle Eastern related classes and would like to tell us about your experiences, please let us know by emailing us."

Massad told The Electronic Intifada that he noticed the blog post, and immediately notified Sudipta Kaviraj, the chair of his department (Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures -- MEALAC).

"We wanted to be a lot more alert this time, given what had happened," Massad said, referring to the 2003-2004 dispute that followed the publication of the film.

Kaviraj forwarded this initial complaint to Columbia's Vice President Nicholas Dirks and Provost Claude Steele, Massad said.

"In the meantime people are asking me -- people who had seen the blog -- 'do you know who it is in your class?' and I said, 'no and I don't want to know,' because I don't want to be unconsciously biased against this student if he's a registered student in my class," Massad said.

Although he was blogging anonymously, Hertz then gave an interview to the Columbia Spectator, the daily student newspaper, in which he claimed he was taking Massad's class. The Spectator revealed that "Hertz blogs about what he says are inaccuracies in [Massad's] lectures" ("Media Watch to promote dialogue, members say," 10 February 2010).

After reading this in the Specator, Massad said, "I look up on the roster, and I see he's not registered in my class."

Massad said he checked with his two teaching assistants, who confirmed that Hertz was not registered for the class, and was not attending a discussion section. It was then that he decided to check university regulations to make sure he was within faculty rights to ask Hertz to leave the class, he said.

At the same time, the professor said, "my former chair and current chair contacted several student deans and the provost's office, informing them of these developments and that professor Massad is planning to ask an unregistered student to leave the class, and they said he would be fully in his right, in fact this man has no right to be in this class."

Massad also said Hertz repeatedly disobeyed instructions for all students to register for the course.

"From the start of the semester, for the first four or five classes, I asked, is anyone still unregistered? He never raised his hand," Massad said.

"We also had to coordinate registering students for two discussion sections. I asked, is anyone still not registered for the discussion sections; no one raised his or her hand. I announced that I did not allow auditors in the class, either registered or unregistered auditors. I said this several times but to no avail."

The day after the Spectator article appeared, Massad pointed to Hertz at the beginning of his lecture and asked what his name was and whether he was registered for the class. According to Massad, his teaching assistant, and students in the class, it was 11 February, well after the 29 January deadline to register for classes.

Massad recalled Hertz sitting in the front of the classroom with his laptop open and his iPhone on, "possibly recording my voice," and once the students had "settled down," asking him if he had registered for the class.

When Hertz then said that he only wanted to audit the class, Massad recalled answering, "Even if you wanted to audit the class you would have had to get my permission, and nonetheless you would have had to register as an auditor, and I would not have allowed that." He then said he informed Hertz that he was in violation of university regulations, at which point Hertz, recalled Massad, asked "Do you want me to leave?" Massad answered, "Yes, please."

Massad said he again informed the department's chair "for procedural purposes" and also wrote to Columbia's provost, Claude Steele, and other officials, and opened an official grievance procedure with the university.

Kaviraj and former MEALAC chairman Sheldon Pollock also met with Steele, supporting Massad's claims, he said. Massad also said he met with Jeri Henry, the senior assistant dean of judicial affairs, as a part of the grievance procedure.

Kaviraj, Henry, Vice President Nicholas Dirks and other Columbia administration officials declined repeated requests for comment on the matter.

"A spy"

In April, with the grievance procedure coming to a culmination, Hertz wrote an opinion article in the Spectator in which he again accused Massad of bias and intimidation ("Intimidation 101," 18 April 2010).

In the article Hertz repeated his claim that he was still weighing whether or not to take the class when he was asked to leave, even though the registration deadline had passed almost two weeks earlier. In the article he did admit however that "Massad had the right to ask me to leave the classroom for not being registered."

He also alleged that after he left the class, he was informed, presumably by another student, that Massad denounced him in front of the class as a "Jewish spy."

However, Massad, his two teaching assistants and a student enrolled in the class said that this claim was false. Based on these interviews, it appears Massad likely called Hertz a spy for an off-campus organization, but made no reference to his ethnic or religious background.

"He absolutely didn't use that phrase," said Golnar Nikpur, one of the teaching assistants. "He used it as a teaching moment," she said, saying Massad stressed that students should be free to express their views in class.

"He didn't dwell too much on Daniel Hertz in general," she added.

Elazar Elhanan, the other teaching assistant (also a grandson of the Israeli general Matitiyahu Peled, a veteran of the 1967 war who joined the Israeli peace movement in the 1970s), said that Massad "explained to the class that it's a violation of the university code."

"I think he used the word 'spy,' but he didn't say 'Jewish spy,'" Elhanan said of the incident. "It was a bit unpleasant but it wasn't what Hertz quoted him as saying." ...

Journalist Jared Malsin worked in the West Bank for two and a half years for the Palestinian news agency Ma'an. His website is jaredmalsin.wordpress.com