The Israeli news website Ynet reports on the embarrassing post from the Israeli UK Embassy to their Twitter account about Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer defeating a rival, as carrying “out a hit on Dubai target.”
It was a strange coincidence that the exposure of the hit squad which assassinated Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, an act attributed to the Mossad, coincided with an impressive winning streak by Israeli star tennis player Shahar Peer in the Emirate. More astonishingly the hit squad members were caught by Dubai security cameras disguised as tennis players. Sports reporters feasted over the concurrence.
However, the coincidence led to more embarrassing consequences. On Thursday, following Peer’s win over Danish opponent Caroline Wozniacki in the Dubai championships which qualified her for the semifinals, Israel’s UK Embassy posted a puzzling message on its Twitter account.
The post read "You heard it here first: Israeli tennis player carries out hit on Dubai target," and was linked to a report informing of Peer’s victory on the International Jewish Press website.
The confluence of the Mossad assassins dressed in tennis wear and the success of Shahar Peer on the tennis court in Dubai has been the subject of some bizarre attempts at humor in Israel. The Ynet Hebrew language site called Shahar “the hit woman (terminator) from Dubai” in a picture caption included in an article earlier in the week.
Thankfully for tennis organizers, Venus Williams defeated Peer in the semi-finals thus ending both the security and logistics nightmare caused by the Israeli’s presence. Dubai tennis officials were forced to return money to thousands of disappointed ticket holders who were not able to be accommodated in the smaller more secure site to which the match had been relocated.
I would imagine that even among tournament officials, the lost money is insignificant when compared to the anger they feel toward the Israelis for bringing their war against Hamas to an Arab financial capital which prides itself on its stable and peaceful image.
