This will not end well

Dubai’s police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, probably had most of the world on his side when he first announced that he possessed evidence that a Mossad hit squad had killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Mabhouh was a Hamas military commander, Israel had been suspected of previously waging a campaign against Hamas and Hezbollah operatives across ...

By , Middle East editor at Foreign Policy from 2013-2018.
572892_100301_zohan2.jpg
572892_100301_zohan2.jpg

Dubai's police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, probably had most of the world on his side when he first announced that he possessed evidence that a Mossad hit squad had killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Mabhouh was a Hamas military commander, Israel had been suspected of previously waging a campaign against Hamas and Hezbollah operatives across multiple countries -- and Tamim released a video allegedly showing the Mossad hit team as it moved around Dubai.

Dubai’s police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, probably had most of the world on his side when he first announced that he possessed evidence that a Mossad hit squad had killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Mabhouh was a Hamas military commander, Israel had been suspected of previously waging a campaign against Hamas and Hezbollah operatives across multiple countries — and Tamim released a video allegedly showing the Mossad hit team as it moved around Dubai.

Developments since this initial revelation, however, have not exactly inspired faith in Tamim. The latest example is his announcement that, in the wake of Mabhouh’s assassination, Dubai police will “undergo intensive training to study Israeli people and identify their traits, accents, body language and manners,” in order to prevent them from entering the country.

Oh, to be a fly in the wall for that training. How does one study this, exactly? By carefully watching You Don’t Mess With the Zohan?

David Kenner was Middle East editor at Foreign Policy from 2013-2018.

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