By Peter Lukimson, exclusively to VK
The Israeli public was very amused by the Turkish media report of Turkish beekeepers from the town of Gaziantep finding a dead bird that ‘worked’ as a Mossad agent. The beekeepers deduced that the bird was a spy as it had a ring on its paw saying ‘Tel-Aviv, Israel, #...”. The beekeepers suspected that Mossad put some surveillance equipment into the bird’s beak. The local agricultural department, where the vigilant beekeepers brought the cadaver, said that it would thoroughly check their suspicions. As official Ankara said, the police and the counter-intelligence joined the investigation as “you could expect anything from Israel”.
Now Israeli journalists are knocking themselves out joking about the Turks’ paranoia. The bird really passed through Israeli territory, as this species migrates from Africa to Europe this time of year, at it was probably caught and ringed by Israeli ornithologists.
The journalists also brought up the issue of Muslim states suspicions about animal and fish ‘spies’: in January, 2011 Saudi Arabian media reported that a vulture was caught spying for Mossad. However, when the suspicions were not confirmed, the bird was set free. In 2008 Iran caught two pigeons who ‘spied’ on two uranium plants working on the nuclear program.
