The following Analysis was published in The Australian on 16/07/2004 . It offers an interesting point of view on this event
Claire Harvey: Espionage a welcome distraction for Clark
July 16, 2004 WHEN police told New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark in March that two suspected Israeli spies had infiltrated the country, she must have been a tiny bit pleased.
Of course, state-sponsored espionage is a shocking breach of New Zealand's sovereignty and international law. But it is also a great distraction.
Like any clever politician, Miss Clark made the most of it.
In March, she was in the most serious political strife of her five-year reign.
Opposition Leader Don Brash was rocketing up the opinion polls with a bold new policy to end all "special privilege" for Maoris.
A Maori tribe had won the right to make land claims over Kiwi beaches, and Dr Brash warned New Zealanders that only he had the guts to protect their right to paddle in the surf. "Equality for all," Dr Brash said, declaring his plan to seize all beaches in Crown ownership.
Miss Clark knew she had to match Dr Brash's rhetoric to reassure the voters - but the Government's own Maori MPs were ready to revolt.
Then along came Eli Cara and Uriel Kelman, the bungling Israelis who had got themselves arrested with a decidedly amateurish passport scam. That was all Miss Clark needed. A "senior government source" told The New Zealand Herald the men were spies who were threatening the nation's security.
Officially, Miss Clark would only say that she feared the case could be the "tip of an iceberg", and vowed to strongly defend the integrity of New Zealand passports.
It was a risky strategy. Lawyers for the Israelis tried to get the whole case dismissed, arguing Kiwis now believed they were Mossad spies because of Miss Clark's remarks. That bid failed, and yesterday the Israelis were jailed for six months each.
Great timing. Just days ago Dr Brash had announced another attention-grabbing new policy, a crackdown on welfare.
