Bishop forced into embarrassing backdown

A storm has broken out over national security after the opposition's deputy leader
Julie Bishop said Australia had forged passports for security operations.
The federal government has just thrown out an Israeli diplomat after four forged
Australian passports were used in a political assassination in the Middle East.
Ms Bishop's comments earned the wrath of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who warned the
remarks put the country's national security at risk.
But he did not deny that Australia has forged passports.
The day of drama began when Ms Bishop, a cabinet minister in the former coalition
government, spoke to Fairfax media about the Israeli passport issue.
"It would be naive to think that Israel is the only country in the world that has
used forged passports, including Australian passports, for security operations," she
said.
She was then asked by the interviewer: "What, we do?"
"Yes," was her reply.
"I believe that it has occurred, but I wasn't the foreign minister at the time."
Ms Bishop later backed away from her comments, claiming she had been referring to
the use of forged Australian passports and had "no knowledge of any Australian
authority forging any passports of any nation."
But the damage was done, and senior government figures accused her of breaching
national security - and of being unfit for her senior role.
A grim-faced Mr Rudd savaged her remarks on his way into a foreign policy conference.
"There is a long-standing convention in Australian politics: because of significant
national security reasons neither side of politics speculates on, comments on, the
operation of our intelligence agencies," Mr Rudd told reporters.
"Today, that convention has been breached, and this is fundamentally contrary to
Australia's national security interests."
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said politicians should not comment on the
operational practices of intelligence agencies.
"Ms Bishop has shown that she does not respect that principle of longstanding which
has served our national security interests well," he said in a statement.
"What is in issue now is Ms Bishop's conduct."
The wider passport issue has exposed a sharp rift between Labor and the Liberals
over relations with Israel.
Australia has generally had friendly, if remote, links with the Jewish state, which
counts the US as its closest ally. Now relations have cooled.
Even before Ms Bishop made her comments to Fairfax, the two parties were at
loggerheads over the government's response to the passports fraud.
The government says Israel is to blame for the fraudulent use of four Australian
passports linked with the murder of a Hamas leader in Dubai in January.
But the opposition has defended Israel, saying there was insufficient evidence, and
accused Labor of wanting to "curry favour" with Arab states.
A clearly angry Mr Smith, who is usually mild-mannered, lashed out at Ms Bishop in
response.
He told question time he was "absolutely shocked" by Ms Bishop's comments, and she
was "not fit to occupy a position of trust in the national security environment".
Mr Smith was angry because the government's security agencies briefed Ms Bishop on
Monday, setting out the reasons why Israel was believed to have been responsible.
These reasons could not be made public, but had been shared with Ms Bishop, he said.
She later said there was not enough evidence and Israel had been blamed for
political reasons.
Mr Smith ramped up the rhetoric against Israel on Tuesday, telling Channel 10 news
the government would not "turn a blind eye to the shredding of the integrity of our
passport system, to trampling of our sovereignty".
Israel's ambassador to Australia Yuval Rotem is returning from overseas to deal with
the fallout from the issue.