FIRST there was the killer shark that Egypt said Mossad had dropped in its coastal waters to scare off tourists from its Red Sea resorts.
Now Saudi Arabia has "arrested" a vulture on suspicion of spying for the Israeli intelligence agency.
The offending bird, which had apparently been tagged by researchers from Tel Aviv University studying migration patterns, was captured in a rural area of the Saudi kingdom, which is officially still at war with the Jewish state.
The global positioning transmitter and a leg bracelet marked "R65 - Tel Aviv University" were perceived by the Saudis as sophisticated espionage equipment to allow the bird to send intelligence back to Israel. The Saudi newspaper al-Weeam said residents of the area in which the bird was caught called the tracking paraphernalia evidence of a "Zionist plot", although there was no official reaction from the security services to whom it was handed.
Last month, the governor of South Sinai described a series of shark attacks off the Sharm el-Sheik resort as a possible Mossad plot to scare visitors away from Egypt and into Israel.
"What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark in the sea to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question. But it needs time to confirm," said Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha, to widespread ridicule in Israel.
The shark, which mauled four Russian tourists and killed an elderly German woman just off the beach of her luxury hotel, has still not been caught. Mossad has also been accused of infecting mosquitos with HIV.
Paranoia among Israel's enemies and its nominal friends means countries such as Egypt, which has signed a peace treaty with the Jewish state, are locked with it in mutual distrust in what has been described as a "cold peace".
Such paranoia reflects the reach of Israeli intelligence and the inability of intelligence organisations in the Muslim world to match it. Last week, Iran hanged a man it accused of being a spy for Israel after several assassinations and kidnappings of its nuclear scientists. Lebanon has charged several of its citizens with spying for the Jewish state.
Israeli spies are believed to have been responsible for the assassination of an alleged Hamas weapons trafficker in a Dubai hotel a year ago, as well as the killing of the Hezbollah military chief, Imad Mughniyeh, in a car-bombing in Damascus after hunting him for a quarter of a century.
Evidence of Mossad using animals is scant.
Vulture held as Mossad spy by Saudi Arabia
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too funny
They are behind EVERYTHING I tells ya.
