Britain has expelled an Israeli diplomat said to be a “a senior Mossad official,” as a response to the use of forged British passports by the hit team that assassinated Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. Foreign secretary David Miliband also directly accused Israel of carrying out the killing, saying the passports were copied from real UK passports by Israeli agents.

Al-Mabhouh was a murderous terrorist, no doubt, and no one should weep for him. But Israel seems to have seriously miscalculated the diplomatic fallout from this operation.