The World Today - Wednesday, 29 September , 2004 12:47:36 Reporter: Gillian Bradford ELEANOR HALL: To New Zealand, where two Israelis jailed on spying charges have just been deported.



The New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark cut off all high level diplomatic relations with Israel, when she said that the two men were acting for the spy agency, Mossad.



Well joining us is New Zealand is our Correspondent Gillian Bradford.



Gillian, can you fill us in on the circumstances surrounding the release of these two men?



GILLIAN BRADFORD: Yeah, the two Israeli men, Eli Cara and Uriel Kelman were whisked out of jail this morning at about 5am by a couple of unmarked police cars and taken straight to Auckland Airport, where I think they sat in a police cell until about midday and they've just flown out to Hong Kong, and from there they're expected to fly back to Israel where we're not really sure what's going to happen to them, whether they'll be facing up with their Mossad bosses, certainly Helen Clark has not backed down from her assertion that they were agents of Israel's intelligence agency and that she wants an explanation from Israel for that.



ELEANOR HALL: Did they confirm that they were from Mossad?



GILLIAN BRADFORD: No. Israel, nor the two men have never confirmed nor denied that they were working for the Government, it's simply been Helen Clark's assertion based on evidence that she obviously has not yet shared with the public. She did cut off all high level diplomatic contact with Israel over this incident.



I mean, if they were agents of Mossad it was a very high profile bungle, because these men were caught in the act in a police sting operation of falsely trying to obtain a New Zealand passport with a stolen identity, using the identity of a wheelchair-bound New Zealand man, and they were caught in the act.



So if in fact they were agents of Mossad, there is going to be a lot of explanation needed from Israel, and Helen Clark has said there will be no patch up in relations with Israel until she's received both an apology and an explanation.



ELEANOR HALL: There was a sense that Helen Clark was reacting fairly strongly to Israel. Does the fact that this pair is leaving the country, does that help to heal the breach in relations between Wellington and Tel Aviv?



GILLIAN BRADFORD: Look, it certainly will because most people had said that Helen Clark was really needing to be seen to be strong domestically on this matter. The fact that it was successfully concluded in a court case, that they were successfully prosecuted.



Now they've left the country New Zealand has nothing to gain by having a standoff with Israel, so it is now time I suppose to repair the wound and a lot of community leaders here are calling for that.



So Helen Clark though has said that the ball is in Israel's court, and there have been some overtures from Israel that it will be offering an explanation, but we're not sure yet whether there'll be anything on the apology front.



ELEANOR HALL: We'll just wait and see if that mystery is cleared up. Gillian Bradford, our New Zealand Correspondent, thank you.