First, if the 43-year-old Brodsky is in fact a Mossad agent – as appears to be the case according to the media reports originating in Germany – then why was he flying with a passport for which an international arrest warrant had been issued? Did the Mossad not know that Germany had issued such a warrant, and if not, why not?

Second, the affair casts a worrisome light on Israel’s relations with Poland and especially with Germany. While those relations have been hailed in recent years as tighter than ever, the arrest of a Mossad agent by Poland and on behalf of Germany could deal a blow to those ties.

The fact that the affair reached the press in and of itself demonstrates a possible failure by Israel, if the Mossad was involved, as foreign reports suggest. In the Mossad there is a branch called Tevel, which is in charge of forging ties with other foreign espionage agencies, such as the CIA in the United States, Poland’s Agencja Wywiadu (AW) and Germany’s Bundesnachrichtendienst, more commonly referred to as the BND.

According to various media reports, Brodsky, the alleged Mossad spy, was arrested by Polish authorities after he tried entering the country 10 days ago. If true, that is, if the Mossad was involved and its Tevel branch did not succeed during the past ten days in discreetly securing his release, this could mean that something went wrong in the dialogue between the agencies.