JERUSALEM, July 16 (AFP) - A diplomatic row with New Zealand following the jailing of two Israeli spies prompted calls Friday for legislation to oversee the country's Mossad overseas intelligence service.
"This new fiasco makes more necessary than ever the passage of a law governing the Mossad's activities and parliamentary supervision," opposition MP Zahava Galon told AFP.
Uriel Zoshe Kelman and Eli Cara, found guilty of fraudulently trying to obtain a New Zealand passport, were sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to pay 50,000 New Zealand dollars (32,800 US) each to a charity.
Israel has refused to apologize in the affair, and Wellington has suspended high-level contacts with the Jewish state.
Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom said Thursday he "regretted" New Zealand's reaction to the case.
"Of course, we regret this response, but we think this decision is a decision that can be fixed," Shalom said. "We will do everything necessary -- together with the New Zealand government -- to restore relations."
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said the statement did not go far enough, and announced that she would stop a planned visit by Israeli President Moshe Katsav in August and impose other diplomatic sanctions until she received a formal apology from Israel.
She also said Israeli officials would henceforth need a visa to enter New Zealand.
Israel has not acknowledged that the two men worked for the Mossad, but has not vigorously denied it.
The matter is considered sufficiently serious for the members of parliament's sub-committee on intelligence to demand explanations, army radio reported Friday.
Galon, of the left-wing Meretz party, said oversight legislation already exists for the domestic security agency Shin Beth.
She recalled earlier bungled operations by the Mossad that belie its nearly mythical reputation, including a failed September 1997 attempt in Amman to assassinate Khaled Meshaal, the head of the politburo of the Islamist group Hamas.
Two Mossad agents were captured.
In February 1998, a Mossad agent was surprised by Swiss police while installing phone taps at the home of a Lebanese man near Bern.
In November that year, two Mossad agents were caught in a prohibited military area of Cyprus.
The Mossad, which has between 2,000 and 3,000 agents and reports directly to the prime minister, made a name for itself with a number of high-profile operations.
In 1960, Mossad operatives captured Nazi fugitive Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. He was brought to Israel where he was sentenced to death and hanged.
The agency methodically eliminated officials of the Palestinian organization Black September, responsible for a hostage-taking at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed.
In October 1995, Mossad agents assassinated, Fathi Shiqaqi, head of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, in Malta.
Mossad chief Meir Dagan, 55, who took the job last October, was a political adviser in Sharon's election campaign.