The Telegraph, UK
written by Stephen Pollard
Tuesday July 1, 2014
It’s difficult for outsiders to comprehend the magnitude of the grief felt by Israelis over the murder of the three students Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar and Israeli-American Naftali Frenkel.
The closest British parallel I can think of is the national mood in 2002 when Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were killed in Soham. But Israel is such a small nation – 7.9 million – that the grief is still more intense.
It’s bad enough when Israelis die fighting to protect their country from terror. But when young students are simply picked off the street and murdered by Hamas operatives, that grief is – obviously – mixed with anger.
So there will have to be a response – Hamas cannot be allowed to murder Israeli citizens with impunity. But the last thing Benjamin Netanyahu wants is a war with Hamas. Terror in Israel is dramatically down in recent years, largely as a result of the security barrier. No one in the Israeli government wants its resumption. Not least because, although the West may now be embracing Iran as its long-lost friend, Mr Netanyahu knows that it remains the single most poisonous influence in the Middle East, and Israeli focus has to be on finding alternative ways of dealing with the existential threat that an Iranian bomb would pose – even if the West now seems prepared to negotiate one into existence.
And do not be distracted by Hamas’ denials of its role. There is no doubt that it is responsible. Amer Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasmem, the two suspects named by the Israelis, have gone to ground, but they are known Hamas associates. Even Hamas can’t pretend otherwise.
Hamas has published a handy guide to kidnappings. In February 2010 Hamas’ Palestinian Information Center informed its readers of the 200-page book, “An Inside Perspective of the Resistance (Al-Muqawama)”, written by Muhammad Arman, a senior Hamas member imprisoned in Israel. The book offers detailed plans for kidnappings designed to win the release of Hamas prisoners.
Hamas’ problem is that this latest operation was a cock-up. Had it gone to plan, it would now be holding an IDF soldier or settler and, as per its kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, would be holding him as a bargaining tool with Israel for the release of convicted Hamas terrorists.
The three boys were waiting at a bus stop. According to Israeli intelligence sources, the kidnappers saw only one of them. They drove up to what they thought was one boy and ended up with three.
When they realised that one of their captives had made a phone call, the kidnapping became a murder.
That the victims were children meant that even some of Hamas’ own Palestinian supporters might think this was a step too far, so there is no way Hamas will take responsibility.
Add to the mix the way Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas immediately condemned the kidnapping and offered the Israelis the help of the Palestinian Authority’s intelligence, and it’s clear that Hamas has made a monumental blunder even within its own warped strategy.
At the end of May, the long-promised Hamas-Fatah "unity government" took office, after years of on-off negotiations. The accord between the two groups was always going to be shaky, but within less than a fortnight this Hamas outrage might well in normal circumstances have destroyed any chance of it lasting.
But these are not normal circumstances, because no sooner had the deal been done between Hamas and Fatah than it was recognised by President Obama, a move so astonishingly, even wilfully counterproductive that even observers who argue that the current US administration is the most dangerously inept since the days of Jimmy Carter – and probably worse – were stunned.
Hamas is a terrorist organisation – not just according to the Israelis but according to the US, too. But that hasn’t stopped President Obama recognising it as an appropriate government for the PA – which receives $440 million a year in US aid. And so rather than using its influence to keep Hamas out of the government, it has acted as a form of glue binding it in to the government. It is breathtakingly counterproductive policy.
All the more so when one realises, as seems to have passed the US by, that one of the victims, Naftali Frenkel, was a US citizen.
Your guess is as good as mine as to how or whether President Obama will respond to the murder of an American by the terrorist group it bans but recognises.
Hamas in Palestine start training little children at the age of TWO to become holy warriors aka MARTYRS to murder Jews and infidels! Watch this video al-Aqsa tv, Hamas main television station that broadcast to children.
Hamas al-Aqsa tv teaching little children to stone Jews as they pass by. The child says when I grow up I will shoot the Jews. This is no joke folks and you feel sorry for Hamas? They are teaching little children to be terrorists/MURDERERS. And you wonder why this world can never live in peace when they are teaching the next generation to commit heinous crimes against humanity!
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