SCOOP: An Israeli source confirmed via the military that it has received “reliable intelligence” confirming that the three teenage Israeli kidnap victims were murdered. The IDF mission has now been changed from a rescue to recovery operation. The IDF is focussing its search efforts on the area north of Hebron. The source also confirmed that today’s announcement the IDF was drastically scaling back its operations (i.e. invasion) in the West Bank was directly related to the new information.
Further, one might speculate that Netanyahu feels he’s inflicted enough collective punishment on Palestinians and that going any farther is liable to draw the U.S. into the fray on the Palestinians’ behalf. It may be no accident that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had a phone call yesterday with Bogie Yaalon in which:
He [Hagel] also updated Ya’alon on U.S. views on the events unfolding in the Middle East…
That sounded so marvelously vapid that I had to wonder whether it meant that Hagel chewed out Yaalon and told him to get the hell out of there pronto. It may mean that given the confirmation of the murder of the boys, the IDF feels there is no further justification for such a large force operating in Palestine. It also appears that so much damage has been done both to the Israeli-Palestinian relationship and to Israel’s image in the foreign media, that Israel’s leadership thought this might be an opportune time to scale back. A little speculation on the nature of the intelligence affirming the murders. It could’ve come from interrogations of the 500 detainees currently in Israeli custody. Though I’m not sure why it took 12 days to elicit the information. But I wonder whether the new details emanated from the Palestinian side. Could the PA security services or even Hamas itself have made a deal with Israel to convey the new material in return for Israel scaling back its invasion? If any of this is true, it would indeed be extremely sensitive since Palestinian collusion or cooperation with Israel is a dangerous topic for Palestinians. I also couldn’t help wondering whether today’s announcement that Palestinian prisoners were ending their hunger strike might be part of a package deal worked out between the Israeli and Palestinian sides that included this definitive information about the murders. One way to test this out is to determine whether the victims’ bodies are found in a relatively short time or whether the search takes longer. Finding them in a brief period would indicate there might be specific intelligence Israel is using that it developed from these sources. If it takes longer it may mean that Israel has no specific direction regarding where to search. There is great dissension between the IDF and Shin Bet over the paucity of good intelligence developed by the latter. Yediot Achronot wrote (as told by Middle East Monitor):
Israeli media reported on Tuesday that, 12 days after the disappearance of three settlers, some officers in the Israel Defence Forces are expressing disappointment over the investigation carried out by the Shin Bet internal security agency. According to Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the investigation carried out by Shin Bet has not yielded any results that could benefit the IDF in its operations involving thousands of Israeli soldiers.
The newspaper quoted a senior officer in Israel’s Central Command as saying that the IDF has no information on the kidnapped young men. He expressed his disappointment for the failure of Shin Bet to provide information during the Israeli campaign to arrest hundreds of Palestinians over the past two weeks. “Without intelligence information, it is almost impossible to search houses and wells in areas with a population size of 700,000 people,” he said. “We will have to ask ourselves some difficult questions.” He added his criticism of Shin Bet for only now issuing warnings about Palestinian intentions to kidnap illegal settlers.
It appears that Israel’s highest intelligence echelons failed in this operation both in preventing it and in solving it after it happened. It indicates, as I posted last night, that Israel’s vaunted security services often are found wearing no clothes, just like the proverbial emperor.
One needs to be a psychiater to make hay out of this JPost opinion piece:
○ For Zion’s Sake: Hashtags are not enough
the burned out car found s. of hebron was stolen by the 19 yr old who attended the hebron yeshiva b/c it appeared to belong to a peace org whom he felt was appeasing the palestinians. he picked up his 2 friends at the hitching spot. knowing they wd be in trouble for the theft, they made up the cover story of having been kidnapped and burned the car. They hid but, inevitably were found by a search team. Claiming to be kidnapped by terrorists led them to being questioned by mossad who easily picked apart their ruse. b/c the story of a terrorist kidnapping had gone public, it would embarrass isreal to admit it was a yeshiva boy hoax. also, the kidnap cover allowed israel to 1. carry out major searches, disrupt the pla/hammas alliance, crush negotiations. to maintain the helpful propaganda of a terrorist kidnapping by hamas, mossad gave the boys faked passports and sent them out of the country. They are most likely in brooklyn heights where they can easily integrate with and be protected by the hassidic community.
if bodies are ‘found’ in israel, [and there should be plenty of bodies to choose from], they wont be able to be identified by autopsy as the orthodox families of the boys will not give the legally required permission for the exam.
mission accomplished for israel. the pla and hamas have both been greatly weakened, the unity gov is decimated, and there again is no one they could be forced to negotiate with.
thats my theory
Breathtaking! How long did it take you to come up with that?
@badger – Truly brilliant! Because you know, 3 Dati Leumi boys really would totally fit in with the Hassidic community in Brooklyn Heights. Oh wait. There isn’t a significant Hassidic community in Brooklyn Heights. Did you mean Crown Heights? Oh and also Dati Leumi boys would stick out like sore thumbs in a Hassidic environment.
Why am I even… never mind. I’m going to sleep…
Do you truly think this is breathtaking? And if someone were to write a conspiracy theory purporting that Palestinians had faked their own disappearance would it be equally breathtaking?
I am opposed to the ideology held by the families and communities in which these boys live. However, on a human level their parents are sitting at home and perhaps trying to come to terms with the fact that kidnapping is now a best-case scenario for them.
Cheap humor and cheap shot. This blog often calls out the lack of compassion of settlers for the Palestinian population. But this entry shows that apparently that lack of compassion is bi-directional.
Do I really have to say this? Have you ever heard of the phrase; “Tongue-in-cheek”? Stop fishing for melo-drama already.
Tongue-in-cheek? Really? Tongue-in-cheek wouldn’t be appropriate if we were talking about Palestinians disappeared and held in detention without trial, and it’s not appropriate for a situation in which families are sitting in their homes not knowing whether there kids are alive or dead. Do you truly have no clue?
@ Rain: Go suck eggs.
@ Rain: What a dumbkopf. “Breathtaking” was meant ironically and I was poking fun at the comment not the victims. If you have no sense of humor I suggest you move on to a site where one is not needed, like reading the weather report.
I think I’ll take your advice. It’s not that I mind being disagreed with. But I do expect those who disagree with me to use more intelligent phases that “go suck eggs” and “dumbkopf”.
your own comments were at the same level. & deserved that response.
So, the names of the would-be “kidnappers” have been released – supposedly they had these names all along. Wow, breathtaking indeed. And wouldn’t you know, these turned out to be two young people who were held in that so-called ‘dministrative detention” and for all we know were tortured and mistreated – something the vaunted shin bet and its Mossad/IDF friends are known for the world over (why, they invented the blue-print for the Gitmo torture methods – brilliant indeed – so inventive…).
Now, we are supposed to believe that the IDF+Shin Beth troopers went all destructive with their little pogrom in the west bank for 2 guys they “knew” (just how did they know? were they put up to it, one might ask?). And amazingly, just totally coincidentally of course, these gys were part of hamas “infrastructure” (what’s that infrastructure, one might ask? does being human count?).
WE don’t know whether the hitchhiking settlers are dead or alive. Given however the propensity of the israeli offensive forces for false Flag operations, I would absolutely nothing past the entities that populate the israeli military/security establishment. once one removes any semlence of morality from the ranks, a morality that we haven’t witnessed in, like decades from the vast majority of the young recruits of the occupation/punitive troops, even as we have heard and seen quite a bit of the thuggery displayed by the “most moral army in the world”, anything becomes possible really.
Now, why, oh why am I reminded of the blood libels of old, when some young person or child disappeared, only to culminate in a new more vicious pogrom upon the jewish residents? ten too, there was ample “proof” of who the perpetrators were and why. Some were executed for that because well, they “confessed”.
May be I am too cynical, but I’d put absolutely nothing beyond the malfeasant Israeli leadership _ their shadowy enablers. Perhaps aan opportunity presented itself and the rest was just a story made to fit whatever facts are made up.
BTW, if it was a “blood libel” then unfortunately chances are indeed high that the settler boys are no longer among the living. IF they are not and neither will their kidnappers be (which is possible) then my scenario will become quite credible, I fear.
Believe nothing, is my motto when it comes to official colonialist state pronouncements. the burden of proof is on them to prove me wrong, I say. After all, the blood of at least siz palestinians and countless kidnapped “detainees” is not on my hands.
interesting that RS doesn’t have a problem with this bunch of unproven allegations. It must be cozy in the echo chamber.
…and now Netanyahu is propagating in the media on how Hamas will pay for this.