Thanks to the producers of the Israeli TV news show, Tzinor Layla, for offering me another interview opportunity. This time I spoke (the segment is in Hebrew, my interview in English) about Gabriel Gatehouse’s excellent BBC documentary on Dirar Abusisi. I advanced my theory, buttressed by much of Gatehouse’s original interviews with Hamas leadership and Abusisi’s statements in the interrogation transcript, that Abusisi abandoned Gaza to get out of Hamas’ clutches. And that the Islamist group, to get revenge on him, made up a story out of whole cloth about his rocket engineering exploits and knowledge of Gilad Shalit’s whereabouts. Mossad in turn swallowed the bait whole and the rest is history.
This all means that the Mossad operation and subsequent prosecution is a sham based on a lie. And in order to save face, Mossad can’t end the lie, but rather has to perpetrate a new lie by prosecuting Abusisi. A horrible miscarriage of justice.
What is new and interesting about this interview is that the reporter Bar Shem-Ur spoke with Veronika Romanova, Abusisi’s wife and asked her point blank:
Are you afraid of Hamas?
To which she replied:
It’s difficult to answer this question “yes” or “no.”
Does this sound like the wife of Hamas’ “main man,” its foremost rocket engineer, ‘provost’ of its military academy? Or someone in fear for her security and her family’s in the face of Hamas?
On March 11th I posted this comment in reply to one of Richard’s early blogs concerning Abu Seesi:
https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2011/03/10/israeli-security-sources-claim-by-hints-abu-seesi-involved-in-weapons-manufacturing/
“….If he was indeed abducted, there are in my opinion two possible scenarios:
1) He is suspected of very serious security crimes (and may have been in hiding in Gaza or heavily guarded) – this will probably come out soon. Or:
2) He is actually a co-operator (“mashtap”) with Israel, and the kidnapping is an elaborate plan to pull him out before his co-operation is revealed and his head will be hunted in Gaza. His “imprisonment” will then be a face saver for him…..”
Richard dismissed my idea then as “nonsensical fabrications” but it more and more seems in fact to be close to the truth that he was at loggerheads with Hamas.
His wife’s extremely non-committal answer to whether she is afraid of Hamas squarely hints at his being a “Mashtap” (co-operator).
We’ll know for sure when he a agrees to a plea bargain with a relatively light sentence (I’ll guess 2-3 years).
If he goes down for more than 3 years I’ll be the first to admit I’m wrong, but meanwhile I stick by what I wrote 6 months ago about why Israel took so much trouble to get him.
Abusisi was NOT a collaborator and I resent this claim. It will endanger not only his life should he ever get out of prison, but the lives of his family. I would never advance such a claim unless I knew it to be true & I don’t & you don’t either. Be careful. People’s lives may be at stake here.
The fact that Abusisi did not wish to collaborate with Hamas, left Gaza, and was later kidnapped by Israel does NOT mean he was an Israeli collaborator & you better have a lot more than a hunch to say this.
I find it highly speculative that the story of Abusisi being a director of missile research program AND familiar with ultra-secret operation that detains Gilat Shalit originated from “Hamas leadership”. The combination is instantly unlikely, Hamas has deep problems with penetration by Israeli intelligence and stuff may remain secret only with compartmentalization — people familiar with details of one secret operation would not be familiar with another.
The whole story of Gazan missile research seems to be a tall tale. Qassam remain crappy, some better grade stuff was smuggled in, attempts of sophisticated manufacturing in Gaza would be stupid and futile. I suspect that Dirar Abusisi will be forgotten in some secret dungeon and will never come to trial, or he will be convicted on unspecified secret evidence for an extremely long sentence. He is an embarassment to he will never see the light of day again.