Jordan’s police released an account of the killings of two Jordanians by an Israeli Shin Bet agent, who was deputy chief of security for the Israeli embassy in Amman. The official account contradicts in substantial ways the Israeli version, which has been the only account reported in the media for the past 36 hours. Given the outrageous abuse of truth and facts of Israeli officials and security personnel in past instances, it’s highly likely that the Jordanian account is, if not fully accurate, closer to what actually happened:
A…special investigation team has found that there was a prior agreement between people working in carpentry to supply bedroom furniture for an apartment rented by an Israeli embassy employee, the statement indicated, adding that two people came to furnish the bedroom of the Israeli employee’s apartment inside the compound.
During the process, a dispute has erupted between one of the carpenters, who was the furniture shop owner’s son, and the Israeli diplomat. The two had a verbal argument as the Israeli diplomat claimed that there was a delay in completing the agreed upon work on time.
The altercation escalated to physical confrontation where the carpenter attacked and injured the Israeli diplomat who in turn shot the carpenter and the apartment’s owner…The building’s doorman were present at the scene, the statement added, citing the testimony given by the other person who came with the carpenter.
The team also listened to the doorman’s testimony, who corroborated the story as mentioned in the investigation.
If even half of this account is true, it is absolutely outrageous that a Shin Bet agent should draw his service weapon on private Jordanian citizens in the midst of a personal or commercial dispute. Especially in the midst of a huge religious crisis that encompasses both Israel and Jordan. Though the agent will probably be lionized by the far-right government, he deserves to be cashiered from any security function for the rest of his life.
The Israeli account accuses the shop owner’s son of being an Islamist. This account doesn’t mention any religious or political motivation for the attack. Over the past two days I’ve repeatedly said the Israeli account stunk. Though I have no way of confirming the Jordanian account, it sounds much more plausible to me. If I am correct, it is yet another example of Israeli mendaciousness in the face of national disgrace or embarrassment.
Can you imagine that the entire Israeli diplomatic staff was withdrawn from one of Israel’s most important frontline allies over something as stupid as a commercial dispute? And that all this happened as Jerusalem was about to explode in a near religious war?
Keep in mind as well that Jordan is the key player in resolving the al Aqsa crisis. Now Israel has no diplomats there. It has no official presence there. At a time when they are needed the most. It’s insane. It’s not just that the people running this country don’t know what they’re doing. It’s worse than dysfunction. It’s toxicity. A toxic national leadership which is liable to embroil an entire region in its fiery embrace.
My sources tell me that the narrative is more like a well-orchestrated attack by disgruntled Jordanian agents who knew the whereabouts of the Israeli.
So you expect us to believe that an assault via screwdriver is “more like a well-orchestrated attack”?
I’ve heard the disdainful comment “bringing a knife to a gunfight” to describe something that is disorganized, but bringing a screwdriver indicates a whole other layer of ill-conceived mayhem.
Gefilte, if it was a premeditated attack on a known (and known to be armed) Shin Bet officer then:
a) there’d be more than two people involved
b) they’d bring guns. Lots of guns.
That there were two Jordanians present, and the only weapon that one of them could lay his hands on was a domestic tool suggests that your sources Are Full Of S**t.
@ Yeah Right: Jordan suggests there were FOUR Jordanians in the room: two furniture installers, the landlord and the building doorman. They could’ve easily killed “Ziv” if they’d planned to do so.
That is especially true if the Israeli claim that he was “stabbed in the back” is correct.
I mean, gefilte has to get real sometime: his theory requires us to accept that Ziv turned his back on four people who had a “well-orchestrated” plan to kill him, and yet the best they could manage is that one of them attempted (poorly, apparently) to stick a screwdriver in his back.
Utter. Nonsense.
a commercial dispute turned into a stabbing using a screwdriver.
How can you write a whole blurb and not even mention the screwdrivers once?
@ James: Moron, I’ve written four posts about this incident. Previous posts mentioned the screwdriver. Please don’t expose your laziness & read before you make assumptions which make an ass-of-u (not-me)…
“The altercation escalated to physical confrontation where the carpenter attacked and injured the Israeli diplomat who in turn shot the carpenter and the apartment’s owner”
The doorman and the second carpenter agree that the carpenter ‘attacked and injured’ the diplomat.
But you just told me that, ” I don’t believe he was stabbed in the back or stabbed at all. News reports airing the Israeli version of events only say the attacker used a screwdriver, not that he stabbed him. In fact, Haaretz says the agent was injured in the process of jumping back from the attacker.”
Where did Haaretz say that the agent was injured ‘jumping back from the attacker’?
@ Anya: I don’t do your homework for you. The article is linked in one of my posts on this incident. Read. Find it.
As for what “injured” means: it could mean anything. It could mean he scraped his knee. It could mean he broke a nail. It could mean he got a superficial flesh wound. If he had been stabbed it would not say he was “lightly injured” which one Israeli report said.
You are done in this thread.
Check this out:
https://twitter.com/Israelipm_ar/status/889771651650420736
He tweeted this in Arabic. Why would he do that? I would sort of understand it if he tweeted this to his masses of mindless voters, but none of them speak Arabic. This tweet was meant for the Arab citizens of Israel, as if to rub it in to them.
This man is filth personified!
@ Danny: Thanks. See tonight’s post. I owe you a h/t!
How can you say that it is outrageous that a person would defend himself from attack. while the facts are in dispute to a degree, even the version that you post says the Jordanian attacked the Israeli. Would you have preferred that he merely take whatever blows were inflicted upon him?
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@KayCee: Are you saying the only method a professional trained Shin Bet agent has to defend himself from a 17 yr old w a screwdriver is to empty his magazine into him?
Seems to be standard practice in Israel these days.
I am not a trained law enforcement officer here in the US and neither have I seen any video of what developed. So I am not going to say that any use of the handgun was inappropriate.
But you state above: “it is absolutely outrageous that a Shin Bet agent should draw his service weapon” in this circumstance. That is different than saying the force used to repel the attack was appropriate: you seem to suggest that any force used would have been inappropriate.
If the weapon was the only tool that the Israeli had to repel his attacker and using that weapon in any fashion is in accord with generally accepted law enforcement technique (mind you, Im not saying Israeli or American standards – how about Jordanian police standards) then it may be the Israeli acted appropriately to repel the attack.
I
Lightly injured, at least in the parlance of Israeli media, means more along the lines of “not in any long – term danger” than “a minor boo-boo”. I’ve read articles, for example, where a bombing victim who suffered a concussion, broken leg, and ruptured eardrums was described as “lightly injured”. So the fact that he was reported as “lightly injured” doesn’t mean that he wasn’t stabbed.
@ YM: Nowhere in the world would media or doctors describe someone with the injuries you describe as being lightly injured.
I should add that Melman was told by a security source the SHin Bet agent was stabbed three times. If that were true he’d be in the hospital instead of getting a bear hug from Bibi Netanyahu.
just a taste of how reliable official Jordanian accounts are, we got a reminder with the publication of the security camera footage of the murder of 3 American Green Berets at the gate of a Jordanian airbase. The official account released by the Jordanian government was that the GIs did not follow the rules when approaching the gate, thus the Jordanian soldier followed the ‘rules of engagement’. Later, they claimed one of the soldiers discharged his weapon at the gate, provoking the ensuing shooting. ALL FALSE!.
FBI investigation proved otherwise. The video released proves the families’ claims, and exonerates the American soldiers. If not for that video footage, those soldiers would still be blamed for their own murder.
Here is a link to the video of the incident:
https://youtu.be/hI7qQUMBtNs
and a link to the reaction of one of the fathers to the letter from the king of Jordan, received after months of Jordan putting the blame of the GIs:
https://youtu.be/RD9_MCZ9tRg
Now, this is Jordan covering up the murder of 3 USSF trainers on Jordanian soil. What do you think would be done, when an Israeli security agent shoots a local?
The Israelis have an interest of course to cover up wrongdoing, and I think there should be a deeper investigation to get to the bottom of it. But even the Jordanian version does not contradict there was an assault. They do portray the reasons for the assault as being work-dispute related, not a terrorist act or otherwise. In fact, I cannot recall any account from their side to attribute an assault (be it from a soldier like in the recent GIs murder, or shooting Israeli school girls on the border, or even this latest incident) to be Islamic unless undisputed evidence is made public (such as affiliation to a terrorist organisation).
We are still waiting for so many videos of Palestinians killed at checkpoints, videos that Israel withholds… Just think of that case of the brother and sister that were killer together. How trustworthy does that make the Israeli authorities?
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