1. Three Israeli teens disappeared more than two weeks ago while hitchhiking in the West Bank. No one claimed responsibility and there were no demands, no proof of life videos, or any of the usual things that happen when someone is seized for a random or to exchange for prisoners.
2. Bibi Netanyahu nevertheless blamed Hamas and claimed that they were grabbing the teens to do another prisoner exchange. Bibi's claims were apparently based on nothing other than the fact that he really hates Hamas and was looking for a way to deep six the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation. Admittedly, Khalid Mashaal, the leader of Hamas, cheered what he called a "kidnapping," but he also denied that Hamas was involved.
3. Today the teens bodies were found and from the bodies it looks like they were killed right around the day of their disappearance.
Which means that there never was a kidnapping. Which means that Mashaal was just as in the dark as the rest of us when he referred to it as a "kidnapping" and guessed that it was to "release prisoners." Which means it probably wasn't a Hamas operation after all.
Nevertheless, Netanyahu has vowed to make Hamas pay, which means that whoever actually did it will not have to pay. If history is any guide, when Netanyahu says "Hamas will pay" he really means that anyone with the misfortune of living in Gaza or certain parts of the West Bank are going to be attacked. Which means the Israelis are going to slaughter a bunch of people who probably had nothing to do with murders, accomplishing exactly nothing. Even members of Israeli intelligence are telling Netanyahu not to do it. But after he publicly vowed to get Hamas for this, how can he step back from that?
2. Bibi Netanyahu nevertheless blamed Hamas and claimed that they were grabbing the teens to do another prisoner exchange. Bibi's claims were apparently based on nothing other than the fact that he really hates Hamas and was looking for a way to deep six the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation. Admittedly, Khalid Mashaal, the leader of Hamas, cheered what he called a "kidnapping," but he also denied that Hamas was involved.
3. Today the teens bodies were found and from the bodies it looks like they were killed right around the day of their disappearance.
Which means that there never was a kidnapping. Which means that Mashaal was just as in the dark as the rest of us when he referred to it as a "kidnapping" and guessed that it was to "release prisoners." Which means it probably wasn't a Hamas operation after all.
Nevertheless, Netanyahu has vowed to make Hamas pay, which means that whoever actually did it will not have to pay. If history is any guide, when Netanyahu says "Hamas will pay" he really means that anyone with the misfortune of living in Gaza or certain parts of the West Bank are going to be attacked. Which means the Israelis are going to slaughter a bunch of people who probably had nothing to do with murders, accomplishing exactly nothing. Even members of Israeli intelligence are telling Netanyahu not to do it. But after he publicly vowed to get Hamas for this, how can he step back from that?
