When I heard the missing Israeli teenagers Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar, and Naftali Frankel, missing since June 10, had been found, apparently murdered, in the West Bank, my heart sank. First at the tragic loss of these young lives, the anguish of their parents. No matter the political situation, innocent teenagers on the way home from school do not deserve to be dragged into the conflict and slaughtered.
But also, I was dismayed to imagine Israel's inevitable reaction to the news. Already, the drums of war are sounding as Israel vows revenge; hawk Benjamin Netanyahu has declared "Hamas is responsible and Hamas will pay"; rocket strikes have begun already and the Israeli Defence Force has blown up the homes of the suspected kidnappers - despite that Hamas has not as yet taken responsibility and there is no direct evidence pointing to any one organisation. But whoever committed this crime, they must have known Israeli retaliation would be swift and devastating. Surely any Palestinian committing this act would have to realise that it would lead to dire consequences for his countryman? You would have to be incredibly stupid...or Israeli.
Did Israel coordinate this murder as a cover for all out assault on the West Bank?
Such action is not unprecedented. In 2010, Mossad agents stole the identities of 23 Israeli dual nationals - including a pregnant Australian woman living in Israel - to carry out the assasination of of Palestinian militant Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai. Israeli security agencies has shown they have no problem throwing its own citizens under the bus to carry out security operations, putting all those whose identities it stole at risk when travelling internationally for the rest of their lives. Would Israeli forces hesitate in directly murdering their own citizens as a justification for military action?
An obvious question is why they'd feel the need to. Israel's recent history has proved that they are quite comfortable acting without international approval, simply stating "Israel has a right to defend itself" to shut down all debate. So perhaps these murders were carried out - if indeed it was an inside job - not to allay international opinion, but domestic. Moderates who decry attacks on the West Bank in ordinary times are far less likely to do so if it's their kids being slaughtered. Everyone in Israel is scared and angry and as the saying goes, "when you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow".
I'm not saying this was the work of Mossad or the IDF. I'm just saying that it all raises some pretty interesting questions about who stood to benefit from these deaths and why.
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A better precedent would be the 1973 war when the US secretly gave Egypt the go-ahead to go to war, and Mossad sat on the intelligence several days before the invasion. The US played a peacemaker role and then supplied aid to both countries which continues to this day. It's also not politically correct to say so in liberal circles, but the killing of the US diplomat in Libya was followed by the US pouring guns into the country.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, Mossad didn't exactly keep it a secret it was expecting a kidnapping, right down to the number of people. And Human Rights Watch reports that the US-armed ISIS was possibly behind it.