Reminder: ISIS, Not Hamas, Claimed Responsibility For Kidnapping Three Israeli Teens The Israeli media has been talking a lot this week about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that Hamas was responsible for kidnapping the three Israeli boys in the West Bank. The assertion amongst hawks is that Netanyahu was “right all along” for bombing Gazan civilians, because now – it is believed – Hamas has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings and murders of Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, 16. What they aren’t telling you is that the West Bank is not a place where Hamas is particularly welcomed. There is still a lot of bad blood with Fatah from the Battle of Gaza. The Battle of Gaza was a short military conflict between Fatah and Hamas, that took place in the Gaza Strip between 10 and 15 June 2007. It was a violent climax in the Fatah–Hamas conflict, centered around the struggle for power, after Fatah lost the parliamentary elections of 2006. Hamas fighters took control of the Gaza Strip and removed Fatah officials. A unity government may be conceptually and even functionally possible between Hamas and Fatah, but that will not mean that Hamas will be welcomed in to the West Bank to assert themselves. In fact, even attempting as much at this point would be the exact opposite move that Hamas would be expected to make with relation to Fatah. In spite of the facts, Netanyahu claimed these boys were kidnapped by Hamas’s, even while Hamas denied it over and over again. If Hamas had been the culprits of the kidnappings, many familiar with the group have noted, then they would have certainly made demands, held them for a prisoner exchange and claimed responsibility right off the bat The one group that did claim responsibility right away was the now-infamous ISIS. While it received relatively little press internationally, the first claim of responsibility was made in a pamphlet issued by the so-called “Islamist State in Iraq and Syria” or “ISIS” which was circulated around Hebron. ISIS has been building in Iraq and in the West Bank, while Netanyahu fixated on Hamas. Hamas, on the other hand has claimed that they do not want ISIS anywhere near the Gaza Strip. Instead of paying attention to this claim of responsibility by ISIS cells in the West Bank, Israeli hawks have fixated on a YouTube video of Saleh Arouri, the well-known exiled Hamas official, who said during a talking in Turkey on Wednesday that Hamas’ military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, were responsible for what he termed a “heroic operation” in kidnapping and murdering the Israeli teens. But Hamas is not led by Arouri, and their Qatar-based leader Khaled Meshaal, still rejects this claim by the Hamas exile. “It was an operation by your brothers from the al-Qassam Brigades,” Arouri claimed, even while no one else in Hamas agrees with him. So what’s the truth behind these claims? The reality is that the ISIS pamphlet claims that the three teens were killed in retaliation for three ISIS cell members in the Hebron area who Israel killed. That is why the number three was chosen. That is why there was no negotiation, nor prisoner swap. The ISIS pamphlet which was released and distributed in Hebron right after the kidnappings said that one of those ISIS members who was killed was Mohamed Nairukh. Nairukh was himself expelled from Hamas for being too radical. This conveniently-ignored detail has slipped of the mainstream, corporate media’s radar, but it would nevertheless seem to back up Hamas’ claims that they will oppose any ISIS encroachment into the Gaza Strip. No, the ISIS cells are not likely a part of the same organizational structure in Iraq and Syria. But these sorts of independent cells are what we saw in Syria, only to later see the same seemingly independent cells sync up under the greater ISIS hierarchy. Something very similar happened two years ago. Palestinian groups were responsible for operations under the banner of the Nusra Front. The Nusra Front had grown to prominence in the Syrian war as the head of the rebels. Other similar groups in Sinai and Gaza like the Ansar Beit al-Maqdas also claimed affiliation to Al-Qaeda, but they were never under direct leadership. This never led to anyone considering their claims any less legitimate. But for some reason, when the ISIS connection does not fit the official narrative of the Israeli hawks, they blow off all of such claims and just point the finger at Hamas instead. Arouri, for his part, has long since been known as part of a dying Hamas hardline from yesteryear.. His attribution of credit for this kidnapping seems to be a move to highlight his out-dated perspective, which few within Hamas consider the way forward any longer. What we know, either way, is that it was an ISIS cell – not Hamas – that first claimed responsibility for kidnapping and killing these Israeli boys. For whatever reason, the mainstream news has slept on this inconvenient detail. Perhaps this is because the Israeli hawks planned on invading Gaza all along, and they didn’t want pesky facts like ISIS pamphlets circulating in Hebron to get in the way of the Israeli Military Industrial Complex.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 09:33:16 +0000
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