Official PA daily: Kidnapping-murder of 3 Israeli teens was an Israeli "plot"
Op-ed by Mahmoud Abu Al-Haija, editor in chief of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official PA daily
“I am referring to the kidnapping and murder of the three settlers (i.e., three Israeli teens who were kidnapped and murdered in June 2014), the planners and perpetrators of which have made no statement explaining the aim or the reasons for carrying them out as part of a defined framework.
Today, it is perfectly clear that this was not an operation planned and executed recklessly, without any political aim. This operation fell into Netanyahu’s hands like a ripe fruit, which he can bite into to his heart’s content, satisfying his intense desire to strike at the Palestinian national reconciliation, restore the situation in Gaza to its previous state, and prevent the continuation of the international isolation that was nearly imposed on him in the wake of the successes and victories of Palestinian political and diplomatic activity...
Prior to this operation, Israel was in a severe crisis, but today, it is emerging from its crisis in the way it knows – [with] an aggressive, malicious and indecent operation, which has so far met with no real international discouragement.
This operation [the kidnapping] was [carried out] without any political discussion (i.e., planning) indicates that it was nothing more than a plot, and history will no doubt reveal those who devised and planned it.”
Note: On June 12, 2014, three Israeli teens, Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists while they were hitchhiking. Israel conducted house-to-house searches in Hebron and arrested hundreds of Hamas members. The boys' bodies were found by Israeli security forces near Hebron on June 30, 2014. They appeared to have been shot to death soon after the abduction.
“I am referring to the kidnapping and murder of the three settlers (i.e., three Israeli teens who were kidnapped and murdered in June 2014), the planners and perpetrators of which have made no statement explaining the aim or the reasons for carrying them out as part of a defined framework.
Today, it is perfectly clear that this was not an operation planned and executed recklessly, without any political aim. This operation fell into Netanyahu’s hands like a ripe fruit, which he can bite into to his heart’s content, satisfying his intense desire to strike at the Palestinian national reconciliation, restore the situation in Gaza to its previous state, and prevent the continuation of the international isolation that was nearly imposed on him in the wake of the successes and victories of Palestinian political and diplomatic activity...
Prior to this operation, Israel was in a severe crisis, but today, it is emerging from its crisis in the way it knows – [with] an aggressive, malicious and indecent operation, which has so far met with no real international discouragement.
This operation [the kidnapping] was [carried out] without any political discussion (i.e., planning) indicates that it was nothing more than a plot, and history will no doubt reveal those who devised and planned it.”
Note: On June 12, 2014, three Israeli teens, Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists while they were hitchhiking. Israel conducted house-to-house searches in Hebron and arrested hundreds of Hamas members. The boys' bodies were found by Israeli security forces near Hebron on June 30, 2014. They appeared to have been shot to death soon after the abduction.