Claim that Hamas killed 3 teens is turning out to be the WMD of Gaza onslaught | Mondoweiss

Claim that Hamas killed 3 teens is turning out to be the WMD ofGaza onslaughtAdam Horowitz and Phil Weiss on July 26, 2014 15

Micky Rosenfeld

Truth is famously the first casualty of war, and the Israeli war on Gaza is no exception. Yesterday JonDonnison of the BBC pulled the rug out from under the Israeli government’s pretext for the Gaza onslaughtwith a series of tweets about a conversation he’d had with Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld aboutthe kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June.

The boys were not killed by Hamas, Rosenfeld told Donnison, as he reported on Twitter:

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Israeli police MickeyRosenfeld tells me men who killed 3 Israeli teens def lone cell, hamas affiliated but not operating under leadership1/27:28 AM - 25 Jul 2014

Jon Donnison @JonDonnison

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Seems to contradict the line from Netanyahu government. 2/27:29 AM - 25 Jul 2014


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Israeli police spokes Mickey Rosenfeld also said if kidnapping had been ordered by Hamas leadership, they'd have known about it in advance.11:56 AM - 25 Jul 2014


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Mickey Rosenfeld said lone cells much harder to track. Said they would find whoever was now protecting the two suspects.11:57 AM - 25 Jul 2014


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When this is over, there remain a lot of unanswered questions about kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers. #gaza #israel #hamas4:21 AM - 26 Jul 2014


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This version of events is so important, because what the Weapons of Mass Destruction were to the Iraq war— a dubious pretext — the three teens are to the Gaza onslaught. Let’s review.


2 of 6 26/07/2014 12:30

The three teens were abducted on June 12. That same day Israeli authorities received a desperate phone callfrom one of the boys that contained gunfire at its conclusion. The supposition that the boys were dead wasadvanced when Israeli authorities found the car in which the abduction had taken place, with evidence they’dbeen shot.

The information about the gunshots on that desperate last phone call was widely known in the media, but aswe reported, the Israeli government issued a gag order against these facts being published. And over the lasttwo-and-a-half weeks of June, the Israelis launched extensive raids across the West Bank, locking downHebron, supposedly to find the boys. But the major focus of the raids was rooting out Hamas affiliates andarresting them. In fact, the purpose of the raids seemed to be to break up the recent unity governmentbetween Hamas and Fatah, which Israel has vigorously opposed.

The boys’ bodies were found on June 30, in a shallow grave in the West Bank; and again the deaths wereexploited to punish Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said then, “Hamas is responsible…Hamas will pay.”

By June 16, Hamas increased rocket fire into Israel in response to the crackdown in the West Bank. Israelramped up its attacks on Gaza conducting 6 airstrikes that wounded two.

On July 7, eight days after the teens bodies were found, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, and it hasnow killed about 900 people in Gaza, most of them civilians.

As in the case of Weapons of Mass Destruction, many observers and journalists never bought the Israelistory. We didn’t. Annie Robbins picked up reports that Israeli authorities believed that a rogue faction ofHamas was responsible for the killings weeks before Donnison’s tweets– on June 16, she reported Hamas’sdenial, calling the Israeli allegations “stupid.”Allison Deger also reported as much. Max Fisher was on to thedishonest Israeli strategy at Vox.

Now Rosenfeld’s statement is going all over the world.

And New York Magazine is even more cynical about this matter than we are. From Katie Zavadski’s story, ItTurns Out Hamas Didn’t Kidnap and Kill the 3 Israeli Teens After All:

Repeated inconsistencies in Israeli descriptions of the situation have sparked debate over whetherIsrael wanted to provoke Hamas into a confrontation. Israeli intelligence is also said to have knownthat the boys were dead shortly after they disappeared, but to have maintained public optimismabout their safe return to beef up support from the Jewish diaspora.

As Donnison said, we can only hope that the three-teens pretext is broadly examined, not just in Israeli andPalestinian public life, but in the American media. It is hardly the first time that a false story aboutendangered security has been used to justify Israeli violence, from the Lavon affair in Egypt in the 50s toMoshe Dayan’s confession about provoking Syrian attacks that were used to precipitate the Six Day war. The


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About Adam Horowitz and Phil WeissPhilip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.View all posts by Adam Horowitz and Phil Weiss →

only good news is that many in the west are now seeing through the tactic and beginning to question theveracity of Israeli government sources.

Posted in Israel/Palestine | Tagged featured

{ 15 comments... read them below or add one }

just says:July 26, 2014 at 11:05 am

Thank you MW.

(isn’t it interesting that Lerner and Rosenfeld are the spokespeople for the IOF and IP with their perfectly proper British accents?Coincidence? Nah. It’s part of the illusion that Israel is civilized.)

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fyi: CNN about to do a bit about Americans serving in the IOF…

David Meyer and Daniel Flesch are the two former servants to the state of Israel.

CNN anchor just thanked Flesch “for his service”. Nice slip, Ms Anchorlady.

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Justpassingby says:July 26, 2014 at 11:24 am

what the H are these warcriminals doing in western MSM at all!?

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bilal a says:July 26, 2014 at 11:33 am

You haven’t lived there , or read british colonial history, if you equate civilization with a British accent, but of course theAmerican public emotes otherwise.

As for Israelis, Boris and Natasha seem a more veritable representation, which may have been the hidden intent :

“Hello suckers. Allow me to introducing myself. I am Boris Badenov, world’s greatest no-goodnik …Sharrup you mouth!”

–http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdE2_rvCXl4

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“but of course the American public emotes otherwise.”


4 of 6 26/07/2014 12:30

exactly my point!

I got my education on the evils of British colonialism, etc. at a VERY young age…and learned ALL about the evils of Hitler,too.

In many ways, I have been blessed by the many experienced and passionate voices around me.

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John O says:July 26, 2014 at 11:47 am

I’ve not heard Lerner speak, but Rosenfeld sounds – like Mark Regev – to be Australian. Back in the old days, I distinctlyremember Abba Eban sounding like a posh Oxbridge-educated Englishman, which of course he was.

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Boomer says:July 26, 2014 at 11:06 am

How sad, how many deaths were avoidable. Too many successful politicians, it seems, are sociopaths.

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can of worms says:July 26, 2014 at 11:17 am

Article on “killed teens” repeats the very exclusion of verifiable evidence it claims to remedy

Don’t know they were either kidnapped or killed much less by whom or how.

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Justpassingby says:July 26, 2014 at 11:23 am

Israel attacked Gaza due the Fatah and Hamas grouping!

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Qualtrough says:July 26, 2014 at 11:27 am

Confirmation of what most sane people already strongly suspected. It won’t make a difference, if the kidnappers so much as metsomeone from Hamas at one point in their lives that would be enough in the eyes of Israel to make them close associates andtherefore marked for death.

Meanwhile, remember those two boys who were killed by Israeli snipers? The deaths that may have motivated the kidnappers toseek vengeance a few days later? Anyone here thing anyone will be held responsible for their killings? Rhetorical question, sorry.

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John O says:July 26, 2014 at 11:50 am

Another big question is – to what extent did Netanyahu knowingly exploit the distraught parents of the three youths for politicalgain?

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just says:July 26, 2014 at 12:07 pm

He fully and completely exploited the entire sad event. He lied to the parents, to the Israeli people, and to the world. Worse, hegot away with the lies.

He then turned his venomous lies on the Palestinian people and the newly formed unity government. He’s still getting awaywith his lies.


5 of 6 26/07/2014 12:30

MONDOWEISS.NET

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Donald says:July 26, 2014 at 12:11 pm

A local Jewish center of worship has this Netanyahu quote on its webpage. I don’t want to single them out, so I won’t give the link,but here’s the quote–

“From Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Hamas:“We, the people of Israel, owe you a huge debt of gratitude. You have succeeded where we have failed. Because never before, in thehistory of the modern State of Israel, has the Jewish people been so united, like one person with one heart. You stole three of ourmost precious children, and slaughtered them in cold blood. But before we could discover the horrible truth, we had 18 days of painand anxiety while we searched for them, during which our nation united as never before, in prayer, in hopes, in mutual support.And now, as you continue to launch deadly missiles indiscriminately, intended to maim and murder as many civilians as possible,while you take cowardly refuge behind your own civilians – you continue to inspire us to hold strongly onto our newly discoveredunity. Whatever disputes we Jews may have with each other, we now know that we have one common goal: we will defeat you.”

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Donald says:July 26, 2014 at 12:15 pm

An interesting turn of events. I just put that speech into the advanced search google feature and according to the link below,that speech is a hoax. This is from some Islamophobic blogger who wishes it were true–

link

So I put that up as an example of Netanyahu’s cynicism and how he was misleading American Jews, but instead it might be ahoax, though apparently the local temple thought it worth putting up on their site.

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Bumblebye says:July 26, 2014 at 12:16 pm

Despite being found in shallow graves after being missing for 18 days (in temps of 30 – 40c, or 80 – 100+f), their autopsiesapparently showed no decomposition. So would you believe the NuttyYahu brigades found and then concealed the bodies until aconvenient moment presented itself to plant them on a farm belonging to relatives of the men they’ve accused of the murders? Orwould that be just a tad too cynical?

Edit – oops, should be in reply to John O!

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Claim that Hamas killed 3 teens is turning out to be the WMD of Gaza onslaught | Mondoweiss

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