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What evidence is there that teens were abducted?

A great deal of misinformation has been spread about the missing Israeli teens in the West Bank. I did it myself in denying there was a campaign in support of kidnapping settlers– when there is. Jeffrey Goldberg did it, in exaggerating that campaign, and smearing French Muslims.

Still, the public does not know very much at all about the fate of the missing teens, even as Israel insists that they were abducted and is using the alleged abduction as a political football and a pretext to send soldiers all over the West Bank, today killing a Palestinian teen.

And there is growing pressure on Israel to provide evidence for its claims. Here is some of the back and forth over these issues:

Last night, Sec’y General Ban Ki-Moon’s spokesperson said that the U.N. has “no concrete evidence” that the teens were abducted. But last week Ban seemed to accept the Israeli allegations, referring to the disappearance as a “kidnaping.”

Today the New York Times is more careful, mentioning the teens’ “disappearance” before stating that they were captured, and saying Israel has offered “no proof” of its claim that Hamas abducted the teens.

Three other groups have made dubious claims of credit. Hamas officials have generally cheered the capture without saying who carried it out. 

But on Monday Isabel Kershner flatly stated in the Times that the teens had been kidnapped by “militants” and are now their “hostages.”

NOF AYALON, Israel — The three Israeli teenagers kidnapped byPalestinian militants while hitching a ride in the West Bank last week have provoked an outpouring of sympathy in Israel’s ordinarily fractious society, with nonstop news coverage and gatherings of thousands who have recited psalms for the safe return of the hostages, all students at yeshivas in West Bank settlements.

Scott Roth advised Kershner: “You should use the word *allegedly* in certain instances.”

Avi Mayer, a spokesperson for the Jewish Agency, which supports the Israeli government, tweets this report today:

Uncle of kidnapped Israel teen Naftali Frenkel: “The families know more than what’s being made public.” (Arutz 7)

But he also tweets this:

Israel general Yoav Mordechai: “The target is not the Palestinian populace, but rather Hamas and its institutions.” (Army Radio)

That’s completely consistent with Allison Deger’s reporting from Bir Zeit University– the Israeli army was going after the Hamas group there. Ynet acknowledges the agenda:

The teens’ kidnapping allowed the leadership in Jerusalem do what they were thinking of doing anyway.

….It should be clear to both the citizens of Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank that the operation against Hamas, which spread overnight to Nablus, the nearby refugee camps and the Bethlehem area, was not meant to bring the kidnapped teens’ release, but to thwart a Hamas takeover of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO.

Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly sought to justify that opportunism with the blunt assertion, below on June 17, that Hamas is behind the “brutal abduction;” and that therefore the Palestinian government is now composed of kidnapers. Pathetically, Tony Blair goes along with Netanyahu’s claim by expressing “horror” only at Palestinian violence– “the terrorism, the kidnapings, the killings” — and putting the onus on Hamas. What’s his evidence?

But the only killings in the matter right now have been committed by Israel. On Monday Israel killed a 20-year-old in a refugee camp in occupied territory. Today Israeli soldiers killed a 13-year-old boy during a Palestinian protest of sweeping arrests.

The US also went along with the Israeli claim of Hamas responsibility. On Sunday John Kerry said signs point to Hamas as being behind an abduction. Jen Psaki of State then referred to “the kidnapping of these three teenagers.” The State Department hasn’t offered any evidence though. On Wednesday at the State Department:

Question: In the Secretary’s statement from Sunday he talked about how there are many signs that point to Hamas involvement in this.

MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: Is that – are you now confident that Hamas is responsible for this, as confident as the Israelis say they are?

MS. PSAKI: No conclusion has been made on our end since the statement on Sunday, so we remain in the same place we were in the Secretary’s statement.

Ali Abunimah emphasizes the opportunism of the search, and links to a piece at EI.

Israel seizes political, military opportunity in teens’ disappearance -photos

Abunimah writes that the Israelis have an obligation to satisfy the public mind before making such accusations:

Reminder that the occupiers vandalizing Palestinian communities have still produced no evidence Palestinians “kidnapped” the settlers.

Abunimah also asked a very logical question: Why aren’t Israeli soldiers raiding the Israeli colonies on the West Bank? Are Jews really immune from suspicion of foul play in connection with missing teenagers?

Allison Deger tweets last night:

Arab American University being raided right NOW in

Scott Roth has expressed outrage over the widespread military raids of occupied communities–

Israel has no clothes–

and pointed out

The IDF calls this thing Operation Brother’s Keeper. Let’s put that into biblical context for a second. Who said that in the bible? & why?

and objected to the sacralization of victimization in this photo Avi Mayer tweeted of a prayer rally at the Western Wall for the teens. Mayer wrote last Sunday: “As night falls in Jerusalem, tens of thousands are praying for the abducted Israeli teens at the Western Wall.”

Western Wall prayers for missing Israeli teens
Western Wall prayers for missing Israeli teens

And what about the rampaging of Israeli soldiers across the West Bank? Again from the State Department, a reporter asks about collective punishment? 

As the search for the three teenagers goes into its sixth day, the Israelis are arresting hundreds of Palestinians, rounding up some or re-arresting in some cases many of the ones that were released. They’re having a clampdown, a lockdown. It’s really causing a very difficult humanitarian condition. Are you talking with the Israelis to sort of lighten – but I asked you this yesterday. Are you asking them to lighten up their heavy hand in their search?

State says it has called on both sides for “restraint.”

To be continued. Thanks to Annie Robbins.

 

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OT: There’s a new English-language article on the SPIEGEL website.
Gaza in Crisis: The Strong Female Voice of Hamas
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/isra-al-mudallal-is-the-spokesperson-for-hamas-in-gaza-a-976150.html
It was written by the same author who complained about Netanyahu’s propaganda.

Thanks Phil and Annie.

While we don’t know anything about the 3 ‘disappeared’ teens, we do know that Israel has kidnapped hundreds of Palestinians and killed at least 2 in the last week– an escalation of their long-standing practices.

Assuming that the Israeli kids were actually kidnapped by some fringe group, given that Israel has killed three (so far) Palestinian kids looking for them, they’re dead now. Either that or the Palestinian people (including their radicals) are the most saintly and spiritually refreshed people ever.

The Israeli response to what they call a kidnapping makes absolutely no sense. None of it. They’re not expecting to, nor do they seem to want to, get them back alive.

There is absolutely no proof of any kind that these kids are kidnapped. Unlike the poor kids killed by ruthless armed forces, there were no videos, no eye witnesses, nor media around. So whose words should we take? Certainly not Israel’s. Israeli officials lie like common thieves, especially when it comes to covering their rear ends, or justifying the brutality against the Palestinians. As I mentioned before, when it comes to their crimes, they insist they “investigate” themselves, but jump the gun, when it comes to the Palestinians.
So sad to see a little kid brutally killed like this, but all that outrage about kids who may or may not have been kidnapped, sounds overdone, when you realize Palestinian kids are being killed for reasons no one will ever know. How many young lives are lost because this ruthless occupier keeps venting it’s anger on these poor people?

Another poor kid (14 years old) brutally killed by cursed zionists.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=706295

A couple of points.

– I had assumed the boys were hitching together, but now it seems that they were hitching seperately. Can anyone confirm this?

– I mentioned before that the lack of a credible claim o f responsibility, or a ransom demand, is odd, and would seem to point away from the abduction theory.

– If they were together, and even if they weren’t, kidnapping three presumably fit, healthy, young men would be no easy task. It would mean that either the kidnappers were armed, or that there were several of them – at least 5 – who could overpower the students. How likely is either scenario in Area C, under complete Israeli control?

– IF they were taken by Palestinians, my guess is that it was by a small fringe group who ‘got lucky’. Or perhaps it was some kind of set-up? I really don’t see what Hamas would have gained by taking them, and they would have had an awful lot to lose by doing so. That said, it’s notable that they did not explicitly deny the kidnapping, merely saying that it was a ‘stupid’ accusation. This might be a ‘non denial denial’ or it could be Israeli style ‘constructive ambiguity’. Or it might mean that they did in fact take the boys, odd though that sounds. Again, more questions than answers.

– IF Hamas did take the boys, then, given that Bibi told the world they were to blame right away, and has since declared war on Hamas, then the boys are almost certainly dead by now. There would be no incentive for the kidnappers to hold on to them in that situation.

What does anyone think?