It Turns Out Hamas Didn’t Kidnap and Kill the 3 Israeli Teens After All

[jjdoyle]

"When the bodies of three Israeli teenagers, kidnapped in the West Bank, were found late last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not mince words. "Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay," he said, initiating a campaign that eventually escalated into the present conflict in the region.
But now, officials admit the kidnappings were not Hamas's handiwork after all."

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...after-all.html

[Anti Federalist]

Whoopsie, our bad. - The Regime

[puppetmaster]

I have stopped believing anything the government says.

[Brian4Liberty]

And this was supposedly the justification for all of this bloodshed and destruction.

As Ron Paul said, how about a real investigation before pointing fingers and starting wars?

[jjdoyle]

And this was supposedly the justification for all of this bloodshed and destruction.

As Ron Paul said, how about a real investigation before pointing fingers and starting wars?

Well, wasn't this also something used on the Senate floor right, to try and remove funding from Hamas?

[Brian4Liberty]

Well, wasn't this also something used on the Senate floor right, to try and remove funding from Hamas?

Sounds like that needs to be modified to "remove all foreign funding"...

[Brian4Liberty]

Another article on this:

The recent explosion of violence in Gaza may have been initially sparked by false or inaccurate claims, according to Israeli police.

The ongoing conflict began last month when three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped from a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. Their bodies were later discovered in a field outside the city of Hebron. Before police were able to determine who was responsible, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu placed blame for the tragic deaths squarely on Hamas, Gaza’s elected political leadership—an accusation that may prove to be false.

On Friday, Chief Inspector Micky Rosenfeld, foreign press spokesman for the Israel Police, reportedly told BBC journalist Jon Donnisonhe that the men responsible for murders were not acting on orders of Hamas leadership. Instead, he said, they are part of a “lone cell.” Further, Inspector Rosenfeld told Donnison that if Hamas’ leadership had ordered the kidnapping, “they'd have known about it in advance.”

Israeli police MickeyRosenfeld tells me men who killed 3 Israeli teens def lone cell, hamas affiliated but not operating under leadership1/2
— Jon Donnison (@JonDonnison) July 25, 2014

Seems to contradict the line from Netanyahu government. 2/2
— Jon Donnison (@JonDonnison) July 25, 2014
...
Husam Dofsh, a former member of Hamas, was arrested on suspicion of his involvement on July 5. After learning that he was a suspect, Dofsh called the Times of Israel and insisted he’d taken no part in the kidnapping. “I saw online, and people also told me, that I was tied to the mess, but I did not kidnap and didn’t do anything. I just want to continue my life,” Dofsh told reporters.

During the course of Israel’s investigation, some 400 Palestinians were arrested and up to 10 others were killed. Among those detained were Aziz Duwaik, the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and West Bank-based member of Hamas; and Mahmoud al-Khatib, a Hamas legislator was also reportedly abducted by the IDF during a dawn raid in the city of Bethlehem.

Israeli police spokes Mickey Rosenfeld also said if kidnapping had been ordered by Hamas leadership, they'd have known about it in advance.
— Jon Donnison (@JonDonnison) July 25, 2014

Mickey Rosenfeld said lone cells much harder to track. Said they would find whoever was now protecting the two suspects.
— Jon Donnison (@JonDonnison) July 25, 2014

Israel's crackdown in the West Bank instigated Hamas to begin firing rockets into Israel—a move that quickly escalated the conflict.

In early July, several members or activists connected to Hamas were killed, including a 14-year-old boy, which led the group to intensified their rocket attacks. Although there were no resulting deaths, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) began successive airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

“Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay,” Netanyahu said in reference to the kidnapping. However, Inspector Rosenfeld’s statements, along with a number of reports concerning the identities of known police suspects, seem to indicate that Hamas leadership was not involvement in the vicious crime.

The two more-likely suspects are Amer Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme, who have been missing from their homes since the night of the kidnapping. Police found cellphones and prepared food caches in their homes. Both had recently opened bank accounts in their wive's names. Palestinian security forces reported that Abu Aysha and Kawasme were missing to the Israelis the day after the kidnapping occurred, according to Al Monitor.

“That was the first clue in the investigation and the reason why Israel pointed an accusatory finger at the Hamas infrastructure in Hebron,” wrote Shlomi Eldar, a veteran journalist who has covered the Palestinian Authority for the past two decades.

Abu Aysha and Kawasme are known members of the Qawasameh tribe, according to Palestinian security forces. While members of Hebron-based Qawasameh clan identify with Hamas, they have a history of undermining its efforts to end violent conflicts with Israel. In 2003, for instance, the family sent two suicide bombers to blow up a bus in Jerusalem after a tahadiyeh (ceasefire) had been successfully negotiated between Israeli and Palestinian fighters, which was endorsed by Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin.
...
If the reported findings of the Israeli Police hold up and Hamas is officially cleared of any wrongdoing in the case of the three kidnapped Israeli teens, Netanyahu and the Israeli government may have to explain why a massive military operation, with an 80 percent rate of civilian casualties, was instigated under a false premise. And if violence in the West Bank continues to spread, the IDF may find itself divided on two fronts.
...
More:
http://www.dailydot.com/politics/isr...se-inaccurate/

[jjdoyle]

Sounds like that needs to be modified to "remove all foreign funding"...

Perfect opportunity for it. #HoldsBreath! #911OnSpeedDial!

[Brian4Liberty]

Another source:

Hamas not complicit in teens’ kidnap: Israeli police | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

BEIRUT: The Israeli Police Foreign Press Spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, appears to have falsified the Israeli government’s claim that Hamas was responsible for the killing of three Israeli settler teens in June, by saying responsibility lies with a lone cell that operated without the complicity of Hamas’ leadership.

The kidnapping and subsequent killing of three Israeli settler teens last month is considered to be a flashpoint for the escalated violence in Gaza -- that as of day 19 of the conflict has left 926 Palestinians, mostly civilians, dead.

At the time Israeli authorities placed the blame squarely on Hamas, with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu saying "They were kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by animals in human form. Hamas is responsible and Hamas will pay."
...
The journalist then goes on to tweet a further statement from Rosenfeld which, given that Israeli authorities used Hamas’ culpability as a pretext for its crackdown of the West Bank that saw hundreds of Palestinians arrested and several killed, could cast serious doubts on the Israeli government’s justifications.
...
More:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Mid...li-police.ashx

[Brian4Liberty]

The Ministry of Truth won't cover this story...

Dubai: The BBC’s Jon Donnison has a new line from the Israeli police spokesman on who is responsible for the killing of three Israeli teens last month.

“Israeli police Mickey Rosenfeld tells me men who killed 3 Israeli teens definitely a lone cell, Hamas affiliated but not operating under its leadership,” Donnison tweeted on Friday. As of Saturday, no major news networks have picked up the story although many other alternative news websites have been carrying the story and it has been widely circulated on social media. Interestingly enough, there is no mention of the story on the BBC website despite the tweet from its own correspondent. The Israeli regime and its PR machine have been working around the clock to demonise Hamas and blamed its current brutal assault on the Gaza strip on the group, accusing it of masterminding the kidnapping of the three Israeli teens, although no evidence was provided. Speculators at the time remained extremely doubtful that Hamas was involved pointing out that it had no interest in inflaming tensions at a point where it had just joined a unity government with Fatah and such an act would have jeopardised the union.
...
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/pale...eens-1.1364164

[tangent4ronpaul]

OP link has been updated several times...

-t

[JK/SEA]

I have stopped believing anything the government says.

you just have to learn what conspiricy theories to believe....

[dillo]

Its a shame that I have to listen to Rand pander to these psychopaths, just knowing that these bloodthirsty $#@!heads make up a large part of the Republican party makes me never want to vote for them again, even if Rand is running.

[Acala]

Shall I laugh or cry? Maybe I'll laugh first and then cry.

[enhanced_deficit]

Zionist terrorim did not start with Hamas and will not end when with Hamas.

There are shockingly credible rumors on internets that Israel was behind Lavon Affair deception as well as creation of Hamas.

[heavenlyboy34]

"When the bodies of three Israeli teenagers, kidnapped in the West Bank, were found late last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not mince words. "Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay," he said, initiating a campaign that eventually escalated into the present conflict in the region.
But now, officials admit the kidnappings were not Hamas's handiwork after all."

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...after-all.html

I'll be $#@!ed. Who'd-a thunk it?

[Anti Federalist]

I have stopped believing anything the government says.

I did this over twenty years ago, in between Iran/Contra and Waco.

Now, if they told me the sun rises in the east each day, I'd argue with them.

[pcosmar]

I did this over twenty years ago, in between Iran/Contra and Waco.

Now, if they told me the sun rises in the east each day, I'd argue with them.

I don't argue with them,,, but I will check for myself.

I don't trust anything they say.

[mac_hine]

This interview is a couple of weeks old, but I can't recommend it enough.

Scott Horton interviews Max Blumenthal


Max Blumenthal, AUTHOR of Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, discusses his Electronic Intifada article “Netanyahu government knew teens were dead as it whipped up racist frenzy” and the Israelis taking vengeance on Palestinian teens.
http://scotthorton.org/interviews/20...ax-blumenthal/

[Brian4Liberty]

This interview is a couple of weeks old, but I can't recommend it enough.

Scott Horton interviews Max Blumenthal


Max Blumenthal, AUTHOR of Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, discusses his Electronic Intifada article “Netanyahu government knew teens were dead as it whipped up racist frenzy” and the Israelis taking vengeance on Palestinian teens.
http://scotthorton.org/interviews/20...ax-blumenthal/

Quite an article. Amazing how effective the suppression of this information has been.

"Nothing to see here, move along."

Free press? Lol.

Netanyahu government knew teens were dead as it whipped up racist frenzy

From the moment three Israeli teens were reported missing last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s military-intelligence apparatus suppressed the flow of information to the general public. Through a toxic blend of propaganda, subterfuge and incitement, they inflamed a precarious situation, manipulating Israelis into supporting their agenda until they made an utterly avoidable nightmare inevitable.

Israeli police, intelligence officials and Netanyahu knew within hours of the kidnapping and murder of the three teens that they had been killed. And they knew who the prime suspects were less than a day after the kidnapping was reported.

Rather than reveal these details to the public, Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency imposed a gag order on the national media, barring news outlets from reporting that the teens had almost certainly been killed, and forbidding them from revealing the identities of their suspected killers. The Shin Bet even lied to the parents of the kidnapped teens, deceiving them into believing their sons were alive.

Instead of mounting a limited action to capture the suspected perpetrators and retrieve the teens’ bodies, Netanyahu staged an aggressive international public relations campaign, demanding sympathy and outrage from world leaders, who were also given the impression that the missing teens were still alive.

Meanwhile, Israel’s armed forces rampaged throughout the occupied West Bank and bombarded the Gaza Strip in a campaign of collective punishment deceptively marketed to Israelis and the world as a rescue mission.
...
Weeks after the incident, it is now clear that the Israeli government, intelligence services and army engaged in a cover-up to provide themselves with the political space they required for a military campaign that had little to do with rescuing any kidnapped teens.

The disinformation campaign they waged sent a heavily indoctrinated, comprehensively militarized population into a tribalistic frenzy, provoking a wave of high-level incitement, the shocking revenge killing of an innocent Palestinian teen and rioting across East Jerusalem.

Where the chaos will end and how far it will spread is unknown. But its origins are increasingly clear.

Gagging the media, lying to teens’ parents

On 12 June, three Jewish Israeli youths, Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, went missing while hitchhiking from Kfar Etzion, an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank. At 10:25pm, Shaar placed a panicked call to Israeli police.

During the eerie call lasting two minutes and nine seconds, the supposed kidnappers can be heard ordering the youths to keep their heads down. Israel Radio plays in the background as Shaar repeatedly appeals for help. Then several gunshots can be heard followed by celebratory singing as the kidnappers remark, “We got three.” The teens had been killed.

It took until the next morning for the police to connect the call to a missing persons report filed by the youths’ parents. In a meeting with Shin Bet officials that day, the teens’ parents listened to a recording of the phone call.

Bat Galim Shaar, the mother of Gilad Shaar, demanded investigators explain to her why gunshots can be heard in the background, and if this meant that her son was dead.

According to Bat Galim Shaar, police claimed the bullets were “blanks.” When the car used by the alleged kidnappers was discovered burned by a roadside, the Shin Bet told her no DNA was found. In fact, bullets and blood were present throughout the interior of the car. The Shin Bet had lied to the parents of the missing teens in order to stoke false hopes that their sons were alive.
...
Having deceived the victims’ parents, Israel’s military-intelligence apparatus moved to conceal the truth from the general public, imposing a gag order that barred the country’s media from reporting on the sound of gunshots in the recorded call to police.
...
While Netanyahu and his top deputies blamed the entire membership of Hamas for the kidnapping, the Shin Bet gag order suppressed all information relating to the identities of the suspects until 26 June. As far as the Israeli public knew, the kidnappers could have been anywhere in the West Bank, in any schoolhouse or coffee house or hen house where anyone remotely affiliated with Hamas congregated.

Having manipulated an exceptionally suggestible population through the careful management of information, the military had all the political latitude it needed to rampage through cities far from the scene of the crime.
...
The social media campaign reverberated throughout Jewish communities across the US, as synagogues around the country displayed yellow ribbons in a carefully coordinated show of solidarity with the missing teens. In New York City, local politicians appeared at pro-Israel rallies, while American diplomats from US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power to Ambassador Susan Rice competed with one another to deliver the most emotional tribute to the kidnapped teens.

Rachel Frenkel, the mother of the kidnapped Naftali Frenkel, was junketed by the Israeli government to the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland to plead for international help in rescuing her son.
...
Behind the pitiable image it affected before the world, Israeli society seethed with bloodlust. A spontaneously-created Facebook page calling for the execution of one Palestinian prisoner for each hour the teens remained missing, while another called “The People of Israel Demand Revenge” garnered more than 35,000 “likes” from mostly young Israelis in just a few days.

Manipulated by a high-level campaign of deception and disinformation into believing that “their boys” were still alive, the Israeli public was about to receive shocking news.
...
Much more:
http://electronicintifada.net/conten...t-frenzy/13533

[jjdoyle]

Quite an article. Amazing how effective the suppression of this information has been.

"Nothing to see here, move along."

Free press? Lol.

I'm honestly curious why one that is on a moderator team that deletes comments of users for no reason other than not agreeing with them, would laugh about "free press"?

[Brian4Liberty]

I'm honestly curious why one that is on a moderator team that deletes comments of users for no reason other than not agreeing with them, would laugh about "free press"?

I'm honestly curious why someone would attempt to derail their own (important) thread with something that has been discussed ad nauseam in other threads?

[jjdoyle]

I'm honestly curious why someone would attempt to derail their own (important) thread with something that has been discussed ad nauseam in other threads?

You were laughing about free press, and the other thread was locked with a comment deleted. AS YOU KNOW from the PM I sent you.

So, I think it's a bit ironic for a moderator on a site that has a team that often deletes comments, moves threads to "Buried Topics" (Hot Topics), and bans for things moderators themselves don't follow, would be laughing about "free press".

But, if we are talking about free press in Israel, here's the Wiki on it with some history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_o...m_of_the_press

And if you need an example of comments being deleted, NOT mine, but another member, check this thread:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...ybomb-for-Rand

Two comments, within the last hour or so. Disappeared. The first comment deleted was the first comment the user had deleted since joining the forums in either 2007 or 2008. Why? Because he suggested a title for the moneybomb some didn't like? Something along the lines of it being name Moneybomb for the Military Industrial Complex to Protect America with an Iron Dome from Civilians Killed Overseas. Or, something along those lines.