Murder of the innocents

Tragically the bodies of the three Israeli teenagers kidnapped 18 days ago were found this evening buried in a shallow grave in a field near Halhul outside Hebron.  It was reported that they had been murdered soon after the kidnapping.  The car that was used in the kidnapping was found burnt out several days after the event.  Two members of Hamas in Hebron, Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu Ayash, were named as suspects in the killing, both of whom went missing the day of the kidnapping. The Israeli authorities are seeking them and their houses have been thoroughly searched by the IDF and members of their families have been detained.  Hamas in Gaza has confirmed that these men are members of Hamas.  Those who doubted PM Netanyahu's assurance that Hamas had carried out this kidnapping and in fact murders, are proved wrong.  PM Netanyahu on behalf of the Israeli Government has called upon Pres. Abbas of the PA to sever ties with the Hamas terrorist organization in the so-called Unity Government.  Abbas has gone on record as opposing the kidnapping and he should certainly oppose the terrorist murders of the three teens.

Now the Government must decide what to do in response to this atrocity and the Security Cabinet is meeting.  A strong military reaction against the Hamas regime in Gaza is not out of the question, given the continuation of a barrage of missiles into Israel in the past few days.  Some of these were fired in retaliation for the targeted killing by the IAF of two Popular Resistance Committee members who were responsible for the rocket firing.  But, the current barrage is definitely the work of Hamas.  

Today the PM made two other announcements, in one he stated that Israel was ready to recognize the sovereignty of Kurdistan as the independent state of the Kurds.  This puts Israel at odds with the Obama Administration, that has asked the Kurds not to seek independence, but to remain part of a unified Iraq.  Not much hope of that happening, given the fact that the Sunni ISIS forces in central Iraq announced the independence of the so-called Muslim Caliphate in what was once Iraq and Syria, stretching from Aleppo to Mosul.  Actually the name ISIS includes not only Syria but the Levant, namely greater Syria, that as far as they are concerned includes  Lebanon, Israel and Jordan.  In the other announcement, PM Netnayahui declared that there is evidence that  ISIS forces are already entering Jordan, and he said that Israel will not tolerate their presence there and will do all it can to protect Jordan's independence.  A difficult task given that there are a million Syrian refugees in Jordan, of which some will definitely support ISIS.

Two lessons at least were learned from this situation. First, unarmed teens should not be hitch-hiking in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) due to the murderous intent of the Palestinian terrorist organizations.  Also, four policemen were fired for not taking seriously the initial call by one of the boys that they were being kidnapped.  No-one will ever ignore such a report again.  Lessons may have been learned, but once again children have paid the ulitmate price for being Israeli Jews.