Israel: Hamas Planned West Bank Coup of Palestinian Authority
The “Israel made it up” crowd takes it on the chin. Again.
Israeli newspapers are reporting on the just disclosed coup attempt by Hamas to dislodge Fatah in the West Bank.
The Shin Bet said it arrested more than 90 Hamas operatives in May and June, confiscated dozens of weapons that had been smuggled into the West Bank, and seized more than $170,000 aimed at funding attacks. It produced photos of the confiscated weapons and cash and a flowchart of the Hamas operatives who had been questioned, and said they planned a series of massive attacks on Israeli targets, including the Temple Mount, in order to start a widespread conflagration. Indictments are expected to be filed against at least 70 of the suspects.
Terror cells were set up in dozens of Palestinian West Bank towns and villages — including in and around Jenin, Nablus, eastern Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Hebron — the Shin Bet said.
There were other details at Ynet:
The plan called for using the intifada as cover to seize rule in Ramallah, which would have been led by the “Mohammed Deif of the West Bank” who currently operates out of Turkey.
More than 70 indictments were served in recent days at military tribunals in the West Bank, and they expose the largest coordination effort Hamas has attempted in the area since Operation Defensive Shield more than a decade ago.
The “Mohammed Deif of the West Bank” is Saleh al-Arouri who was also implicated in the planning of the kidnappings and killings of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel.
The head of the coup attempt was Riad Nasser. The Jerusalem Post describes him:
In the car, Al-Aruri recruited his driver, Riad Nasser, another senior Hamas West Bank figure, the Shin Bet added.
Nasser, a resident of the Palestinian village of Dir Kadis, near Ramallah, was allegedly appointed by Al-Aruri as the local commander of the entire West Bank Hamas infrastructure.
Nasser served multiple prison sentences for terrorist offenses in previous years, and was taken into administrative detention in December 2013. The Shin Bet began questioning him on May 27 over his alleged involvement in the setting up of large numbers of terrorist cells.
The end of May is the same time Israel announced that it had arrested Mahmoud Toameh a financier of Hamas, who explained how he funded Hamas’ activities in the West Bank.
The revelation of the extent of Hamas’ operations in the West Bank conclusively disproves the inaccurate, irresponsible reporting that charged Israel with falsely accusing Hamas of the kidnappings of the three Israeli teens. The story was already collapsing two weeks ago when a senior Hamas official admitted to Israeli authorities that Hamas ordered the kidnapping.
One thing I hadn’t realized is that Katie Zavadski, who wrote the New York Magazine article making the charge against Israel, interned for Andrew Sullivan. Will recent revelations that have so contradicted the popular media narrative about Israel and the Palestinians shock the MSM into some long overdue soul searching? Or will they continue to look for the flimsiest excuse to flog Israel from whatever dubious sources they can find?
[Photo: CNN / YouTube ]
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Comments
Unfortunately, they HAVEN’T ‘taken it on the chin’.
Because one of the prerequisites for hatred of Israel is complete ignorance about the conflict as a whole, other than the buzzwords fed to them.
Anti-Israelis will never read this story, or the story about Hamas orchestrating the kidnapping and murder of the three teens.
But they’ll continue to mouth platitudes about ‘Israeli war crimes’ in Gaza.
Ignorance is a requirement for these people.
Olinser, I meant that their credibility has taken it on the chin.
Yes, but even the idea that they have the slightest smidgen of credibility is depressing.
This is what Collectivist/fascists do.
They consolidate power. They HATE their allies at least as much as they hate their opposition.
Read the history of the Nazis AND the history of the Communist Revolution in Russia.
The truth isn’t of consequence to the anti-Israel, pro-terrorist crowd. In every instance, it’s their enemy.
Notice that every single MSM story about the conflict cannot mention the total number of deaths in Gaza without adding, “mostly civilians.” Well, Hamas terrorists don’t wear uniforms, do they? So dead guys near the site of a rocket launch who are hit by Israeli retaliation are indistinguishable from “civilians,” aren’t they?
Estragon, true, but if you notice they have stopped with the 75 or 80 percent civilians. They know they can’t get away with that anymore. A small victory, perhaps, but still a victory.
Here is my dumb question of the day. The Greatest Generation bombed Germany and Japan without regard to civilian casualties. They did not ask the political feeling of those people, they just bombed them. When did killing civilians become a bad thing?
Kinda when the Collectivist in the academe got hold of the movie industry immediately after the war.
Historically, war was all hell on civilian populations…kind of regardless of whose side they were on. Armies historically just sort of did rape and pillage as part of their movement. Widows were made, pestilence spread, all the horseman let loose.
With modern warfare, came some modern notions of “civil conduct of wars”, which some of us think in the main were a bad idea. You may not want to “civilize” war. You may want to make it as sharp and quick and awful as you can, and kill fewer people and cause less misery. But I am not a real civilized guy.
Still, I think the history of U.S. war-making after WWII bears out the thesis.
Old0311 – I think you know the answer. When Israel started doing it.
This explains why Abbas has ganged up with el-Sisi and Nethanyu against Hamas. I imagine that Abbas was very angry when he was told of the Hamas plot to undermine his authority. Oh happy days!!
Note that the method of attacking Abbas would be by killing Jews.