Why Israel’s response to the kidnappings feels awfully familiar

Samer Badawi By Samer Badawi June 18, 2014 | Edit

If the past is any gauge of what’s to come, things are not looking good in the West Bank – neither for the Palestinians who remain under occupation there, nor for the three missing teenagers.

From a Haaretz report:

The Israel Defense Forces plans to arrest additional senior Hamas officials. Yesterday security forces arrested 65 key members of Hamas’ political wing in an early-morning operation in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Among those arrested were eight ministers of the Hamas government who reside in the West Bank, and 20 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. The mayor of the town of Qalqilyah was also taken into custody.

The arrests are expected to continue.

That was from 2006, days after Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit’s abduction along the Gaza border. In the same article, Haaretz cited Israeli sources denying that the 65 detainees were meant as “bargaining chips’ for securing the release of… Shalit.”

Hebron, West Bank, 17.6.2014
IDF soldiers patrol Hebron in the aftermath of the kidnapping of three Israelis in the West Bank. (photo: Activestills)

“Instead,” Haaretz reported, “the operation is viewed in Israel as part of a broader policy of intensifying measures against the Hamas.”

Israeli commander Nitzan Alon echoed that very sentiment on Tuesday:

Hamas will come out of this confrontation weakened both strategically and operationally. We’ll continue weakening them for as long as it takes.

This before the Israeli government has offered even a shred of evidence that Hamas was behind the disappearance of three students missing in the West Bank since Friday. In a move bizarrely ill-timed to coincide with the final refutation of America’s hunch-driven escapade in Iraq, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already dammed the Rubicon at his back (he crossed it long ago), naming Hamas the only suspect in the students’ disappearance.

So far, the only military “gain” he can claim is a steadily accumulating list of names, each of them a Palestinian whose life, let us be frank, was never free in the first place. It took more than a thousand Palestinian souls to barter the release of Gilad Shalit. If that’s any gauge of what’s to come, things are not looking good in the West Bank – neither for the Palestinians who remain under occupation there, nor for the three missing teenagers.

More on the kidnappings:
Badawi: After indicting Hamas, Bibi declares war on all Palestinians
Omer-Man: Rights groups say response to kidnapping is collective punishment
Matar: Israel’s crackdown moves beyond Hamas militants

Samer Badawi

Samer Badawi joined +972 in 2014 and covered Operation Protective Edge for the magazine from Gaza and the West Bank in the summer and fall of that year. He writes about U.S. policy toward the region, Israel-Palestine activism, and the nexus between the movement for Palestinian rights and other liberation struggles. His reporting and analysis have been cited by The Washington Post, featured on Al Jazeera, BBC, and other mainstream outlets, and called "must read" by Arad Nir of Israel's Channel 2. He was formerly the DC correspondent for Middle East International.

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TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence.    We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies.   This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza.   We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives.   Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

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