PA daily: Israel is exploiting kidnapping for self-interest

Official PA daily:

Israel doesn't care about kidnapped teens,

is exploiting kidnapping for self-interest

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

An op-ed in the official PA daily accuses Israel of not caring about the three kidnapped teenagers and of exploiting the kidnapping as an excuse for military actions. Since the kidnapping, the Israeli army, police and intelligence have undertaken a massive house-to-house search in the Hebron region, where they suspect the three youths may be held. The op-ed, written by the former editor of the official PA daily, refers to the extensive searches and arrests of Hamas leaders by the Israeli military as Israel's "war carnival." The op-ed even claims that if the youths were released Israel would be "in a panic."

The following is an excerpt from the op-ed by the former editor, Hafez Al-Barghouti:

"The Israeli right doesn't care about the lives of the kidnapped [teens]; all it cares about is the kidnapping itself, in order to market and exploit it. It [the Israeli right] is determined at all costs to resolve the problem using military means in order to prove its new policy: no freeing of prisoners, no negotiations with the PA and no halting of settlement [construction]. If the kidnappers of their own free will were to release the settlers (i.e., the three kidnapped teens) now, the Israeli right would panic, and the war carnival it is now staging would be ruined; for it is interested in escalation and entanglement, not in resolving the crisis."

Palestinian Media Watchhas reported on Fatah and PA cartoons and pictures celebrating the kidnappingof the Israeli youths.