Prisoner Ploy is So Transparent It's Sick
We'll let others debate out the theoretical and moral merits of converting to Islam in order to save your life. On another register, we're finding it very hard to disagree with this analysis from DEBKA:
Shortly after Centanni and Wiig were snatched by masked gunmen in Gaza on Aug. 14, the various intelligence agencies operating in Gaza knew who the kidnapper was: the Palestinian warlord Zakaria Dughmush, who had been hired by the same Hamas group which on June 25 kidnapped and - is still holding - the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit... In the final reckoning, the Palestinians were granted a face-saver – the Hamas prime minister in particular, who is using the release of the American and the New Zealander to whitewash his organization, without freeing the Israeli soldier.
This isn't normal DEBKA "we looked into our crystal ball and this is what it told us" stream of consciousness. The Palestinians have admitted that they knew where the reporters were being held all along - and now the media is treating the PA like heros for getting them released. And you remember how rightwing bloggers mocked the media's parroting of the "previously unknown terror group" phrase (because of the known Palestinian tactic of making up new organizations so that their master organizations - Hamas, Fatah, etc - don't get blamed)? That turned out to be true:
PA security officials said they knew the identity of the kidnappers from day one, but refused to elaborate. They said the kidnappers belonged to one of the local militias in the Gaza Strip that used the name Holy Jihad Brigades as a cover- up.
It's like they're not even trying any more. They know they can be as shameless as they want and the West will still pretend not to know what's going on - because if anyone actually said out loud that most Palestinian groups were working together most of the time, then it would be much harder to appease the groups one by one.
Shortly after Centanni and Wiig were snatched by masked gunmen in Gaza on Aug. 14, the various intelligence agencies operating in Gaza knew who the kidnapper was: the Palestinian warlord Zakaria Dughmush, who had been hired by the same Hamas group which on June 25 kidnapped and - is still holding - the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit... In the final reckoning, the Palestinians were granted a face-saver – the Hamas prime minister in particular, who is using the release of the American and the New Zealander to whitewash his organization, without freeing the Israeli soldier.
This isn't normal DEBKA "we looked into our crystal ball and this is what it told us" stream of consciousness. The Palestinians have admitted that they knew where the reporters were being held all along - and now the media is treating the PA like heros for getting them released. And you remember how rightwing bloggers mocked the media's parroting of the "previously unknown terror group" phrase (because of the known Palestinian tactic of making up new organizations so that their master organizations - Hamas, Fatah, etc - don't get blamed)? That turned out to be true:
PA security officials said they knew the identity of the kidnappers from day one, but refused to elaborate. They said the kidnappers belonged to one of the local militias in the Gaza Strip that used the name Holy Jihad Brigades as a cover- up.
It's like they're not even trying any more. They know they can be as shameless as they want and the West will still pretend not to know what's going on - because if anyone actually said out loud that most Palestinian groups were working together most of the time, then it would be much harder to appease the groups one by one.
