Why the Jerusalem Post prints Al-Hayat's shrill conspiratorial hysteria we'll never understand:

Israel is planning to assassinate exiled Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal, deposed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and former PA Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, but is waiting to give the green light on the operation until after US President George W. Bush leaves the region, the London-based newspaper, Al-Hayat reported on Sunday. The report cites sources who were part of the former PA unity government with Hamas as saying that European states informed them that Israel was forming a "hit list," on which appears the names of the three Hamas leaders...

Meanwhile, Hamas claimed on Saturday that its security forces had thwarted an attempt to assassinate Haniyeh. Ihab Ghissin, spoke sman for the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Interior, said a man carrying a bag containing a four-kilogram TNT explosive device was arrested during a rally attended by Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders... While Haniyeh was addressing the crowd, Hamas security officials spotted a suspicious man carrying a big bag. When they arrested him, they were surprised to discover that the bag contained an explosive device that was supposed to be detonated by remote control... "We have no doubt that the target was Haniyeh," said a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip. "This assassination attempt is clearly linked to the visit of US President George W. Bush to the region."

So Hamas captured an Israeli agent trying to assassinate the democratically elected Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority and only Al-Hayat knows about it because Hamas is so good at keeping their "victories over Israel" on the DL? And the assassination attempt was timed to coincide with Bush's visit to Israel - which would have derailed peace talks, infuriated the Americans and torpedoed Olmert's crowning diplomatic achievement which is why the operation won't be green lighted until after Bush leaves the region? And Israel is sharing its hit lists with European powers who are leaking them to Hamas - which is earth shattering because Hamas leaders didn't know that they're on Israel's long-term hit list.

Presumably this would be meant to help the peace process by obliterating Hamas beyond recovery like Israel did to the PFLP. Or it would be meant to hurt the peace process by creating a Palestinian rally around the Hamas flag. And it would be meant to set up a Gaza invasion by causing disarray in the Gaza leadership. Or it would be meant to take the wind out of the sails of a Gaza invasion by ending the Qassam attacks that provide the justification for the invasion.

Or it's typical incoherent anti-Israel conspiracy-mongering from the pages a virulently anti-Semitic Arab newspaper.

References:
* Report: Israel planning to assassinate Haniyeh [JPost]

Previously:
* This Is Why Public Diplomacy Will Fail - 9/11 Conspiracy Theory Edition
* Israel And AIPAC: We'll Respond To Walt And Mearsheimer When Their Vicious Anti-Semitism Gets Sophisticated Or Relevant (Plus: MR Is Suspicious About Leftist Pro-Mearsheimer Enthusiasm)
* Arab and Muslim Conspiracy Theories - Iranian Holocaust Denial Edition