Israel Matzav

Idiocy: Lapid issues veiled threat to Meshaal, Marzouk

In 1997, during Prime Minister Netanyahu's first term in office, the Mossad attempted to poison Khaled Meshaal, Hamas' politburo chief. Unfortunately, because the operation was carried out in Jordan, with which Israel had a treaty, and because the agents who attempted to kill Meshaal were caught, Netanyahu was forced to send an antidote to Jordan and to release Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas' spiritual leader. Yassin was killed in an Israeli airstrike seven years later.

On Sunday, Finance Minister Yair Lapid issued a veiled threat against Meshaal's life. Meshaal is now in Qatar, a country with which Israel has no relations, so the situation is very different from 1997. But....

Security Cabinet member and Finance Minister Yair Lapid has warned that Hamas's political leadership - including those based abroad - are not "immune" from bearing the consequences of continued rocket and mortar fire against Israeli civilians.

Speaking just before a Security Cabinet meeting Sunday morning, Lapid referred to the murder of four-year Daniel Turgeman in a mortar attack on southern Israel, saying Israel "would not tolerate" the targeting of its children by Islamist terrorists.

...

"Those responsible for his death will pay the price," Lapid vowed. "Hamas's leaders need to know that we will pursue them, and we will cause them to pay the price for what is happening in the south of the State of Israel."

"No one is immune - not the political leadership, and not the leadership abroad," he said.
Until now Israel has largely avoided targeting Hamas's "political" leadership, focusing on commanders and personnel from its "military wing", the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. On Thursday, Israel succeeded in killing three of its "most wanted" Hamas terrorists in a strike targeting senior al-Qassam Brigades commanders.

A previous strike targeted the Brigades' commander, Mohammed Deif, but Hamas claimed this elusive terrorist mastermind had survived - though it gave no word on his precise condition.

Hamas's most senior political leader is Khaled Meshaal, currently based in Doha, Qatar. Other senior Hamas leaders are also based abroad - including one of the suspected masterminds of the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teens in June, Salah al-Aruri.

Lapid is a moron. Everyone knows that Israel is capable of striking Hamas terrorists abroad. Keep your mouth shut and just do it.

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Dubai, Gaza, Hamas, IDF, Jordan, Khaled Meshaal, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Operation Protective Edge, Qatar, targeted killings

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:50 PM