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November 18th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
By the time Jabari died on Wednesday afternoon he had survived four
assassination attempts – including one in 2004 that killed his brother, one
of his sons and several male relatives.
He had directed dozens of terrorist strikes including suicide bombings, and
masterminded the ruthless military takeover of Gaza from Fatah, its more
moderate political rival. He had risen to command the military wing in Gaza
of Hamas, the Palestinian “resistance” which is sworn to the
destruction of the Jewish state, after he was released from a 13-year
sentence in an Israeli jail, where he became radicalised.
His killing in Israel’s first “targeted assassination” since 2009
was a devastating blow against Hamas, and perhaps the beginning of Israel’s
eighth war.
Somebody in the Israel Defence Forces press office quickly posted a triumphant
Twitter message showing his picture with the word “Eliminated”
stamped across it, even as Israeli warplanes began hundreds of strikes on
Hamas targets.
His funeral, less than 24 hours after his death, was emotional and angry.
Supporters called for revenge, demanded more rocket attacks, and shot into
the air in defiance. But the usual masked gunmen stayed away fearing Israeli
attack, and a sense of fear took hold among Hamas supporters: Israel had
tracked down and killed one of its wiliest enemies in the heart of his
stronghold.
Jabari took security so seriously that few ordinary Palestinians in Gaza had
ever seen him on their crowded streets, although everybody knew his name.
Many regarded him as a hero. He had stayed one step ahead of his Israeli
enemies for years, moving house constantly and hardly ever showing himself
in public.
Yet he was killed at a time of great tension, when Hamas leaders usually hide
themselves for fear of Israeli attack. There had been several days of
skirmishing along Gaza’s borders, with rocket attacks from Gaza and sporadic
Israeli airstrikes.
It was obvious to everyone that a crisis was brewing, and Israeli politicians
had warned just hours earlier that they were about to launch an operation –
although Hamas leaders seem to have mistakenly thought they had arranged a
ceasefire. They cockily brushed aside Israeli threats. It was fatal
overconfidence.
“He thought he was immune,” said Amos Harel, Military Correspondent
with the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz. “In particular because he had
close ties with the new Egyptian government. And until Monday at least,
Hamas thought it was calling the shots.”
There may have been another reason; some Israeli observers believe Jabari may
have thought Israel wanted to keep him alive because, if they killed him,
more radical Palestinians would step forward to replace him.
He may also have thought he was safe on his home turf in Gaza, the tiny
enclave that is run by Hamas. But Israel’s stunning success in the first few
days of Operation Pillar of Cloud has shown the effectiveness of its network
of informers, and set off waves of paranoia in Hamas’s ranks.
On Friday afternoon they made a very public and bloody show of what “collaborators”
can expect, executing a man who they said had guided in Israeli strikes.
The victim, named as Ashraf Ouaida, was taken from prison and bundled out of a
van by gunmen on a busy street, made to kneel on the pavement and shot
repeatedly in the head as shoppers and pedestrians looked on. His corpse was
left lying in a pool of blood, covered with a message written in Arabic.
“The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades announces the slaughter of the
collaborator… who participated in the assassination of more than 15 of the
leaders of the Palestinian people,” it said. Sources in Gaza said he
was not accused of betraying Jabari.
Israeli officials were keen to stress how important Jabari was – one even
described him as the bin Laden of Hamas. Lieut Col Avital Leibovitch, the
military spokeswoman, said he had “a lot of blood on his hands”.
However the politicians, with one eye perhaps on the high stakes if everything
goes wrong in their latest Gaza operation – a massive gamble just weeks
before the general election – have refrained from crowing too much.
Jabari, a father of 14 who was born in Gaza in 1960, became acting commander
of the Hamas military wing in 2006 when his predecessor was seriously
wounded in an Israeli attack.
As a senior commander he helped plan suicide bomb attacks that killed hundreds
of civilians on Israel’s streets during the bloody second intifada from 2000
to 2005.
In 2007 he was in command when Gaza was wrestled from the control of more
moderate Fatah forces – his old comrades. He began his political career in
their ranks before, like so many Palestinians, he became disillusioned with
their corruption and ineffectiveness and left to join Hamas.
He was best known in Israel for appearing at the release of captured Israeli
soldier Sgt Gilad Schalit a year ago, escorting the Israeli to the Rafah
crossing with Egypt. The release – in exchange for 1000 jailed prisoners,
including more than 300 convicted killers – was a triumph for Hamas, so
important that for once Jabari made sure he appeared in the photograph, next
to the dazed-looked prisoner of war.
Afterwards he told an Arab journalist that the released prisoners were
responsible for the deaths of 569 Israelis. But he was said to have tried to
restrain radicals who wanted to fire rockets at Israel, and he may have been
a moderating force in the last years of his life. Israeli peace campaigner
Gershon Baskin said he was: “In line to die, not an angel and not a
righteous man of peace.”
The release of Sgt Gilad was to be the high point of Jabari’s success.
Israel’s war chieftains were among those watching his moment of triumph.
Israeli sources insisted that his assassination last week was a careful
calculation, not personal and not revenge.
But just over a year later, when it was time to order another targeted
assassination, it was Jabari’s name that was at the top of the list.
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