Palestinians: We kidnapped settler in West Bank

Popular Resistance Committee spokesperson tells Ynet his group kidnapped settler in West Bank. IDF says they are aware of report but cannot yet confirm it

A spokesperson for the Popular Resistance Committee told Ynet on Monday evening that his group kidnapped a settler in the West Bank. Spokesperson Mahmoud Abed Alal said he would release more information on the kidnapping later Monday night.

The Israel Defense Forces said it was aware of the announcement but could not yet confirm that an Israeli citizen had been kidnapped, adding that they had received no report on a kidnapping from settlers. Settler leaders also said they are unaware of a kidnapping attack.

A PRC official told Ynet his group was only ready to negotiate "the price" that Israel is willing to pay in return for the release of the soldier and settler.

He said Palestinian groups would continue to kidnap Israelis "to bring an end to Israeli aggression against the Palestinian in the West Bank and Gaza and to bring about the release of Palestinian prisoners."

The PRC spokesperson refused to say where in the West Bank the settler was kidnapped, but other sources said the incident took place in El-Khader, Bethlehem or Nablus.

He also refused to note whether the group intended to release photos of the alleged hostage or a recorded tape confirming the kidnapping.

The Salah a-Din Brigade, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, published an official statement on their website announcing

the kidnap of a settler. The announcement noted that the abduction was carried out as part of their operation “Cavaliers’ Wrath,” which aimed to avenge Israel’s targeted assassination of organization leaders.

“One of our cells in the West Bank managed to kidnap a settler as part of a chain of responses against the Zionist aggression, and to avenge the blood of Palestinian shahids,” the statement said.

“We have information on the kidnapping, but we will not share it at this point so that the ball remains in the court of the Zionists, and so the Zionist security forces continue to be confused. We will let the operations on the ground speak for us,” the message said.

Eyewitnesses said the army set up surprise checkpoints across the West Bank in a bid to intercept the kidnappers.

The Popular Resistance Committees is the group that claimed responsibility for the kidnapping Sunday of Gilad Shalit, along with Hamas' military wing and a largely unknown group called Islam's Army.

The second alleged kidnapping comes just hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ruled out conceding to Hamas' demands to release all female security prisoners in return for information on the abducted soldier.

Just ten days ago two Israeli settlers - adolescent girls - escaped a kidnapping attempt while hitchhiking in the West Bank.

Israel should let them know that, if the people are returned alive and unharmed, Israel will only seize a half mile of territory. If they are harmed or killed, its a mile.

Seven years ago, right here on FR, I presented my similar plan:

100 yards per Israeli killed, and 50 Yds per Israeli injured.

To be applied to the a 10 mile strip of the border where the killers operated, the punishment delivered starting the next day.

How far this "no man's" addition to Israeli territory expands would be entirely up to the "palestinians".

This war was supposed to be about ending Israeli occupation. The occupation has ended, and the war continues, which means that the war is not and was not about occupation.

We are used to wars against governments, which as bad as they are, are relatively clean. You target the government's command and control, destroy its ability to continue the fight, and try not to kill too many innocents.

Wars between peoples are of a different order altogether.

If Israel can identify some force within Gaza and the arab west bank who are willing to make peace, fine. They won't find anyone, though, because anyone interested in peace with Israel is murdered in the street in front of their home.

Negotiating peace with the so-called "government" of these two territories is pointless, because thats not why they are there. They are not there to build a supposed rump of a country, they are there for the express purpose of making war. To pretend otherwise is to engage in willful self-deception. Its embarrassing.

Israel has done a lot that was right and necessary. Drawing a line unilaterally, and getting its people on the safe side of that line, war painful but I believe necessary. Sealing the border, to the degree it has been sealed, is necessary. It should be hermetic. Ending the so-called occupation, disentangling itself from direct control of arab affairs was necessary; it was necessary to let the arabs put-up-or-shut-up, so to speak.

All that has been done, and the war continues. Its not a war about occupation, its a war against Israelis themselves, and personally. Arab attacks are very seldom against hardened military targets, because it isn't a war between militaries, its a war against the Israeli people. They aren't firing missiles at military bases, they are sending them into neighborhoods.

They don't want to defeat Israel; they want to kill Israelis. This is not normal, political war fought for a political purpose. This is personal.

The only way to resolve it is to push the arabs back every time they attack. The loss of territory is the only language they will understand. They do not care about the loss of arab lives; Israelis care more for arab lives than do the arabs themselves. Territory is the only price tag that will get their attention.

Even I, writing from the safety of my keyboard, do not have the nerve to demand the expulsion of the arabs from Gaza and the west bank. What I do recommend is, similar to you, that the border be pushed forward every time it is violated, that those arabs who find themselves on the wrong side of the new border be compensated and expelled to the arab side of the new line. Each and every time. You say a hundred yards, I say half a mile, the distance is a detail, the important point is to turn the one-way ratchet around and make "land for peace" work the only way it can work.

Break the peace, and lose more territory. Keep the peace, and the borders are secure where they are.

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