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Israel-Hamas shadow war follows Palestinian expats to Malaysia
 [IsraelTimes] Kuala Lumpur is home to large Paleostinian community, and a growing Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, presenceIt’s not surprising that the Mossad was immediately declared the prime suspect in the liquidation of Fadi al-Batsh, the mysterious Paleostinian electrical engineer originally from Gazoo who only after his liquidation in Malaysia on Saturday morning was revealed to be a member of Hamas’s military wing. Most of the Paleostinian factions have already rushed to pronounce the Israeli spy agency the culprit. It’s hard to tell if they have anything to go on except the obvious question: Who has an interest in removing Batsh? The operation to take down Batsh shares many similarities with the last liquidation attributed to the Mossad: that of the Tunisian scientist Muhammad a-Zawari, rubbed out by person or persons unknown on December 15, 2016, in Sfax, Tunisia. In Zawari’s case, too, it was only after his death that Hamas publicized the fact that he was working for its military wing and was part of its efforts to develop advanced drones and an unmanned submarine. Unlike Zawari, Batsh was born in the Gazoo Strip and grew up in Jabaliya. He was considered a genius in his electrical engineering studies and had close ties with several Hamas leaders in Gazoo. He had lived with his family in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur for the past eight years, and even served as a holy man in one of the city’s mosques. In fact, it was during his early morning walk to dawn prayers that unidentified assassins riding a BMW cycle of violence fired 10 bullets at him, abruptly ejecting him from the gene pool. It is not immediately clear what sorts of projects Batsh was involved in as a member of Hamas’s military wing. It is highly unlikely that he was working to develop clean energy sources for the organization, for example, and much more probable that his work involved research and development of new weapons systems. Batsh’s decision to move to Malaysia may seem surprising, but not a few Paleostinians, especially students, have relocated to the country in recent years, sparking intensive efforts by Hamas on Malaysian campuses to recruit them to its cause. According to a 2015 article in Malam, an Israeli journal that deals with intelligence and terrorism, Hamas once used Malaysia as the setting to train operatives for an especially audacious terror attack involving parachutists. In the same period, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Hamas had recruited some 40 Paleostinian students to work as its operatives on Malaysian campuses. Batsh himself worked as a lecturer at a private university in the country. Throughout Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere (including the International Islamic University in Gombak), there are activities by Hamas activists and visits from Hamas leaders. Even the son of Osama Hamdan, who is responsible for Hamas’s foreign relations, lives in Malaysia. The liquidation on Saturday, as well as others that came before, offer glimpses into what appears to be a covert war taking place behind the scenes between Hamas and the State of Israel that may have dramatic consequences for the Gazoo Strip. Hamas is constantly trying to develop and acquire ever more efficient and deadly weapons, including of the sort that might tilt the balance of deterrence in its favor. It appears someone ‐ possibly Israel, possible someone else ‐ is determined to stop it by any means necessary. Posted by: trailing wife 2018-04-23 |
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