Dirar Abu Sisi, Hamas engineer abducted from the Ukraine
News item:
Tel Aviv – Israel is holding a Gaza engineer kidnapped in the Ukraine, Israeli media reported Monday after an court partially lifted a gag order on the case.
Senior Palestinian engineer, Dirar Abu Sisi, 42, was reportedly kidnapped by Israeli secret agents from a train several weeks ago.
Media reports Monday were allowed to confirm that he was being held by Israeli authorities, but not the details of his capture, after a Sunday ruling by a court in Petah Tiqva, east of Tel Aviv. — Monsters & Critics
Abu Sisi is said to have been born in Jordan and received a doctorate in Electrical Engineering in the Ukraine, where he married a Ukranian woman. He has six children.
In Gaza, fellow engineers and neighbors described Abu Sisi as a Hamas supporter, pointing to his senior position. He served as the deputy head of the electric power station and posts are traditionally staffed by Hamas loyalists…
Veronika Abu Sisi said the family decided to return to Ukraine after life in the Gaza Strip became unsafe for their three daughters and three sons and her husband flew to the Ukraine to apply for citizenship in January.
Several questions immediately pose themselves:
- Was Abu Sisi worried about Israel, or about Hamas? Why was it ‘unsafe’ for him to stay there?
- Why did Israel take the not-inconsiderable risk of sending agents to the Ukraine to abduct him?
Abu Sisi’s wife said that
the Israeli secret service Mossad carried out the abduction in order to sabotage a key electric power plant in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip where he worked as a senior manager. “I don’t suspect it, I am sure of it,” [Veronika] Abu Sisi told the AP in a telephone interview. “My husband was the heart of the only electric station in Gaza, or rather its brain. It’s a strategic object and they wanted to disable it.”
This is nonsense. If Israel wanted to disable the power plant, which is very unlikely, it could be done with one helicopter-fired missile. The case of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas operative assassinated in Dubai, illustrates the risk of a covert operation. Even if Ukrainian authorities cooperated, it would be expensive and politically dangerous. Given this, we can conclude that Israel was very anxious to get its hands on Abu Sisi.
What is really behind this? Here are some possibilities:
- Abu Sisi is involved in the transfer of weapons — perhaps even chemical, biological or radiological ones — from Iran to Gaza.
- Abu Sisi is involved in development of weapons by Hamas itself.
- Abu Sisi has detailed information about Hamas’ offensive and defensive plans and fortifications.
- Abu Sisi has information about the location of Gilad Shalit.
- Abu Sisi has defected and is cooperating with the Mossad. In this case the abduction and detention is a smokescreen and he will be returned to the Ukraine or another ‘safe’ place after he has told them what he knows.
I don’t know which of these alternatives or something else is true. At some point we may find out, and I think the facts will prove very interesting indeed.
Of the alternatives you list, my guess would be a combination of #1 and #3.
A war is coming soon. (Heck, it always seems like a ‘war is coming soon’…).
Specifically, I think Hamas is going to try to provoke a war in the next few months for three reasons.
1. They see that Israel under Bibi is not going to completely capitulate to Obama. In fact, it appears now that Bibi is digging in his heels. So, pressuring Israel to commit slow suicide via having the Saudi peace plan shoved down Israel’s throat via Obama is not going to happen.
2. Because of #1 above, a new effort must be made to ensure that Israel is placed in an untenable international position. Provoking a war while the most anti-Israel president in U.S. history is still in office means that Israel will get minimal backing from the U.S., if any.
3. Obama has set this September as the “deadline” for an Israeli-PA agreement, to be made with Fatah under Mahmoud Abbas. In the unlikely event that this happens, Fatah is likely to get substantial aid and support – even beyond what they get now – from the U.S. and the West generally, which will weaken the relative position of Hamas within the PA. Hamas needs to head this off.
4. So, by provoking a war, Hamas hopes to:
– Involve Israel in a shooting war in which she will receive little or no material support from the U.S.
– Weaken or even eliminate their internal rival, Fatah/Abbas directly or by proxy (i.e., let the Israelis do this for them as part of the general conflagration).
– Use the petrodollar-corrupted UN and world media to go into full “Israel attack” mode, in a manner that would make the reaction of these same entities to the Gaza flotilla incident this past May look like a Boy Scout jamboree by comparison, which in turn leads to:
– Complete pariah status for Israel in the UN, to perhaps include a Chapter 7 UNSCR passed against Israel that will include economic sanctions.
Maybe now Hamas also expects to have Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon behind them in an active sense.
Seeing all this coming, Israel is getting ready. Their own best hope is for a very rapid and decisive victory before too much international pressure can be brought to bear (i.e., the spare parts and ammunition runs out).