Israel-Palestine: Were 4 Settlers Killed to Sabotage Talks? (Yenidunya)

On Tuesday night, four Israelis were killed in a car by at least one gunman in the West Bank. The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, claimed responsibility for the attack. Osama Hamdan, a Hamas spokesman, told Al Jazeera that Hamas had not planned any attacks intended to sabotage the Israeli-Palestinian Authroity talks. However, Hamdan said he was speaking for the political wing of Hamas and the Qassam Brigades could have planned the attack independently.

Abu Mujahad, spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), told YNet that the West Bank attack was a message to the Palestinian negotiating team over the resumption of direct talks with Israel. "They should not have gone for this move without the support of the Palestinian people," he said. "Our people still abide by resistance and do no believe in the fictitious talks scheduled to commence tomorrow."

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Then another Hamas response came. "Hamas praises the attack and regards it as a natural response to the crimes of the occupation," said Sami Abu-Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded:

This is very grave incident. The IDF and Israeli security forces will do everything they can to capture the murderers. Israel will not allow terrorists to lift their heads and will exact a price from the murderers and those who sent them.

US State Department Spokesman Philip J. Crowley called the attack as a “tragedy” and continued:

Any time one human being takes out a weapon and fires and kills other human beings it’s a tragedy.

We are cognizant that there could be external events that can have an impact on the environment. We also are cognizant that there may well be actors in the region who are deliberately making these kinds of attacks in order to sabotage the process. We are very aware that as we go forward in this process, not everyone sees this in the same way, and there are those who will do whatever they can to disrupt or derail the process.

The most significant, if cynical, question is: which side can get the most benefit from this tragedy during direct talks? Will this attack boost Israel through attention to its security concerns? Will it make Ramallah a more valuable partner for peace, given the shadow  of Hamas and other opposition groups, especially at a time when polls show that more than half of Palestinians in the West Bank do not believe that there will be a peace agreement in Washington?