ISIS propaganda graphic on social media declaring that the ultimate goal includes taking the fight to Jerusalem and returning it to the caliphate. (source: Syria Comment)

This current round of Gaza bombardment by Israel has little to do with the three Israeli teens kidnapped and murdered in the West Bank, but was planned in advance for political reasons by the Netanyahu government. The murdered teens served as the pretext for an attack on Gaza, in the way that Hezbollah border incidents have been the pretext for Israeli bombing of all of Lebanon. But in this case Israel’s proclaimed target, Hamas, likely had nothing to do with the murdered teens.

A June 13 Haaretz article seems to have escaped media consciousness:

Al-Qaida linked organization takes responsibility for alleged kidnapping

An extremist Salafi organization known as Dawlat al-Islam has distributed pamphlets in Hebron claiming responsibility for the feared kidnapping of the three Israeli teens.

Israel security services are investigating the validity of the claim.

A self-described Al-Qaida offshoot, Dawlat al-Islam is linked to ISIS, the Sunni militant organization behind this week’s Iraq insurgency.

Last November, Israeli commandos killed three members of a Salafi terror cell in the South Hebron Hills village of Kfar Yatta. The three were planning an attack on Israel, and pistols and explosive devices were found at the site of the operation.

For a more detailed account, see the AP report: ISIS linked organization takes responsibility for alleged kidnapping of three teenagers including one American in Israel.

To my knowledge, there’s been no official Israeli statement on the Dawlat al-Islam claims, or an official conclusion to an investigation (if there was a serious investigation at all). Gaza, a de facto open air prison, once again becomes the scapegoat for Israeli vengeance and for Netanyahu’s main political selling point of “being tough on terror.”

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is an Oxford scholar and expert on the Middle East who has been closely documenting Palestinian units within ISIS. On Monday of this week, he posted to Syria Comment the following conclusion regarding the kidnapped Israeli teens:

It should be noted that undoubtedly with influence from Gaza, this pro-ISIS trend is catching on somewhat in the West Bank, which recently saw three teenagers kidnapped near Hebron by a group taking its name after ISIS, though the Israeli government is officially blaming Hamas as part of a propaganda line whereby there is a reluctance to acknowledge there is a more radical trend than Hamas emerging within the Palestinian population.

I would add to Tamimi’s analysis the fact that Israel has been an active part in the NATO-Gulf axis of supply/support lines to the Syrian rebels. Without such support, ISIS would never be in the position that it is now. It would not have the capacity and influence to extend its reach into the West Bank.

If it is confirmed that the ISIS unit Dawlat al-Islam kidnapped and murdered the Israeli teens, the Israeli government has a direct share in the blame. Remember that it even served as Air Force to Al-Qaeda in Syria on multiple occasions: first, when it bombed multiple Syrian government sites last May, and within the last two weeks when it attacked at least nine Syrian government sites in an event that went under reported.

Expect, as a result of this pre-planned fabricated war on Gaza, the deaths of more innocents, especially women and children, who have no way of fleeing the densely populated, Israeli blockaded Gaza Strip.