One of the three teenage yeshiva students who went missing and were feared kidnapped in the West Bank Thursday overnight is a dual Israeli-American citizen, according to Israeli media. US Ambassador in Israel, Dan Shapiro, was briefed on the situation.Even though they are 16, Hamas is calling them "soldiers" and "usurpers."
Israel’s security forces were continuing their large-scale operation Friday to locate the three teenagers, and roadblocks were set up around the West Bank to prevent the possible transfer of the three to the Gaza Strip, Channel 2 reported Friday.
Palestinian prisoners in Israel were celebrating the news of the feared kidnappings, according to Channel 2. Over 100 Palestinian prisoners have been on hunger strike to protest their detention without charge.
No Palestinian organization has yet claimed responsibility. A senior Islamic Jihad official on Friday called on Palestinians to kidnap Israeli citizens, arguing that Israel had proven in the past that it was willing to negotiate the release of Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for the lives of its civilians.
Now, just imagine that a random Palestinian family lives next door to a place that appears to be where the boys are hidden. Or an Arab woman overhears a rumor that the boys are in the next village.
Can you imagine any of them, without outside incentive, telling the authorities about it?
These are minors. Kidnapping them is reprehensible, a war crime that is about as severe as anything in the Geneva Conventions. A normal person would be disgusted at this act and ashamed to be associated with it.
What percentage of Palestinian Arab society would be against it? How many would publicly say, unprompted by outside considerations (like politicians trying to keep the flow of Western money,) that kidnapping Jewish boys is to be condemned?
You don't have to ask. Just look in the talkbacks and comments in Arab articles or message forums. You will find very few Palestinian Arabs who are outraged, or even uncomfortable, with such an act.