Battle of the Terrorists

Remember the two Fox journalists that were kidnapped and recently released? They were released for an expensive price.

ilad Shalit, the IDF soldier kidnapped on the eve of the IDF re-entry into Gaza, was the price for the release of two Fox News reporters, Time Magazine reported Monday.

According to the report, the journalists were kidnapped as part of internal struggles between various terrorist factions in the Palestinian Authority.

So, who exactly are these struggling factions?

The never-before heard of Holy Jihad Brigades is apparently a militia headed by Zakaria Dughmush, a terror chief reportedly involved in attacks on Americans and sub-contracted by Hamas to kidnap Gilad Shalit. When Hamas took the reigns of deciding Shalit’s fate, Dughmush’s militia decided to gain leverage by kidnapping the journalists. They were released when Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh promised to allow the group to participate in deciding Shalit’s fate.

What does this mean for the "peace process" - admittedly a joke, but for some reason, interesting Americans right and left?

he fact that a second party will be issuing demands complicates the negotiations for Shalit’s release and is likely to further up the already steep-price the Olmert government is reportedly planning to pay to win.

An alternative explanation, offered by Debka File, a repository of unconfirmed intelligence reports, posits that the Holy Jihad Brigades were assigned the task of reshuffling the cards once negotiations for the release of hundreds of PA Arabs from Israeli prisons had extracted the largest amount of concessions from the Israeli government.

The kidnapping of the journalists, Debka argues, in fact provided Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh with good public relations, as the kidnapped journalists met with him and praised his actions on their behalf. This also acts to complicate Shilat's release as his kidnappers are now seen as liberators.

I don't care who you have there - the UN, the French (sacre bleu, throw down your wee-pon or we will say mean things about you), etc. Until you eliminate the source, there will be no peace.