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Netanyahu, Abbas can avoid next abduction

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should engage Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on both diplomacy and security to better manage future crises.
An Israeli soldier blindfolds of a Palestinian suspected of throwing stones as he detains him during clashes in the West Bank City of Hebron June 16, 2014. Israeli armed forces swept through half a dozen Palestinian towns on Monday and arrested more Hamas officials, expanding a search for three teenagers into a crackdown on the Islamist group accused of abducting them. Most of the military efforts have been concentrated in Hebron, a Hamas stronghold.   
REUTERS/Baz Ratner (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL U
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The Hamas members who abducted the three Israeli teens could have foreseen how Israel would respond. You do not have to be some military correspondent in the know to assume that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would place the West Bank under closure, arrest dozens of suspects and, at the same time, “eliminate” a few wanted men. The kidnappers would have been safe in assuming that the house-to-house searches would increase the civilian population’s hostility toward Israel. Whatever shaky faith in the peace process still exists will have suffered another blow.

Nor did the kidnappers need the services of political pundits with diplomas to anticipate that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would cast the blame on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who signed a reconciliation agreement with the very organization whose members were responsible for the abduction. It should be obvious that presenting the Palestinian leader as a partner to the crime would hardly improve his status as a reliable partner in achieving a two-state solution. 

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