Khalid Meshal survives Israeli assassination attempt in Qatar – and not for the first time

The attack yesterday (9 September) in Qatar by the illegitimate state often referred to as ‘Israel‘ proceeded in a fashion we’ve become accustomed to throughout the genocide in Gaza – cause widespread destruction, kill many people, but fail to achieve the main objective. The goal in this case was to eliminate the entire leadership of the five-man temporary committee currently governing Hamas, as a means of sabotaging the negotiations taking place for a Gaza ceasefire deal. While they managed to kill Humam al-Hayya, son of one committee member Khalil al-Hayya, the leaders themselves have seemingly escaped unscathed. Among them is Khalid Meshal, a survivor of a notorious prior assassination attempt almost 30 years ago (note the salivating New York Times headline in the link, echoing the glee and excitement with which Western media greeted the pager attacks on Hezbollah).

Israel bomb attack Qatar: Khalid Meshal survives assassination attempt, not for the first time

On that occasion, it was again the now wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu that attempted to end his life. The first botched effort to murder Khalid Meshal took place in Jordanian capital Amman in 1997, and was the subject of an excellent two-part documentary by Al Jazeera.

Two Mossad agents disguised as tourists waited on the street outside Meshal’s office, one with a plaster cast on his arm intended to look like that applied to a broken bone, but which in fact concealed a:

high-tech and previously unknown delivery system to blast a fatal overdose of a synthetic opiate called Fentanyl.

As Meshal walked past, the would-be assassin sprayed the substance in Meshal’s ear before attempting to flee with his colleague. They were pursued by Meshal’s bodyguard Muhammad Abu Saif, who chased them through the streets of Amman, where he eventually caught them on foot. The brawl that ensued on a verge alongside a main road between Abu Saif and the two Zionist thugs eventually attracted the attention of the Jordanian police, who apprehended the Mossad two. Six more Mossad agents were found to be in the Israeli embassy, and were prevented from leaving the country by Jordanian authorities.

Meshal’s condition deteriorated, leaving him in a coma. The brutal act caused a diplomatic storm, with Jordan and the Zionist entity having signed a peace deal only three years prior. The attack humiliated the Jordanian leader king Hussein, and fearing the repercussions from the country’s large Palestinian population were Khalid Meshal to die, he demanded Netanyahu provide the antidote. This was delivered in person by the head of Mossad, Danny Yatom, and Meshal ultimately made a full recovery.

Stirring a diplomatic storm

The rash and lawless attack proved a political disaster for Netanyahu, as in exchange for the release of the Mossad agents, he was compelled to release from prison the founder of Hamas Ahmed Yassin.

The 1997 attempt at killing Khalid Meshal is another example of what Ronen Bergman characterised in his book Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations as an “addiction” to assassination among Zionist leaders. This violence first approach, and the failure by the international community to ever hold the rogue state to account, has brought mass death and destruction to West Asia.

The current fallout from the attack in Doha has parallels to the one in Amman, as a “third country” attack (i.e. one outside Palestine or ‘Israel’) again provokes a diplomatic storm. It embarrasses Qatar, who has attempted to woo Trump, most notably by supplying him with an ostentatious new plane to be used as the new Air Force One. The country also hosts the largest American base in the region. Trump has acknowledged that the US knew of the attack and did not attempt to stop it, and has now been forced to backpedal, saying that:

Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals.

Craven Zionist strategy of ‘might makes right’

The bombing of nations used as base for mediating conflict appears to a Zionist strategy intended to ensure that no mediation can ever occur, and that only “might makes right” can prevail, brutalising the entire region in the process.

Compliant Arab states have been content for the genocide in Gaza to continue, so long as ultimately, Zionist violence does not touch them. The increasingly rash and expansionist Zionist settler-colony appears to have no restraint, however, and this may eventually prompt even these craven despots to reconsider their current approach. Khalid Meshal should be testimony to this.

Featured image via the Canary