Israel accuses Syria over capture

By Magdi Abdelhadi
Arab affairs analyst, BBC News

Israel has accused the Syrian-based leadership of Hamas of being behind the abduction of Israeli soldier Cpl Gilad Shalit.

The Hamas leader in exile is Khaled Meshaal, a hardliner within the militant group, who survived an Israeli assassination attempt on his life back in 1997.

For many Palestinians, Khaled Meshaal is a national hero

The Israelis frequently accuse Damascus and militant Palestinian groups based there of orchestrating violence against them.

For the Israelis and the Americans, Khaled Meshaal is an uncompromising enemy of peace and the state of Israel.

For many Palestinians, he is a national hero, just like the guerrillas who captured the Israeli soldier.

It is difficult to know whether orders did in fact go out from Mr Meshaal's office in Damascus.

The Israelis have not made public any evidence they have of such involvement.

But Mr Meshaal's views are well-known, and he has always supported Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Like many Palestinians, he believes that such attacks are a legitimate act of resisting the Israeli occupation.

Expelled by Jordan

Mr Meshaal gained international fame following an attempt by Israeli agents to poison him when he lived in Jordan back in 1997.

The Israelis accused him then of masterminding suicide attacks on Israeli civilians.

Two years later, Jordan bowed to American pressure and expelled him.

After a brief stay in the Gulf, he moved to Damascus.

When the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, was killed by the Israelis in 2004, Mr Meshaal was chosen as the head of Hamas's political bureau.

National unity

The organisation's secretive structure means the extent of his authority over the Gaza hierarchy and the organisation's militant wing is not entirely clear.

But there seems to be an emerging consensus among Palestinian factions that attacks on Israelis are justifiable as long as that they do not target Israeli civilians inside Israel.

The recent document of national unity adopted by the two main factions, Fatah and Hamas, endorses attacks on Israelis as long as they take place within the territories occupied by Israel since 1967.

That is the land the Palestinians want to have as a future state.

Hamas has, of course, still not renounced its aim of creating a state on all the territories of historic Palestine prior to the creation of Israel, which in effect means destroying the Jewish state.