There is much speculation about the timing of Israel’s assassination of an Islamic Jihad leader, Baha Abu al-Ata and his wife, Asma.
Why rock the boat now? The killing came in the middle of Israeli coalition negotiations, that – if they fail – could lead to an unprecedented third election in a year.
It came during a period of Egyptian-mediated calm between Israel and Hamas that had raised hopes that not only would Israel’s draconian siege on Gaza be eased a little, it could secure a longer-term cessation of hostilities, as well as pave the way for Palestinian elections, long overdue.
And finally, and with a more or less simultaneous attack on an Islamic Jihad leader in Damascus (which missed its apparent target, Akram al-Ajouri, but killed a son, Muath, and a granddaughter, Batoul) it came at a time when there are plenty of other hotspots in a region that seems perpetually poised on some disastrous precipice.
Why escalate at this time?
One has to speculate if this is telegraphing that the IDF is planning some sort of "special mission" against these three key cities which are so important to the Christian faith and narrative, in order to create false flags in them, saying that it was the Palestinians who did such a thing, to get Christians generally annoyed with Palestinians as the IDF goes into Gaza with an alleged "countermeasure", to justify killing more innocent Palestinians.