The Story of Israel's First Assassination Attempt On Khaled Meshaal Back In 1997

I had never heard this story before and found it absolutely fascinating and riveting.

The story comes from The Telegraph.

Khaled Meshaal Gaza trip especially painful for Benjamin Netanyahu


During his first term as Israel's leader 15 years ago, Mr Netanyahu authorised a risky attempt to assassinate Mr Meshaal in the Jordanian capital, Amman. This decision amounted to a backhanded compliment of sorts: Mr Meshaal had only become the leader of Hamas's "political bureau" a year earlier in 1996. The dispatch of an Israeli hit squad so early in his leadership betrayed his rapid ascent into the ranks of people rated worthy of assassination.

To add to his standing, Mr Netanyahu thought that killing Mr Meshaal justified the risk of acting in Jordan, where Israel had a peace treaty and supposedly normal diplomatic relations.

Five agents of the Mossad, Israel's external intelligence agency, were duly sent to Amman, posing as Canadian tourists. They ambushed Mr Meshaal on a street corner and sprayed poison into his left ear, inflicting instant paralysis and, so they hoped, death within 48 hours.

Then everything went wrong. The Jordanian security forces responded to this brazen daylight attack, arresting two of the Israeli agents and forcing three to hide in their country's embassy, which was promptly surrounded by troops.

Instead of escaping over the border, the Mossad team found itself trapped in Amman. Mr Netanyahu was forced to send emissaries to King Hussein of Jordan to plead for their release. The king, who was dying of cancer, drove a hard bargain. First, Israel had to supply an antidote to the poison that was killing Mr Meshaal. Jordanian doctors duly used this to save his life.

Then Mr Netanyahu had to go beyond a standard release of Arab prisoners from Israeli jails. He ended up freeing nine Jordanians, 61 Palestinians and – most painfully of all – Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas and Israel's most hated foe.

Only then did King Hussein release the five Israelis. Mr Netanyahu, trapped in a debacle of his own making, found himself supplying the means to save Mr Meshaal's life and allowing Hamas's old mentor to walk free.

After King Hussein died in 1999, Mr Meshaal was expelled from Jordan, moving first to Qatar and then Syria. He oversaw numerous suicide attacks during the Second Palestinian Intifada between 2000 and 2004. After 26 Israelis died in two particularly brutal bombings in December 2000, one of which targeted a busy shopping street in Jerusalem, Mr Meshaal boasted: "More than three quarters of Zionists killed have died by the hand of Hamas."

This obdurate extremist was born in the West Bank village of Silwad in 1956 when it was under Jordanian rule. But he became a refugee at the age of 11 when Israeli forces captured his home area during the Six Day War.

Mr Meshaal grew up in Jordan and Kuwait, helping to found Hamas and then rising to the pinnacle of its leadership, becoming one of Israel's most implacable enemies.

It's Time. Time For Israel To Finally Rid the World of Hamas' Khaled Meshaal

Khaled Meshaal is the supreme leader of Hamas. But, you see, Khaled Meshaal has always been a chicken shit as he hasn't actually IN Gaza for many, many years.  But that never stopped Meshaal from running Hamas from afar (from Syria up until recently when he turned yellow what with the violence in Syria).

So, this week, Khaled Meshaal is returning to Gaza to help Hamas mark their 25th anniversary.

And I say that the IDF should take this opportunity to really welcome Khaled Meshaal to the land where he has developed the most ruthless terrorists in the world - yes, I think a well placed car bomb or a laser guided JDAM or a spot on hellfire would be the perfect way to commemorate Meshaal's return to Gaza.

Take this piece of shit out and then weather the little storm of world outrage - it will subside in 2 weeks but we'll all be smiling from ear to ear.

The story comes from The Telegraph.

Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal to make first visit to Gaza


The two-day visit by Mr Meshaal, who has been in exile for 45 years, comes in the wake of last month's air offensive by Israel against Hamas and other armed Islamist factions to stop them firing rockets from the enclave at southern Israeli towns.

Gaza has become Hamas' stronghold since it evicted the rival Palestinian Fatah movement by force in 2007, with Ismail Haniyeh as its prime minister in the narrow coastal territory blockaded by Israel in coordination with southern neighbour Egypt.

Mr Meshaal ran the group from exile in Damascus from 2004 until January this year when he quit the Syrian capital because of President Bashar al-Assad's bloody war with fellow-Sunni Muslim rebels. He now divides his time between Doha and Cairo.

It was unclear whether Mr Meshaal's visit would mark the conclusion of a secretive Hamas internal leadership election that has been going on for the past six months.

He had declared that he wanted to leave the post, but he may bow to those among the movement's top ranks and its allies who believe he ought to remain in command.

The eight-day battle between Israeli warplanes and Palestinian rockets ended on November 21 in a ceasefire, brokered by Egypt. Mr Meshaal called it a victory over the Jewish state. Around 170 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, and six Israelis including two soldiers lost their lives.

Hamas sources said the visit by Mr Meshaal, 56, was coordinated with Cairo officials.

Mr Meshaal can expect a hero's welcome. Members of the movement's armed wing will guard his convoy on the 20-mile route from Rafah on the Egyptian border north to Gaza City.

He has scheduled a stop at the house of the group's founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, whom Israel assassinated in 2004, then visit the mourning house of Ahmed al-Jaabari, the Hamas chief of staff whom Israel killed on Nov. 14, triggering the fighting.

Mr Meshaal was expelled from Jordan in 1999, and moved to Qatar and then to Damascus in 2001. He survived a Mossad assassination attempt in Amman in 1997, when Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was last in power.