NORTH KURDISTAN (TURKEY) MESOP: INSIGHT ERDOGAN

Daily Beast: Turkey harboring Hamas official linked to murders of three Israeli teens

3-7-2014 – The Daily Beast on Tuesday conveyed assessments from a range of Israeli officials and U.S.-based experts linking the recent kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers to a top Hamas official who has reportedly been allowed to operate freely in Turkey, a dynamic that the outlet noted risked undermining efforts to bridge diplomatic gaps between Jerusalem and Ankara.

Washington Institute Senior Fellow Matthew Levitt was quoted as explaining that while Saleh al-Arouri – who sits atop Hamas’s terror infrastructure in the West Bank – was not directly ordering the abductions, “kidnapping in general has been a key focus for Hamas operatives in the last two years and al-Arouri has been encouraging it.” The piece also had Jonathan Schanzer, the vice president of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, straightforwardly noting that “any attack that takes place in the West Bank will ultimately raise questions about [Arouri’s] involvement.” Earlier this month, an Israeli security official told veteran Arab affairs