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Nana has published a video (featured in this Hebrew article) of the brutal beating of U.S. citizen, Tariq Khdeir, the cousin of Mohamed Abu Khdeir, who was murdered by Israeli extremists a few days ago in East Jerusalem. His parents says he was in the yard of his uncle when he was assaulted mercilessly by two Border Police wielding truncheons. They repeatedly kicked and beat him in a display videotaped for posterity. I’ve tweeted to AP State Department correspondent Matt Lee asking him to bring this up at the Monday press briefing.

UPDATE: Apparently spurred to action by the plethora of world media reports on this story, the State Department released a statement that it was “profoundly troubled” by the beating of the Palestinian-American. That and a few bucks will buy you a Starbucks coffee. How about “outraged?” “Appalled?” How about “behavior that cannot be accepted among civilized nations?” A tad stronger rhetoric may be called for, no? Since Obama likes to use his daughters in his political speeches, perhaps he might give some thought if it was one of them beaten senseless and brought almost unconscious to Hadassah Hospital? Would the response be a bit more muscular?

Unfortunately, the burning alive of Abu Khdeir elicits almost no response from the world press. But this brutal beating of a U.S. citizen finally gets the world to take some notice. Whatever it takes, I guess.

You also will not hear much about the mass riots swirling throughout East Jerusalem and environs in which hundreds of Palestinians are burning and pillaging whatever they can get their hands on. The Jerusalem light rail stop in Shuafat, where the martyred boy lived has been burned to the ground. Protesters are even cutting down the electricity pole to eliminate any chance of restoring the system to full operation. This signifies the rejection of the Israeli attempt to exert full sovereignty over the entire city, especially the Palestinians neighborhoods.

Ironically, in a story reported exclusively here, a clever Israeli or Palestinian hacker once inserted a message endorsing the Right of Return into the LED messages that flash in the Jerusalem light rail stations. A small act of resistance.

In response to the civil unrest, Israel is resorting to the only thing it knows: violence. It’s installed a massive presence of Occupation forces blanketing the Palestinian areas with tear gas, rubber bullets and truncheon wielding goons. Beating the native population into submission seems to be the operative form of pacification for Israel. Let’s also remember that the Jerusalem police’s Arab liaison is Doron Zahavi, the notorious IDF rapist of Mustafa Dirani. That gives you some idea of the methods the police are using against Palestinians.

UPDATE: Electronic Intifada has published a video displaying the faces of the likely Israeli killers of Mohemad Abu Khdeir. They appear to be quite young, possibly around the same age (22) as the Palestinian killers of the three Israeli teens.

Despite a gag order on details of the killing, details are beginning to emerge. We already know that Abu Khdeir was burned alive by his torturer-murderers. Now Nana reports that security forces have confirmed the killers were radical Jewish terrorists. Because of the gag, Nana treads delicately. But it does say that certain details known to the Shabak point to this being a “nationalist” crime (Hebrew code for “Jewish terror”). It also notes that the IDF has been enlisted to take part in the pursuit of the killers. Involvement of the IDF in the crime implies the search has entered the West Bank (the military would not be involved in solving a crime within the Green Line) and that the terrorists are being harbored in a radical West Bank settlement. I said from the beginning they’d be found in Yitzhar or a place like it.

Another detail reported by Palestinians is that eyewitnesses gave the license plate of the getaway car to police. Given that they are searching the West Bank, it’s highly likely the license plate was Israeli, attesting to the fact that the killers are Jewish terrorists. Knowing the make, model and license plate of the vehicle should give the Shabak a huge advantage in locating the killers. There are only a handful of hardcore settlements that would harbor such villains. In fact, in light of the fact that the Shabak has had the above video from the beginning of the investigation I’d bet that the Jewish terror unit could identify these faces and knows who the killers are. It’s shameful there has not yet been a break in the case. It’s even more shameful that a Jewish settlement may be harboring these terrorist fugitives.

This should not take a feat of epic police work to solve this crime. But given the tortuous dissembling engaged in by the police and Israeli terror sympathizers thus far, it’s no wonder it’s taken this long and will likely take longer.

What I don’t understand is the report that the police, having Abu Khdeir’s cell phone number, could track the getaway car as it sped to the Jerusalem forest. If they knew where the car was, why couldn’t they have stopped it before it reached the killing ground?