I just got this email from a pretty reliable source I think i can vouch for him that he is saying the truth.
But again you never know
I just got off the phone with Israel Aharoni.
Contrary to news reports:
1) the boys were not hitchhiking. They were waiting at Tzomet HaGush, which is a bus stop, as well as a hitchhiking spot (I've been there many times - it's where the gas station for Efrat is located). An Arab asked the boys to help him push his car which had broken down. The last sighting of the boys (by a witness who was at the bustop) was at 10:15 pm of them pushing the Arab's car (which had Israeli license plates) down the road. Presumably the 3 boys were then ambushed when they got further down the road (this was not witnessed). At 10:20 a 911 call was received, and one of the boys managed to say they'd been kidnapped. The 911 operator notified his immediate supervisor ( a young, low level police officer), who made the decision it was probably a prank call. one hour later, they sent an army patrol to Tzomet HaGush to investigate, but found nothing (stupid, because if anyone had been kidnapped an hour earlier they would be long gone).
At 3 am the parents of the boys called their local police station, and again at 4 am, and then at 5 am the army was notified, but the army commander didn't receive the information for another hour so no action to search for the boys was taken by the army until 6 am. 8 hours wasted. If they had acted immediately, at 10:20, they could have immediately set up road blocks all over the area and stopped the kidnappers vehicle.
2) They know who the two kidnappers are. They were among the prisoners that were released in the Shalit trade. They identified them by process of elimination, because out of all the known terrorists they alone are missing from their homes, and had told their employers ahead of time that they wouldn't be into work for a few days. They are from villages near Hebron, which is why the search is focusing there.
The burned out car has been found. The kidnappers burned it in the hopes of destroying any DNA connecting them to the crime, but apparently you can't destroy the DNA by burning the car.
In Israel Aharoni's view, the main problem is with the chief of police and the minister of police. He says when he was a soldier many years ago and stationed on the border, they were instructed never to make their own decisions. If they saw someone being kidnapped, or any other dangerous situation, they had the phone numbers of the highest commander to immediately call. So the fault in this instance is not with the young, inexperienced, low level police person, but in how they were trained. They should have been instructed to immediately report to a high level, seasoned commander any such phone call.
Very sad. I think that they have to stop releasing terrorists in exchange for Israelis, because it creates an incredible incentive for further kidnappings. Israel Aharoni thinks that the terrorists made a mistake - that they didn't know they were kidnapping minors - there are many chesder yeshivot in the area, and they thought they were kidnapping soldiers. And he thinks it was very stupid to kidnap 3 - because psychologically it has a much bigger impact on how it's perceived by Israelis, and the world. It is in fact a war crime to kidnap children.
Please G-d they will be found soon.
ETA: seems to be that this is the truth
