The Assassination of Khalid Mashaal

This is a story that has always fascinated me. It sounds like a plot taken out of some espionage movie but happened right here in Jordan, and fairly recently as well: in 1997 (though I have no recollection of it at the time). Before the expulsion of the Hamas movement from Jordan, Mashaal, currently chairman of the movement, was the chief of the Jordanian branch and resided in Amman. He was the target of an assassination attempt under orders of then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But what’s weird is that I stumbled across two completely different accounts of the actual attempt. Behold:

Scenario 1: Mossad agents, in the country posing as Canadian tourists, broke into a home where Mashaal was sleeping and injected a deadly poison into his neck. Jordanian authorities arrested two of the ten agents who were engaged in the attempt. [Source: Wikipedia]

Scenario 2: And this is the story that I had previously heard. This one took place in broad daylight. On September 25th, 1997, two Mossad agents brushed past Mashaal on his way to office and attached a device to his ear that unleashed the poison into his body. The agents quickly got into a getaway car but were captured by the police after being cornered by Mashaal’s bodyguard. They were found to be carrying Canadian passports which turned out fake. [Source: The American Jewish Yearbook 1998]

Both scenarios had the same ending though. As Mashaal lay dying in a hospital bed, a furious King Hussein demanded that Israel deliver the antidote to the untraceable poison, which at first Netanyahu refused but then turned over after increasing pressures, and Mashaal survived the attempt.

The Mossad agents in custody were later released in exchange for the release of Ahmad Yassin, the founder of Hamas who was serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison. The entire episode helped Mashaal’s rise to power in the movement.

Pretty fascinating, huh?

It’s pretty ironic that if Netanayahu wins, he would have to deal once again with the same man he tried to kill.

Critical Thinking

• What is critical thinking?

The disciplined process in which you analyze, reflect and apply prior knowledge (making connections and using schema) to get the best answer possible. It’s about learning “how” to think rather than “what” to think.

• Why is critical thinking important?

All actions, decisions and judgments spring from assumptions-if they are unchecked or inappropriate, we will make poor decisions and wrong judgments.

Answer with a yes or a no: (think of it first before you check the answer!)

Police: Sorry, but only people with a special ZZ permit can park here

Driver: Well, since I have a ZZ permit, that means I can park here.

Is the driver right?

When the police officer told the driver, “Sorry, but only people with a special ZZ permit can park here,” the driver thought “Well, since I have a ZZ permit, that means I can park here.” But, as it turns out, the driver is incorrect in thinking that this follows. Now, can you explain WHY the driver’s inference was faulty?

Answer: the important little word here is ‘only.’ When the parking policy is that only those with a ZZ permit can park in the lot, that means that having a ZZ permit is necessary in order to park there, but it doesn’t state that having a ZZ permit is a sufficient condition to park there. So, while the driver may have met one condition for parking in the lot, there may be other conditions that are yet unmet that are barring them from parking. The word ‘only’ is quite technical. When the IRS says “only those who have done such-and-such are eligible for a deduction,” that doesn’t mean that doing such-and-such automatically gets you that deduction. Knowing how the word ‘only’ behaves is very important!

A whole bunch of other tricky questions here.