UPDATED: I WISH BOTH SIDES GOOD LUCK

Gunmen Kidnap Palestinian Professor.
JERUSALEM - A Palestinian university professor known as a Hamas leader was kidnapped from his West Bank home late Thursday by four Arabic-speaking gunmen, his wife said. She said the gunmen, firing in the air, pounded on the door of their home in the town of Tulkarem, and then escaped with her husband, Prof. Riad Abdel Karim al-Raz, 47, head of the engineering department at An-Najah University in Nablus. Karim is a political leader of the violent Islamic Hamas, according to Palestinians in the area.

RE-READ THAT FIRST LINE: "[a] Palestinian university professor known as a Hamas leader ..." I WONDER WHAT THE TENURE REVIEW COMMITTEE LOOKS LIKE AT AN-NAJAH UNIVERSITY. HMMM. AND HE WAS HEAD OF THE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT. I'M SURE HIS STUDENTS' CAREERS REALLY TOOK OFF WITH A "BANG."

UPDATE: Palestinians Blamed for Hamas Abductions
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian security services were behind the abductions of four local Hamas leaders from their West Bank homes, the Islamic militant group and a security official said Friday, reflecting rising tension between the group and the Palestinian Authority.

A spokesman for the security forces denied the claim, but a senior security official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the involvement of the security services and members of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. He said the abductions were meant as a warning to Hamas to lie low following a series of deadly clashes between its gunmen and police in Gaza.

The four Hamas members were taken from their homes at gunpoint Thursday night. By Friday evening three of them — a university professor from Tulkarem, a high school teacher from Nablus and a Hebron businessman — had been released.