Lesson: appeasement of terrorists only leads to more terror. How many more times will the world have to learn this lesson? Note also Abbas' despicable equivocation and moral equivalence, as if stopping murderers is the same thing as murdering innocent civilians. Of course, he probably believes that no Israeli is an innocent civilian. From the BBC, with thanks to Granny Weatherwax:
A suicide bombing has injured at least 10 people at a crowded bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.Two guards were seriously injured in the morning rush hour blast. It was the first such attack since Israel pulled its settlers out of the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, condemning the attack, described it as a "terrorist operation". But he also described a recent Israeli raid in the West Bank in which five Palestinians died as a "provocation".
The Islamic Jihad group had sworn to take revenge for the deaths.
Israel warns Palestinians
A bus driver told Israel Radio that the suicide bomber was carrying a heavy bag, prompting him to alert a security guard.
Before he could get on the bus was stopped, and blew himself up nearby, according to police.
"The (bomber) then walked... 100 metres (yards) away from the bus and blew up," the driver said. "It was a very powerful explosion."The two security guards who were critically wounded suffered shrapnel wounds and burns all over their bodies, a paramedic told Israel's Channel 10 TV.
The bomber's remains were scattered at the scene.
`The bomber's remains were scattered at the scene.` - more pollution
I'm fine, I have infact never been to Bear Sheva. I'm posting from my office in Tel Aviv
I'm waiting for the Reuter's, AP's, AFP's, and the NYT's headline to announce " Palestinian Killed in Tel Aviv".
Also waiting for the State Department to issue it's normal statement after each and every Palestinian terrorist operation: " Israel must not do anything to prejudice the Roadmap. Israel must take into account the consequences of it's actions."
Also, waiting for Sharon to issue his 586th warning that Israel will respond with force. Israel will respond with deadly force against an empty building sometime later today.
When I was just in Israel, we dropped off a friend at the Beer Sheva bus station. As we waited for someone else I couldn't help but be astounded by the incredible sheer number of Palestinians going freely in and out of the bus station. The place is crawling with gouls covered head to toe in their funeral garb. They call them hijab -- they look like a black burial shroud.
What's going to happen is "the powers that be" are not going to hold Abbas feet to the flames for these terror attacks by saying these are "rouge" attackers.
Big bombs -- they are the answer. Israel has made a long list of "painful concessions." Now it is time to end the soft racism of low expectation that the entire western world is guily of in regard to the mythical suffering Palestinian. Now is the time for PAINFUL CONSEQUENCES...very painful. Time to say "your turn Mahmoud". And if you sit on your hands you might just lose them and a couple very large neighborhoods in response to you sorry inability to do anything to the terrorists among you.
BOOM!!!
Once Palestine is recognized as a nation, acts like this will be considered not acts of terrorism, but acts of war. Then, Israel can take the proper steps to finally wipe these undeserving nomads from the planet. If they will, that is.
"Once Palestine is recognized as a nation, acts like this will be considered not acts of terrorism, but acts of war."
-- from a posting above
"Palestine" is Israel, Israel "Palestine." This is true semantically; it is true in every other way. The establishment of a state called "Palestine" will not calm things down, and will not lead to making it easier for the Israelis. It is humanly understandable that those who support Israel, and understand what it faces, but at the same time having to accommodate the repeated mistakes of successive Israeli leaders who have never shown any understanding of Islam, would like to explain to themselves, so as to make more palatable, Israel's folly.
D. C. Watson is a supporter of Israel, and knows all about Islam. But I fear that here he is falling into the same trap -- the will to believe that somehow, the road that Sharon is on, and the road that "tout Tel Aviv" supports, and those promoting this ridiculous "two-state solution" which is no solution at all, must simply must know what they are doing. They don't.
The establishment of "Palestine" will be a disaster for Israel, and not, as some hope, merely a better, bigger, easier, more legiitmate target. Would that it were so.
A state called "Palestine" will not be demiliterized. It will not be prevented from having complete control over ports and airfields. It will be the direct recipient of military aid. Along the way, at every step, explanations will be proferred, and possibly accepted by a world that, unless it wakes up, will continue to treat the war against Israel as having to do not with the impulse of Jihad and implacable opposition to an Infidel nation-state, but rather, as a certain sinister Chris Ferguson, who apparently in Jerusalem represents the World Council of Churches, confidently insisted to Nick Thorpe, a BBC reporter for "Reporting Religion" (directed by Trevor Barnes), that the conflict in Jerusalem, the demand of the Arabs to Jerusalem "is not about religion but about national aspirations." Oh, of course. Islam has nothing to do with it. The words of the Hamas Charter, of every "Palestinian" including those islamochristians whose motivations the Chris Fergusons of this world are careful not to understand (internalied dhimmitude, which makes them willing promoters of the Muslim agenda, and the sense of Arabness or "Uruba" that naturally leads to a promotion of Islam, even among some Christians -- not the Maronites or some others, but certainly among many "Palestinian" Christians), all show that the war against Israel is a classic Jihad -- it is designed to end the sovereignty of Infidels, who can either leave, or be subject to that status of permanent degradation, humiliation, and physical insecurity which all dhimmis under the Shari'a are required to assume.
There are people who like that word "counter-intuitive." It pleases. They may like to think that the establishment of a state called "Palestine" will make things easier for Israel, "counter-intuitive" though that may seem. Oh no -- it is counter-intuitive. And it is also flatly wrong.
It has been said by many and often that the stated goal of Arabs (not just the militants) that they want nothing more than the "total destruction of Israel"........
When will people face up to "realty"
It is not just Hamas and other terrorist group as
many Arab dictators have been saying this for years.
They tried wars and lost and now let the terrorist
groups do their dirty work.
I can't understand how people can be so "blind"...
It has been said by many and often that the stated goal of Arabs (not just the militants) that they want nothing more than the "total destruction of Israel"........
When will people face up to "realty"
It is not just Hamas and other terrorist group as
many Arab dictators have been saying this for years.
They tried wars and lost and now let the terrorist
groups do their dirty work.
I can't understand how people can be so "blind"...
"Bomb hits Israeli bus station"
Ah, the fruits of the suicidal psychopathology known as Israel.
Apparantly Beer Sheeba is also considered to be “disputed” territory? Perhaps Sharon will deport all those Jews since it is obviously untenable there, too?
Meanwhile, I am anxiously awaiting the EU/UN condemnation of the Palestinian people for this terrorist act.
Waiting…
Waiting…
Waiting…
OK, how about just a statement of regret for the
“unfortunate cycle of violence”, and calling for more Israeli concessions as the ultimate (Final?) solution.
Ahhh…that sounds more like the EU/UN I know.
How long will Israel continue listening to those who call for their suicide by withdrawal?
It is getting very old.
-MZ
Just what, exactly is Israel waiting for?
The time to ignore the "international community" has come & gone & is a distant memory.
Long overdue is the time for hardware & bright, bright lights, & blast waves & the sound of precision ordanance striking home. Long overdue.
The Palestinians only seem to understand victory through violence. Let them know defeat through mega violence. The citizens of Israel, a proper democracy deserve better protection than this, & they also deserve more support from other "proper democracies".
I'm going to go out on a limb here as take a stab at guessing that this guy wasn't a Christian suicide-bomber .
I could be wrong you know , this might be the Lone-bomber that found that hidden verse where Jesus approved murdering your brothers and sisters .
Hugh said: "... the war against Israel is a classic Jihad -- it is designed to end the sovereignty of Infidels, who can either leave, or be subject to that status of permanent degradation, humiliation, and physical insecurity which all dhimmis under the Shari'a are required to assume."
This is what breaks my heart daily, Hugh. I know it, I see it, my family and friends live it .. yet this damnable international community pulls the strings. There is a good chance Israel as we know it will be destroyed with the help of the "international community", eu, un et. al. that cares so much about farces like abu gharib but will let a viable country and noble (Nobel too) people fall between the cracks this way.
I do have faith, however, that the heart of Israel will rise again and again as many times as it takes. Still, the blindness of the world is astounding at times.
While it is indeed a terribly dark hour for Israel, I do have some optimism, nonetheless (note the "Mad" in my moniker). The hope that the deportation act of Dhimmi Sharon will be so odious that the coming elections will at long last bring a true, rightwing Zionist coalition into power in Israel.
There is a report from Arutz Sheva News that National Union Chairman, Benny Elon, will unify the rightwing Zionist parties under a single banner in the next election. This would consolidate the nationalist camp with more power and representation than they've ever had before.
I comment on this at my blog.
-MZ
Sorry, bad link for Arutz Sheva. Try this.
-MZ
"Long overdue is the time for hardware & bright, bright lights, & blast waves & the sound of precision ordanance striking home. Long overdue."
I like this idea.....Let the likes of Hamas and Islamic Jihad know that they can't win a "See who has the most explosives contest." Call me old fashioned, but force is the only language they understand....Take off the kid gloves, put on the brass knuckles and come out swinging. Don't worry what the Palestinian sympathizers on the Left think......This is not a popularity contest. Israel is fighting for her very existance.
"Long overdue is the time for hardware & bright, bright lights, & blast waves & the sound of precision ordanance striking home. Long overdue."
I like this idea.....Let the likes of Hamas and Islamic Jihad know that they can't win a "See who has the most explosives contest." Call me old fashioned, but force is the only language they understand....Take off the kid gloves, put on the brass knuckles and come out swinging. Don't worry what the Palestinian sympathizers on the Left think......This is not a popularity contest. Israel is fighting for her very existance.
It looks like the BBC has fabricated the quote from Abbas (not the same as Abbas' office), see below.
***
http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=26653
Sunday, August 28, 2005
PA OFFICIALS 'UNDERSTAND' ARAB ATTACK ON BUS STATION, DON'T CALL IT TERROR
BY MICHAEL WIDLANSKI 28 August 2005
[Update 3 PM: Palestinian Authority Television announced in its afternoon
news show that the office of PA President Mahmoud Abbas had "condemned the
operation that took place today in Beersheba."
The terse statement did not call the "operation" an act of terror, and
it came more than six hours after the Palestinian terror attack. In
addition, unlike Dr. Abbas's frequent condemnations of Israel, the statement
was not read by Abbas himself and was not echoed by other PA officials. ]
Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and his leading lieutenants did not condemn
or criticize today's Palestinian terror attack Sunday morning in the Israeli
city of Beersheba which the Palestinians called "an explosive operation."
Some leading Palestinian Authority (PA) officials actually tried to
justify the attack that injured ten Israeli civilians aside from the
Palestinian Arab suicide bomber, who blew himself up just outside the
central bus station in Beersheba. A town with a large Arab population.
"Those who committed the massacre in Tulkarm had to expect some kind of
response," asserted General Jibril Rajoub, the National Security Advisor to
the Palestinian Authority and its leader, Dr. Abbas, according to Voice of
Palestine radio.
Rajoub was referring to Israel's killing of five armed members of the
Islamic Jihad terror organization in the West Bank town of Tulkarm last
week, but his remarks were not a departure from the PA policy set forth by
PLO Chairman Abbas and his prime minister Ahmad Qreia.
Both Dr. Abbas and Mr. Qreia have declined to condemn Palestinian
attacks on Israeli civilians in the last week, including rocket and mortar
attacks on the Israeli town of Sderot in the Negev area not far from today's
blast in Beersheba.
In a long interview broadcast Friday afternoon on Palestinian Authority
television, Abbas referred to Israeli actions as "irhaab"terror in
Arabic-while almost never using a negative term to describe any Arab attack.
Abbas, Qreia, General Rajoub and PA Interior Minister Nasser Youssef have
repeatedly defended the Islamic Jihad which has carried out terror attacks
in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Netanya in recent months, and the Palestinian
Authority has actually offered shelter and intelligence information to the
Jihad terrorists.
In the last two weeks since Israel has evicted about 8,000 of its own
citizens from the Gaza Strip, the rhetoric of senior PA officials is
almost indistinguishable from that of the leaders of Jihad and the even
larger Islamic terror group, HAMAS.
PA television and radio commercials echo the messages in the street
banners of Hamas and Jihad: "Gaza First," "Today Gaza, Tomorrow Jerusalem."
Children interviewed on PA television were asked what they thought of
the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and one child said: "We are returning to
Jaffa and to Haifa."
© 2005 Michael Widlanski Associates
[Material may be used with citation]
Dr. Michael Widlanski is a specialist in Arab politics and communication
whose doctorate dealt with the Palestinian broadcast media. He is a former
reporter, correspondent and editor, respectively, at The New York Times
,The Cox Newspapers-Atlanta Constitution, and The Jerusalem Post.