Two Israelis were killed yesterday in separate terror attacks by knife wielding assailants.
Yesterday morning, a 20 year old soldier, Almog Shiloni, was stabbed in Tel Aviv. The Times of Israel reports:
Almog Shiloni, 20, of Modiin, died of multiple wounds to his stomach and chest, an official from the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer Hospital said.“After resuscitation efforts that began in the field and continued for hours in the hospital, the stabbing victim who arrived at the hospital earlier today was declared dead,” a spokesperson announced.When Shiloni was first brought into the hospital following the attack he had no pulse, although doctors were able to restart his heart.
His girlfriend, who was talking to him on the phone at the time, rushed to the scene when she heard a commotion and Almog didn’t answer. When she arrived at the scene she saw “Almog lying in a pool of blood as emergency teams tried to resuscitate him.”
In the afternoon a 26 year old woman, Dalia Lemkus, was stabbed to death and two others were wounded in a knife attack in Gush Etzion (the Etzion Bloc) by a terrorist who was shot and wounded by a security guard.
The stabber was shot by a guard on duty at the site, police said. Initial reports indicated he was killed, but later reports dispelled that claim. Magen David Adom said he was in serious condition.A 26-year-old man suffered light-moderate injuries, and a man in his 50s was lightly hurt in the incident. Their names were not released.Channel 2 reported that the older man was driving by the scene when he saw the attack in progress, then stopped his car and wrestled with the attacker before suffering an injury to his face.
Sherri Mandel, whose teenage son Kobi, was killed in 2001 during the so-called “Aqsa intifada,” wrote a tribute to Lemkus, What the didn’t tell you about Dalia, at The Times of Israel:
They don’t tell you how she loved to bake with her mother, the two of them bringing rich, luscious cakes to parties and the way she spoke English with an accent — but not a Hebrew accent — a South African accent because her parents made aliyah from there thirty years ago. They don’t tell you how she went to synagogue every Sabbath and smiled at the people in her row before she prayed. And they don’t tell you how she had to hitchhike to get to her job working with children in Kiryat Gat or that she was the main volunteer at Yad Sarah in Tekoa which lends medical equipment like wheelchairs to those who are sick or injured. They don’t tell you how she liked to help brides look beautiful by doing their makeup for them before their weddings.They don’t care that Dahlia’s father Nachum drives the ambulance in Tekoa. Day and night he is called on to make the drive to Jerusalem, and that Dahlia’s mother cares tenderly for the elderly.You will never learn from the articles that, when a neighbor had to go to the hospital with a sick child, Dahlia stayed with the other young children all night and insisted that they not pay her. The articles would never tell you that she was the one who cooked the food for her brother Haggai’s bar mitzvah a month ago, fried fish, salad and pancakes.
The knife attacks come after an escalation in incitement on Palestinian social media. Following recent terror attacks involving cars, a Palestinian duo recorded a song calling on Palestinians to run over a baby. (More lyrics are here.) A Facebook page announced a “Car Attack” event to run from now until February and a hit list appeared calling on Palestinians to run over a number of Israeli politicians. Yesterday’s terror attacks were hailed as Palestinian knives Day.
The incitement against Israel hasn’t been limited to social media. The rhetoric of the Palestinian Authority leadership has become increasingly incendiary.
The Times Of Israel quoted an expert in Palestinian affairs, Shaul Bartal, to explain the increasingly hostile rhetoric of Mahmoud Abbas:
During the war in Gaza, Bartal said, Hamas portrayed Abbas as a traitor, walking in lock step with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “This forced him into a sort of crisis, where he had to prove that he was no less nationalist than Hamas,” Bartal said.Since he was unable to release large swaths of prisoners through the diplomatic channels, as Hamas had done through violent actions, he opted for the other issue around which all Palestinians can unite: Jerusalem.Hence his call for a day of rage on the Temple Mount last week, Bartal said, and hence the constant agitation from Ramallah.
Though he’s officially embraced the idea of making peace with Israel, Abbas has never created a political climate conducive to peace. He praises rather than condemns terror and does nothing to create the political support for a negotiated peace. Therefore when he loses popularity to Hamas he doesn’t condemn the terrorist organization, but does what he can to compete with it, lest he be considered a traitor.
Abbas’ refusal to build support for peace (and to glorify violence against Israel) is the reason why there’s no peace. Israel building houses for Jews has nothing to do with it.
[Photo: euronews (in English) / YouTube ]
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