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Palestinian Terror Tag

In an Israeli TV interview conducted earlier this week at the White House, President Obama dismissed the criticism that he had betrayed Israel by opting not to veto United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2334. The U.S. abstention allowed the Security Council to adopt the resolution on December 23. It branded Israel’s settlements in east Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria/the West Bank as illegal and occupied Palestinian land. The interview for Israel’s Channel 2 aired on Tuesday night. In it, Obama insisted that the resolution was the “best move for peace” and that he had “an obligation to do what I think is right.”

We previously documented how the Palestinian terror tactic of car rammings had migrated to Europe in the form of truck rammings, which killed 84 people in Nice, France, and more recently, 12 people in Berlin, Germany. Now the truck rammings that killed so many in Nice and Berlin, have come to Israel. Four people have been killed when a Palestinian terrorist rammed a truck into a group of Israeli officer cadets on an educational tour waiting to board a bus in a parking area in Jerusalem. The driver drove the truck back and forth over the bodies. The attack comes as Palestinian leaders have ramped up incitement in advance of Donald Trump taking office, with threats and predictions of violence from the highest levels.

On January 1, 2016, we covered the breaking news of a terrorist shooting on a busy street and shopping area in Tel Aviv, Shooting attack on Tel Aviv cafes:
At least two people were killed in a terror attack on cafes in the heart of Tel Aviv. The gunman purchased goods at a store then pulled out what is described as a submachine gun and started firing, before escaping. Details on the gunman are still developing, but the latest reports indicate he was an Israeli Arab from northern Israel. Police are not clear on the motive for the attack, and whether it was what Israelis term “nationalistic” in motive.
This video fro inside a cafe showed the gunman shooting:

In a number of recent posts (see here, here, here, and here) we’ve highlighted how anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) is being promoted in America’s mainline churches. As we discussed, a malicious strain of virulent anti-Israel sentiment is being inserted into U.S. Protestant denominations largely because of a deep-seated organizational dysfunction in these churches. Basically, the churches are being hijacked from within by small groups of pro-BDS activists. They’ve led the charge, aided and abetted by a host of vehemently anti-Israel Palestinian groups, who they frequently promote and with whom they collaborate.

I was off the grid traveling much of the day, so I didn't follow in live time the apparent terror incident at Ohio State University where a Somali legal immigrant rammed his car into pedestrians on the sidewalk, then attacked with what is variously described as a butcher knife or machete. As in many such incidents, initial reports were confused and inaccurate. As Mary detailed in her live coverage, the story started as a shooter on the loose, until the facts sorted themselves out in the media. Here is the latest from NBC News, Suspect Identified in Ohio State Attack as Abdul Razak Ali Artan:

Since October 2015, Israelis have endured stabbings, car rammings, and shootings in a wave of Palestinian violence that’s tapered off somewhat but hasn’t really come to an end. Now it looks like arson can be added to the list. This past week Israel has been battling massive fires with at least some of them caused by deliberate “nationally motivated” arson. Most people on the planet would say that if arsonists start fires, then they should be held responsible for the damage. But as we’ve noted on many occasions on this website and as I discuss further below, some of Israel’s worst detractors aren’t like most people. Instead of blaming the arson-terrorists, they want to pin it entirely on the pine trees.

For Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, the most prized possession is the body of an Israeli, alive or dead. Those bodies are used both to inflict mental anguish on the Israeli public, but also to trade for prisoners who themselves have killed or attempted to kill Israelis. It's a sad, ghoulish dance by Israel's enemies. There have been many similar kidnap attempts in Israel proper, as well as Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"), in which local Palestinian terrorist groups have tried to kidnap, or succeeded in kidnapping, Israelis. Because of Israeli control of the area, unlike in Gaza and Lebanon, the kidnapping doesn't get far, resulting in repatriation or death. Yet, in the prevailing narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the settlements in the West Bank and the Jews who live in them are called the main obstacles to peace. West Bank settlers—some 350,000 Israelis—are typically stereotyped as zealots and racists who are hostile to Arab Palestinians.

Next time a group of students from Students for Justice in Palestine chant "Long Live the Intifada," remember the case of Dafna Meir. We reported on January 17, 2016, Reports: Palestinian stabs Israeli woman to death at home in front of children:
This has eerie resemblance to the stabbing to death of the Fogel family in 2011, including 6 month old Hadas as she slept in her crib. Reports indicated that a Palestinian man entered a home in a settlement near Hebron, and stabbed to death a mother in front of her three children. One of the children, 15 years old, gave a description of the man to the police, and he was caught on security cameras leaving the the settlement heading towards an Arab village.
That mother was Dafna Meir.

On Sunday, October 9, 2016, we reported how Palestinians celebrate murder of two Israelis in Jerusalem shooting attack. [caption id="attachment_187062" align="alignnone" width="600"][Leana Melichi (69) and Yosser Kirme (29) killed in Palestinian terror attack in Jerusalem] [Leana Melichi (69) and Yosef Kirme (29) killed in Palestinian terror attack in Jerusalem][/caption]Video has been released of the "heroic" drive by shooting being celebrated:

An Arab terrorist who lived in the eastern portion of Jerusalem and who was scheduled to report to prison for other offenses went on a shooting spree on Sunday, October 9, 2016, in the "Ammunition Hill" section of Jerusalem. The killer was shot dead by police, but not before he killed two Israelis, Levana Malichi (age 60) and Yosef Kirma (age 29, a policeman). The Jerusalem Post reports:
Sunday’s shooting began at approximately 10:30 a.m., when the terrorist, who was driving a white vehicle, opened fire on a male and female civilian near the Ammunition Hill light rail stop, across the street from Police Headquarters. “The terrorist opened fire on two people, and one woman in her 60s was wounded critically, and a man was moderately-to-seriously wounded,” said Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

Sadly, as we have demonstrated so many times, some Palestinians children have been used in terror attacks, including as suicide bombers. It is a culture cultivated by people like Bassem Tamimi and others in Palestinian media who deliberately send children to confront Israeli soldiers or Border Police in the hope of a viral photo or video. The incitement also is from the official and social media of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which lionize "martyrs" including minors who engage and are killed in the course of attacking.

The list of Palestinian suicide bombings targeting civilians is long and bloody, and dates back at least to 1989. Documenting the pathology of Palestinian terror attacks, including suicide attacks, and telling the stories of the victims, has become a priority for me. I have previously covered, among others, the suicide bombings at Sbarro Pizzeria in Jerusalem, and Dolphinarium Disco and Mike's Place bar in Tel Aviv, and Bus 37 in Haifa. On September 4, 1997, three suicide bombers targeted the Ben Yehuda Street pedestrian mall in Jerusalem in a coordinated attack just five weeks after another marketplace suicide bombing. The NY Times reported at the time:
Three suicide bombers evidently acting in concert set off bombs on a popular shopping promenade in Jerusalem today, killing four passers-by and themselves and dealing a brutal new blow to the reeling Israeli-Palestinian peace. The three explosions followed in quick succession at about 3:10 P.M. on Ben Yehuda Street, a shady pedestrian thoroughfare in West Jerusalem lined with boutiques and outdoor cafes, and packed with Israelis and foreign tourists.

We have written numerous times about the suicide bombing of the Sbarro Pizzeria in Jerusalem in 2001, which killed 15 people, including two Americans and several children. Most recently Miriam Elman documented the bombing and the mastermind, Ahlam Tamimi, Never forget: Sbarro Pizzeria Massacre, Jerusalem, Aug. 9, 2001. Ahlam not only masterminded the bombing, she announced it on Palestinian television as a student news show host. [caption id="attachment_182024" align="alignnone" width="600"][Ahlam Tamimi announcing Sbarro Pizzeria bombing 2001, via Hot House film] [Ahlam Tamimi announcing Sbarro Pizzeria bombing 2001, via Hot House film][/caption]Ahlam is from the Tamimi Clan of Nabi Saleh, whose best known member is Bassem Tamimi, controversial for his use of children for try to provoke confrontations with the Israeli police for the purpose of obtaining viral video and images. The Tamimi Clan is treated as heroes by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and by anti-Zionist leftists (including some Jews).  Ahlam, who was released from prison as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange and now resides in Jordan, remains a "much-loved" figure in Nabi Saleh.

Last Thursday, Israel National News (Arutz Sheva) reported that Arab-Israeli MK Yosef Jabarin traveled to Hadarim Prison to visit with top Palestinian terror mastermind Marwan Barghouti. After the visit, Jabarin reportedly claimed to be “impressed” by the terrorist’s “serious intention” to run for chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA), despite being holed up in an Israeli jail cell:
During their meeting, Jabarin and Barghouti discussed efforts to reconcile split Palestinian factions before the upcoming municipal elections, which are set for October. Barghouti emphasized that the success of the local government elections could pave the way for democratic elections in the Palestinian Legislative Council, and the office of the chairman of the Palestinian Authority after Abbas—which would give him a chance to supersede Abbas”.
Other than this brief mention in Arutz Sheva and an editorial in a website catering to religiously-observant Jews, I couldn’t find this news item covered by any other mainstream media outlet. That’s not surprising.

Hebron is a hot spot in many ways. Hebron and its immediately surrounding Arab areas are the single largest source of terror attacks during the so-called Knife or Stabbing Intifada. It's also a place where anti-Zionist and left-wing "liberal Zionist" American Jews love to gather to protest the Jewish "settlers" who live in a tiny section of the city. That section is under Israeli military control by agreement with the Palestinian Authority, with good reason. Hebron has a long history of violence directed at Jews. Hebron also is the place of the Cave of the Patriarchs, which I visited in 2015. [caption id="attachment_129734" align="alignnone" width="600"][Cave of Patriarchs - Abraham] [Cave of Patriarchs - Abraham][/caption]Hebron had one of if not the oldest continuous Jewish communities in the world, dating back several hundred years at least. Until 1929. On August 23, 1929, the Arabs attacked the Jews of Hebron along with numerous other Jewish communities.