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Palestinian Terror Tag

The 2001 Sbarro Pizzeria suicide bombing in Jerusalem for me has been one of the place markers in the history of terrorism, one of those reference points which changed everything. Other such "before and after" points, to me, are the 1972 Munich Massacre of Israeli athletes (1972); the bombing of the Beirut Marine Barracks (1983), the World Trade Center attacks (1993 and 2001); and the videotaped beheading of Daniel Pearl, February 1, 2002. We have written many times about the Sbarro bombing, you can view them all in our Sbarro Pizzeria Bombing tag.

You probably have heard the term "suicide by cop." It refers to attacks on police that are intended by the assailant to be met with deadly force. A 2014 FBI study provided this description:
Suicide by cop (SBC) is a situation where individuals deliberately place themselves or others at grave risk in a manner that compels the use of deadly force by police officers. There are many known SBC-specific risk factors, warning signs, and triggers.[1] Individuals who feel trapped, ashamed, hopeless, desperate, revengeful, or enraged and those who are seeking notoriety, assuring lethality, saving face, sending a message, or evading moral responsibility often attempt SBC.[2] In the field of suicide prevention, SBC has received little attention.
The FBI report also explained the psychological dynamic, and how it usually is not a spontaneous occurrance:

On May 8, 2016, American tourist and veteran Taylor Force was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist while on a trip to Israel. We reported at the time, Vanderbilt U. student stabbed to death by Palestinian as Biden visits Israel:
Resuming a pattern seen during the Second Intifada, and intermittently since then, there was a wave of terror attacks launched by Palestinians just as a major diplomatic event was occurring, in this case the arrival of Vice President Joe Biden. There were several knife and gun attacks today, the most deadly being in Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv and a frequent tourist stop.

Hamas, the terrorist group dedicated to Israel's destruction, in the Gaza Strip has a new leader, and it shouldn't be surprising that he's a convicted murderer. Convicted of the murder of other Palestinians who had been accused of helping Israel, Yehya Sinwar was imprisoned in 1989 and served 22 years until he was released six years ago as part of the deal to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Sinwar is on the U.S. "Specially Designated [Terrorist] Nationals" List.

Car ramming has become a favorite tactics of terrorists, as we witnessed in Nice, Berlin and Ohio State U. Car ramming as a terror tactic may not have been invented by Palestinian terrorists, but it certainly was elevated as a tactic with dozens of car rammings, as we documented in The long list of Palestinian car rammings:
The use of a truck as a terror weapon in Nice has shocked so many people not only because of the death toll, but also because the terrorist turned an ordinary device into a weapon.

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.