Posted on 08/01/2002 3:04:04 AM PDT by HAL9000
Israelis, Palestinians face new round of bloodshed
JERUSALEM (AFP) - A new upsurge of killing threatened Israel and the Palestinian territories after two Jerusalem bombings in as many days, with Israel mulling new tactics and the radical Hamas group threatening to kill 100 Israelis for every one of its leaders slain.
Meanwhile, the grim process of identifying the victims of Wednesday's bombing continued.
Three of four Americans killed were named as Janis Coulter, 36, Marla Bennett, 24, and Benjamin Blutstein, 25. Another man with dual French and US citizenship was identified as David Gritz, 24.
Coulter and Bennett had just arrived in Israel from the United States, the sources said.
Police would give no details on the fourth American who died in the blast at the Frank Sinatra International Student Centre at Hebrew University.
The two Israelis killed were David Ladovski, a 29-year-old student from Netanya, and Levina Shapira, 53, from Jerusalem, an admnistrator in charge of student affairs at Hebrew University, officials said.
Most of the 70 injured were also foreigners, the largest number of non-Israeli casualties in a single attack in the 22-month Palestinian intifada.
Of the injured, one was in critical and 11 in serious condition, with 42 still hospitalized Thursday.
Hamas stepped up its menacing speeches Thursday when it threatened to kill 100 Israelis for every one of its leaders slain by Israel, after a July 22 air strike on Gaza that killed the head of its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
Ezzedine al-Qassam, whose military chief Salah Shehade died along with 14 others, nine of them children, said: "In response to the Israeli assassination of any leader from our movement ... we will kill 100 Zionists at least."
The group said the university blast, which unusually was caused by a planted bomb and not a suicide attack, was "one of a series" of reprisals for the raid that killed Shehade.
"We ask our military groups to continue military operations and martyr operations," it said, in a reference to Hamas' attacks on Israeli targets and suicide bombings.
It blamed Wednesday's blast on the Israeli occupation of east Jerusalem and vowed to "teach (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and (Defense Minister Binyamin) Ben Eliezer a lesson after they came to assassinate our leader."
The group also criticized US President George W. Bush, whom they called the "head criminal," for his support of Israel and said Hamas would pursue its resistance.
"We say to America, we are not afraid."
Bush earlier vilified Hamas as "killers who hate the thought of peace."
"I want to condemn in as strong as possible terms the attack that took place in Israel," Bush said at a cabinet meeting Wednesday.
"This country condemns that kind of killing, and we send our deepest sympathy to the students and their families," he said.
As the region lurched deeper into bloodshed, the body of an Israeli man who had been shot in the head was found near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, on the boundary with Israel.
Israel implemented a new policy of trying to deter suicide bombers by destroying the house of a teenage kamikaze who injured seven Israelis Tuesday when he blew himself up in a downtown Jerusalem snackbar.
Israeli officials said after a security cabinet meeting Wednesday they were formulating new ways of combatting the bombers after the attack, the first in the disputed city since June 19, when Israeli forces reoccupied the West Bank to stamp out militants.
They examined house demolitions and the banishment of relatives of suicide bombers from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, although legal advisors said the measures must remain strictly within the limits of international law.
Hardline groups such as Hamas have threatened to kill Israeli leaders' families if the expulsions go ahead.
Around 5,000 Hamas supporters rallied Wednesday night in Gaza City, calling for more attacks and warning Israelis not to leave their homes.
Israeli intelligence reports this week warned of around 60 suicide bombings in the works, putting the country on full alert for a new round of killing.
Tensions skyrocketed after the internationally-condemned Israeli air raid on Gaza City, which ended a period of relative calm and, according to Palestinians, smashed a tentative ceasefire proposal being worked out between the hardline factions.
Israel officials have dismissed talks of an inter-factional ceasefire, saying the attacks would have continued anyway.
They hate anything and anyone who does not cower before them, grovel, and beg to know how they have offended their rightful masters.
Are we going to sit here AGAIN and complacently allow these vermin to continue their reign of terror? Don't tell me that we all want to "get along". The filthy rhetoric these murderers spout puts the lie to that illusion.
So they offer the NAZI version of terror, huh? 100 for 1? Let's see them wiped out. You don't coexist with a deadly bacterium; you wipe it out or die.
Good is evil to evil - Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
Now that is what I call an inviting target. Israeli should lay a nice one ton egg on them next chance they get.
Around 5,000 Hamas supporters rallied Wednesday night in Gaza City, calling for more attacks and warning Israelis not to leave their homes.
Even though many of the people 'rallying' were kids groveling for candy, the PA should be grateful I'm not the boss over there, or there would be 5000 dead celebrants and no one would ever go to another 'party' to gloat over the dead no matter how much candy Hamas offers. Suddenly killing Israelis wouldn't be so fun anymore.
It is the Hammas mantra to exult their beliefs.
Time for the Terminix Man in cammies.
Hasn't HAMAS said their conflict is with Israel and not the rest of the world? Isn't this a subtle threat against the USA???
No one ever said this group had any brains.
That would be a nuke.
Several thinkers I've spoken to believe that Israel, though its spokesmen are quite probably sincere in their expressions of regret for ending 14 "civilian" lives, is evaluating the responses to its execution of Sheik Shehadeh a few days ago. Every terror attack increases the probability that the Israelis will decide that they can live with the frowns from "world opinion," and take the gloves off.
Myself, I yearn to see it. The only thing that will curb the use of terror tactics is the complete elimination of their practitioners. The Palestinian murder lords have arranged their little world so that completely justifiable strikes to take them out will also kill nominal "civilians," thus creating still more support and approval for their practices among the people they claim to fight for. Those "human shields" are either knowingly shielding the terrorists, or are incapable of fleeing from that "duty." Therefore, in staying its hand, Israel sacrifices the lives of its own innocent citizens to spare Palestinians who, at best, are mere materiel of war to the thugs who cower behind them.
Truly, the only thing that Israel can change is the identities of the "civilians" who'll die. It's a harsh calculus, but the equation solves only one way: when factored in favor of one's own survival.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com
| Hamas military wing: "Destructive operations" to follow university bombing | |
| 08/01/2002 | |
| BBC Monitoring | |
| Source: Izz-al-Din al-Qassam Brigades web site in Arabic 31 Jul 02/BBC Monitoring/(c) BBC | |
| Text of "military statement" by Izz-al-Din al-Qassam Brigades web site on 31 July This is the first response and others will follow, God willing. |
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