On the same day that this attack was launched, Abu Mazen restated his hard line on the Arab occupation of Israeli territories, that it must be ethnically cleansed of Jews before he will consider accepting a surrender from Israel and ceasing aggression against Jews. Arabs across Israel tried to claim Jerusalem as the cultural capital of all Arabs. Looks like old Mecca is out of fashion and Jerusalem is the new the center of Pan-Arabism. My dogs like other dogs’ food better, too.
“Celebrations” claiming that Jerusalem was the Arab capital were prevented by Israel in a moment of lucidity, and Arab leaders who were flocking in like buzzards were turned away. Ma’an’s sister publication, Ha’aretz published more on the events.
A few days earlier, Left Wingers in Israel, in concert with this great event had gotten the soldiers of their left-wing academy in Tel Aviv to tell stories of “atrocities” in Gaza, which might or might not be true. Kind of like we have have in the US when the Left Wing converts veterans and horrific unverified atrocities are suddenly revealed, to be spewed out to the public with no fact checking. Funny that these stories came from the soldiers of the left wing academy, and they blamed their inclination towards mistreating Gaza Arabs during war on the religious fervor that marked the start of the offensive during Chanukka. The religious soldiers don’t seem to have been similarly affected. Or perhaps the young left wingers just told these stories to be done with active duty faster. The academy leaders quickly publicized the stories to Haaretz and the world without any fact checking or investigation. Whatever the soldiers’ intent in saying they had committed “atrocities”, obviously the academy commandant’s intent was to do further damage to Israel and to Jews in the rest of the world.
You want to demonize soldiers for not loving their enemy, maybe they will just accept the role and quit trying to be regretful and nice. Maybe they will just act like everybody else, and quit trying to uphold the saint image. It would be healthier that way. Soldiers are sent to kill enemies and destroy things for the defense and strengthening of their own country. They should obey orders, exercise discipline and not go crazy. Soldiers are not required to feel sorry for the enemy or regret killing people in battle, any more than the enemy feels sorry for them or us.
Yaakov Lappin, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 21, 2009
A major terrorist car bombing was averted at a Haifa mall on Saturday night when one of several explosive devices hidden in a parked vehicle malfunctioned.
After being alerted by an employee of the Lev Hamifratz shopping center, who reported hearing an explosion, police sappers were dispatched to scan the area.
The sappers found a partially exploded bomb in the trunk of a white Subaru car which was parked outside the shopping center, and registered to a woman who lives in Jerusalem. A further search of the vehicle uncovered several more unexploded bombs, containing dozens of kilograms of explosive material, which were neutralized by the sappers.
“We believe this is a terrorist incident,” a police statement said.
Police immediately moved to evacuate the mall, which was filled with shoppers at the time, and sealed off the area. A major traffic route adjacent to the mall was also closed off to traffic, as police went on high alert across the Haifa area.
On the ground, roadblocks sprang up and police presence was increased in crowded areas.
It was not immediately clear how the vehicle managed to get past security checks at the entrance to the mall.
A joint police-Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) meeting was held in the hours following the incident.
“We received a call at 20:30 from the mall reporting an explosion heard outside,” Northern Police Head Cmdr. Moshe Koren said. “Additional explosives were then discovered.”
No one was injured in the incident.
