Report: 18 Die in Israel Suicide Blast - 10/04 /03

[DoYouEverWonder]

Yahoo News

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded beach restaurant in the Israeli port city of Haifa on Saturday. A television report said 18 people were killed. Israeli police and paramedics reported dozens of injuries as well, with some serious.

The attack came on the Sabbath before the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement. It was the first suicide bombing in a month and the first since a threat by Israel to expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat

[LiberalVoice]

1. Its so sad...

My main concern is that people understand that the religion that these suicide bombers follow isnt Islam. So many die needlessly. Im sure israel will retaliate and the circle will continue.

[Flubadubya]

2. "...the circle will continue."

Try escalate. It seems this madness just grows stronger by the day. I really wish it would stop, but it looks like it is just going to spin completely out of control.

[loudnclear]

9. Since when is it 'religion' to resist occupation?

I don't think it's about religion at all. We sit back and watch as Israel continues to destroy Palestinian lives and culture, as they increase and expand settlements and as they build a wall that serves as their own 'iron curtain.' The US supports them with weapons, planes, and taxpayer dollars so we are equally to blame for the ME situation.
And no one will step up to plate and say that for all the brutal and drachonian measures that Israel passes off as so-called brilliant and masterful security, there is little protection from a people that are fighting for their freedom an dignity. The only true protection will be to stop the occupation and treat thy neightbor as you would be treated.

[loudnclear]

17. The suicide bomber was a woman...

who left a message that she was doing it as revenge for the Israelis killing her brother and cousin. Now how is Israel going to spin this as an attack by Hamas and use that as an excuse to perform another incursion and bombing inside Palestinian territory? Also, notice how the media is almost silent on the reasons behind her suicide bombing.
Somehow, she will be linked...as all Palestinians are to Hamas or some other allegedly "terrorist" group and Israel will continue with their own brand of brutality without so much as a whimper from the Bush government.

[The Magistrate]

19. Islamic Jihad, Ma'am

Is something of a murderous crew, and has claimed responsibility for recruiting, training, equipping, and despatching this person.

Nor is there any difference between these various irregular bodies worth noting by anyone. All are subject to attack, at any time, as they are combatant bodies in a war.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

3. I was working with a Jew yesterday and

we had occasion to stop at his temple for a few minutes. We were discussing the upcoming Holy Day, and I happened to say "Wanna bet there's a bomb somewhere in Jerusalem over the weekend?". He said it was likely.

I sometimes HATE being right.....

[hang a left]

4. Well Arafat is history.

This is probably it.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. There were reports

for the last month or so, about Israel gearing up for a major offensive against the Palastinians. Here's their excuse and beside W needs a major distraction right about now.

[legin]

12. Posted by DuctapeFatwa 20th Sept

Foreign Report can reveal that the Israeli government is planning an onslaught on the Gaza Strip. This is because, our informant said, its former policy of containing Palestinian violence, including the murder of the Hamas leadership, has failed.

The idea is to launch an intervention in October, once a series of Jewish holidays have finished.

Since the beginning of the intifada, one of the cornerstones of Israeli military policy has been to kill the leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah-Tanzim. The Israelis believe that these groups are behind Palestinian suicide attacks. In almost three years, more than 100 leading Palestinian militants have been killed by the Israelis.

The Israelis have a reply to the critics of their policy. They claim that the killings have prevented an even greater bloodbath. The Palestinians, on the other hand, claim that the 'assassinations' have only embittered young Palestinians and led to more suicide bombs. ..
The Israelis are well aware of the difficulties of such an operation. Gaza is the most densely populated place on earth. The Israelis assume they will face serious resistance and many casualties....

http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/fr/fr030917_1_n.shtml

[legin]

13. Posted by Resistance

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1948.shtml

Molly, writing from Gaza City, occupied Gaza
18 September 2003

In Gaza City right now, people are getting ready. They can't go anywhere either and they know something big is coming. Most people think Israel is going to invade, actually come into Gaza -- the city itself -- with tanks and street fighting, the whole deal. People are buying enough food for a month. All sorts of preparation is going on. A few days ago i saw two big warships in the water. They were pretty far away, but people here were really unsettled.

Yesterday they were joined by four smaller boats. Also yesterday I learned that in the first Intifada, boats like these shelled Gaza City. Last night, Husam, the guy who owns the Internet cafe I always come to said, "Go home and stay there. Buy food. Be careful, The Israelis are coming tonight." I laughed, thinking he must be sort of teasing me. But he was totally serious. He said if not tonight, then the next day.

I asked what he meant by "coming", what that would look like?

"Lots of blood."

(snipped the rest)

Molly lives in Gaza City and works with the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme.

[loudnclear]

14. Caged in Palestinians have no where to go...it's almost like a

concentration camp, isn't it?

[The Magistrate]

16. No, Ma'am

The diagnostic of a concentration camp is that it concentrates people: if you begin with an enclosed population of, say, five thousands, then add ten thousands over the coming year, at the end of that period, you have perhaps four thousands in the camp.

You might as well say a birth control clinic is genocide as urge the position you do here.

"Once you have gilded it, it is no longer a lily."

[Noordam]

5. But only a day or two ago, Israel said that they were going to build

5xx houses in an area that they were not to build per the "roadmap".

[Darranar]

6. This really is so sad...

18 more innocent victims added to the long, long list of those who did not deserve to die... 18 innocent victims added to the list of those who perished due to extremism... 18 innocent victims who perished due to the fact that few in this world are willing to stand up and ACT for real, just peace for all humanity...

[EFF BrandyWine]

22. Darranar, it is notable that of all the posts listed before yours...

yours is the first one to mention the eighteen innocents. Sadly I am not surprised by this lack of compassion. And sadly also, this restaurant was jointly run by a Jew and an Arab. Entire families perished in this latest attack: mother, father, children. The city is a rarity in the troubled region. It is a place where Arabs and Jews live together in a fragile peaceful relationship. Would that there were more towns like this. I pray for peace all year, but on this Yom Kippur I will pray harder. May they rest in peace.

[loudsue]

8. I don't think the Israeli govt cares anymore about their citizens

than bush cares about his.

Do they even know the word "peace"? Do the governments of our two countries have a clue what "diplomacy" is?

The Palestinian people are being bludgeoned by a force greater than many of us comfortable Americans can even fathom. This is GOING to give rise to some people who become desperate enough to strap a bomb to their bodies and meet their Maker in hopes of finally finding peace of mind.

The same thing we're doing in Iraq. All it's going to do is create enough anger and desparation that people will gladly 'commit suicide' in an attempt to fight back, with the secondary gain of releasing themselves from the mind-boggling torment and frustration at the insane injustice, and release from the pain of their own grief.

You watch enough of your loved ones being blown away by armored (unfeeling) tanks and cold-hearted armed soldiers, and you don't have much more to lose. If I watched my family being shot and run over by tanks enough times, I wouldn't much care to live myself!

Cause and effect isn't that hard to figure out.

:kick:

[papau]

10. 5 kids dead - do we blame the bullet or the shooter Arafat and Hamas?

The wall is needed ASAP, because the PA folks that are "leaders" will never change.

[IndianaGreen]

11. We blame all of them

including the Bush regime for throwing in the towel on the Roadmap to peace.

[LastDemInIdaho]

24. Complete and utter BS

The ONLY person to blame for this latest slaughter is the moron sicko trash scum that blew up the innocents. NOBODY else is to blame for this massacre except the dirtbag that lit the fuse..

[Darranar]

25. And if it could have been prevented?

If through a series of common-sese actions, this would never have happened, but those actions never took place, wouldn't you blame partially the person who woulnd't let them take place?

[loudnclear]

15. Only if the US takes its fair share of the blame

We keep funding the Israeli who keep the conditions of oppression of a poor, taggered people ongoing and escalating. If Israel were any other sovereign nation and the Palestinians weren't mostly Arabs, we would have invaded a long time ago...especially if it meant keeping in check a nation that exists solely because of us.

[Gimel]

18. Then you are sure that

this suicide attack is the result of Israeli oppression? Should Israel, in your view, have given the Palestinians homes and jobs and build their lives for them instead of improving their own country? Then they should have given them a culture they did not want. That is the struggle, not Israeli oppression. Israel's existence is not due to the US, as you claim.

[Forkboy]

20. I'll never understand

how anyone thinks this kind of action helps their cause.Sickening.

[Darranar]

21. Sickening, indeed...

and this most certainly helps no one. This atrocity will be used to justify another one, and the justification of atrocities will continue in an endless cycle yet again...

Sad. Very sad. Those who carried out this attack and the other atrocities of this conflict are uncaring extremist fools.

[bemildred]

23. One suspects that plain old vengeance lies behind it.

Imagining the moments before this person blows herself up,
I doubt she is thinking about any cause more elaborate than
vengeance. Not politics, not religion, just getting even.
Sickening indeed.

[DoYouEverWonder]

26. Israel launched an attack on a base in Syria

That was a quick.

I'm sure W is greatly relieved. He needed a big distraction and Sharon is more than willing to help him out.

Months ago I posted that the next battle in the 'war on terra' would be Israels to fight. The US didn't have the resources or the troops ready for the next stage but that the Israeli's did. I think we are seeing what is just the beginning of the next major offensive in the PNAC's vision for a secure Israel and US domination of the world's oil resources. Besides all the fundies are praying for Armagedon, so they are probably pretty happy about all of this too.