MK's wife unhurt after bomb explodes under her car

[bemildred]

Just for clarity, this is an Arab member of the Israeli
Knesset.

A small incendiary device exploded on Friday
underneath a car belonging to the wife of MK Issam
Makhoul (Hadash-Ta'al), which was parked outside
their home on Haifa's Hanesi Boulevard.
According to Makhoul, he and
his wife, Su'ad, had been on
their way out of the house
when the device exploded.

"My wife was sitting in the
car, a Honda, which is the
car I usually drive, and was
planning to collect our
10-year-old twins from their
school. The Honda was parked next to the Ford
vehicle I was sitting in. Suddenly I heard a
blast, I looked over and saw the car engulfed
in flames. My wife managed to get out of the
car unsctahed."

Makhoul believes he, rather than his wife, was
the target of the attack. He added that he had
not received any unusual threats in recent days
or weeks, and described the attack as "a
worrying escalation in violence toward Knesset
members, which should be urgently dealt with."
He added that the device was probably planted
for nationalistic motives.

Haaretz

[The Magistrate]

1. It Will Not Be Long, My Friend

Before devices such as this may be found beneath the automobiles of Labor Knesset members.

The ultra-right in Israel in growing a little desperate, and will never scruple against such measures: it certainly has not in the past.

[bemildred]

2. One hopes not. Not a good sign though.

On the other hand, they seem to be in short supply of explosives
and competent "technicians". One may hope (perhaps unrealistically)
that such problems will persist.

[The Magistrate]

3. Perhaps Not, My Friend

Professionals are known on occassion to contrive a deliberate "fizzle" by way of a shot accross the bow, so to speak. The point can be served as well by letting people know they can be killed, as by actually killing them, in many instances.

[bemildred]

4. One can only speculate about motives.

There was the commercial bomb maker who was caught a short
while ago, perhaps there is just a temporary shortage of good
product on the market. :-)

I suppose we just have to wait and see if this sort of thing
recurs.

[The Magistrate]

5. In A Climate, My Friend

Where M.K.s are urging treason trials under death statutes for their colleagues across the aisle, it seems prudent to expect the worst....

My motto has long been better to be pleasantly surprised than bitterly disappointed.

[sabbat hunter]

6. responsibility

since no one, at least in the article, has not yet claimed responsibility for the bombing, what makes you say it is a member of the ultra right wingers in israel. couldnt it as easily have been a palestinian terror group, out to kill any other arab seen as 'collaborating' with israel.

the article says the bombing was for nationalist reasons. which could mean palestinian terrorists or ultra rightist israeli ones.

peace
david
:hippie:

[The Magistrate]

7. Call It Cynic's Intuition, Sir

Anything at this point is certainly speculation, but to my eye that rather better fits the current political climate than the other. Anything is possible, including a disgruntled postal worker, at this point....

[jplawne]

8. Short memory

Let's remember who kills Palestinians not involved in any kind of combat and who often take a moderate stance regarding Israel: other Palestinians

-More Palestinians were killed in the first Intifada by other Palestinians than by Israel

-Since 2000, over 300 Palestinians have been killed by other Palestinians, over 10% of the total killed

The claim is usually that they are collaborators: this is a catch-all phrase which refers to people:
- who tell the IDF about pending attacks or the location of terrorist. Since Palestinians claim they can't stop terrorism, I would think this would be a good thing. N ot fall Hamas and the PLA who summarily execute people in police stations or in front of their families
- who are moderate voices who urge restraint and non-violent action
- in fighting among the terror groups
- just regular old score settling and violence encouraged by Islamic interpretation regarding insulting one daughter and the like.

[bemildred]

10. No offense, Sir,

And I certainly do not want to preclude any response the
Magistrate may wish to make, but you seem to have started off
on a different topic. There are no dead Palestinians in the
story, only a dubious attempt at harming an Israeli Arab MK.

[The Magistrate]

11. None Of What You Say Is Unknown To Me, Sir

Still, none of it seems particularly to fit this incident.

Recollection fails to provide me any incident of Arab Palestinian irregulars violently assailing an Arab M.K., but there have been several past instances of civilian Israeli "ultras" bombing moderate Arab Palestinian officials, and attacking other Jews they felt to be traitors. In the current climate, as mentioned above, a certain agitation among Israeli "ultras" seems to evident, in consequence of the "Geneva" proposal recently.

Finally, your last point has rather a bigotted and ignorant reek to it, that cannot pass without mention. You cannot, fellow, simply pull out that sort of half-digested tripe, in utter ignorance of anything about this person and his wife and their lives and situation except that they are Arab, and expect it to pass muster as commentary. You do not, put bluntly, even know wehther the man is a Moslem or a Christian. If you are going to continue to comment here, you would be well advise to read the guidelines for this forum, at the top of the page, as well as the general rules of Democratic Underground.

[tinnypriv]

12. Some of that just doesn't happen to be true

Like I advised you in LBN, I'd give the sources for your stats. Three reasons:

1. Saves other people effort when responding.
2. Stops you looking (less of) an idiot when they're refuted.
3. Simple honesty.

To wit:

* The most credible statistics on the first Intifada (from Bt'selem), show that just under 1000 Palestinians were killed by other Palestinians, and slightly more than 1,000 were killed by Israel. So, that's one piece of crap unless you can convincingly demonstrate otherwise (simple googling will not suffice).

* Since 2000, 113 Palestinians have been killed by other Palestinians. 84 of these were for collaboration. Hence, 10% is bullshit. Even sources cited by LGF give roughly between 1.8-3% as a figure.

Finally:

What the fuck does this have to do with the topic at hand? :shrug:

[Saudade]

9. Motive

I'd bet that the utterly loathesome neo-nazi MK Baruch Marzel (who, with his wife Sarah and children, have gotten away for many years with beating, stealing, intimidating and harassing arabs in Hebron) knows a lot about this.