Monday, January 09, 2017
Families, friends mourn 4 soldiers killed in Jerusalem terror attack
The families and friends of the four soldiers killed in a truck-ramming terror attack in Jerusalem expressed their shock and grief at their deaths ahead of funerals for the four taking place on Monday.Soldier killed in ramming attack, a US-Israeli citizen, laid to rest
The four were identified late Sunday as IDF Lieutenant Yael Yekutiel, 20, of Givatayim, Cadet Shir Hajaj, 22, of Maaleh Adumim, Cadet Shira Tzur, 20, from Haifa, and Cadet Erez Orbach, 20, from Alon Shvut.
Seventeen people were injured in the attack, perpetrated by an East Jerusalem terrorist.
Sixteen others were injured, two of them very seriously, in the attack Sunday which occurred as a group of soldiers were getting off a bus at the promenade in Armon Hanatziv, a popular tourist spot in southern Jerusalem, when Fadi al-Qunbar drove a large flatbed truck into them.
The driver accelerated as he struck the group. After he hit the soldiers, he put the vehicle into reverse and began to run over them a second time.
The terrorist was shot by soldiers and a civilian tour guide, police said. He died of his wounds.
Erez Orbach, one of four soldiers killed on Sunday in a truck-ramming attack in Jerusalem, was laid to rest to Monday in the military plot of the Kfar Etzion cemetery. Thousands attended the funeral.Soldier wounded in ramming attack still fighting for her life
Orbach, 20, of Alon Shvut in the Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem, had been exempt from army service for health reasons, but fought for the opportunity to volunteer and was in officers’ training school at the time of his murder.
Orbach and three others were killed when a terrorist from East Jerusalem rammed his truck into a group of soldiers at the Armon Hanatziv promenade in the capital Sunday.
He held US citizenship as the child of an American, the US Embassy in Israel said. Consular officials had been in touch with his family.
An Israeli soldier wounded in a deadly terror attack remains in a coma but doctors have managed to partially stabilize her, a doctor at her hospital said Monday morning.
The soldier, whose name has not been released, is still in life-threatening condition but has begun to improve, Dr. Ofer Marin, head of the trauma unit at Shaare Zedek in Jerusalem, told reporters.
She was one of 16 people injured in the Sunday attack, in which a driver plowed his truck into a group of soldiers standing near a bus on a popular promenade in the capital. Four people were killed — three officer school cadets and one officer.
Marin said the seriously wounded soldier is sedated and breathing with the help of respirator and will need to undergo additional operations until her condition stabilizes. He said she suffered multiple internal injuries.
No other victim is in life-threatening condition, and at least four soldiers were released overnight, the hospital said.
Weaponized International Law
Addressing the UN Security Council to explain America's abstention on Resolution 2334, Ambassador Samantha Power stated, "Our vote today is fully in line with the bipartisan history of how American presidents have approached both the issue - and the role of this body." That's false.Here’s how we’re getting it wrong on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
While previous administrations have criticized settlements as bad policy, it is the Obama administration that deviates from longstanding American practice by maintaining that every last inch of the West Bank is lawfully Palestinian land.
In the very 1982 address on the Middle East that Power cites in defense of Resolution 2334, President Reagan declared, "In the pre-1967 borders, Israel was barely 10 miles wide at its narrowest point. The bulk of Israel's population lived within artillery range of hostile Arab armies. I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again."
Moreover, the peace agreement that President Clinton negotiated at the July 2000 Camp David summit, as well as the December 2000 Clinton parameters, envisaged Israel retaining control of population centers beyond the Green Line.
So did President George W. Bush's 2004 letter of understanding to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, which explicitly rejected a return to the 1967 lines.
UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) both recognized that the 1949 lines were not sacrosanct.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, targeting the Jewish population in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, has given a new impetus to a discussion on violent conquest, occupation and colonization, which most of the international community rightly understands as immoral and illegal.Falsehoods and more falsehoods
However, when taking into account 3,000 years of history and context, Palestinian Arabs, not indigenous Israeli Jews, become the offending party.
If one people violently conquered the territory of an indigenous people, forced them to declare allegiance to the conquering nation and creed at the point of a sword, foisted a culture, religion and language on the conquered people and treated those who refused as second-class citizens with far fewer rights, there would rightly be outcry, derision and, above all, condemnation.
If such actions are wrong and unconscionable in principle, it should not matter when they took place — whether it was a few decades or a number of centuries ago.
Nevertheless, this principle is not accepted by the United Nations. In fact, it is turned on its head.
The recently adopted Security Council Resolution 2334 and Secretary of State’s follow-up speech that doubles down on the lame duck Obama administrations’ support for it, as well as outlining a “framework” for an additional destructive Security Council resolution that Obama and Kerry are believed to be planning for their last days in office, are major obstacles to peace in the Middle East. They contain an extraordinary array of falsehoods and misconceptions that are themselves major obstacles to peace.A Call on All Christians to Defend Their Birthplace and the Homeland of the Jewish People
Cardinal John Henry Newman, in his classic autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua (“Apology for My Life”) explains how it is possible to slander a person in a single sentence, while it may require an entire book to refute the slander. It would take us an entire library of books to expose the scores of false and misleading statements in Secretary Kerry’s speech. So we will take up only a few of the worst falsehoods.
1. A two-state solution is the only solution. In reality, it is no solution at all. The PLO Ramallah regime, (which calls itself the “State of Palestine,” and is called the “Palestinian Authority” in the Oslo Accords), regularly praises terrorists who murder Israeli civilians and soldiers by calling them “martyrs,” gives them photo opportunities with “President” Abbas and other PLO leaders, and names schools, hospitals, roads and athletic competitions after them within days after they commit these murders. Worst of all, it pays these terrorists generous salaries and awards generous pensions to their families. The very idea that Israel could “live in peace” with a state ruled by such monsters of hate and duplicity less than a mile, and in some places only a few yards, from its main population centers, is absurd. Kerry even admitted all this while still maintaining it is a worthy “peace partner” for Israel.
2. The Israeli administration of Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”) is an “illegal occupation” that must be ended. This is nonsense. Two monumental and thoroughly documented studies by international lawyers Howard Grief, “The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law,” Mazo Publishers, 2008), and Jacques Paul Gauthier, “Sovereignty Over the Old City of Jerusalem: A Study of the Historical, Religious, Political and Legal Aspects of the Question of the Old City,” (Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales, 2007), conclusively demonstrate that the San Remo Conference of the victorious World War I Allies (Britain, France, Italy and Japan), and the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, approved unanimously by all 51 members of the League of Nations, decided that Palestine would become a Jewish state and the sovereign territory of the Jewish people.
Westminster protest held against UN anti-Israel resolution
- We need ensure that the Old City of Jerusalem, the heart of Judaism for more than 3,000 years and the seat of Christianity for 2,000 years, will not be allowed to be Islamic as part of what would soon be an Islamic country, and very likely a terrorist one. In such a state, all polls show that the next vote will be to install Hamas.
- Based on the Hamas Charter that denies Israel's right to exist, the vote could complete eliminating Jewish -- and Christian -- history and replacing it with Islam.
- What drives Western politicians to be servants aiding the destruction of Judeo-Christian culture in the Middle East and Europe? Why does the Paris peace conference prepare for the destruction of the Jewish State while Christians are murdered in Muslim countries in historically unparalleled numbers?
- Christians will not be silent when all these places will be voted to go to those who will destroy them -- as they destroyed Palmyra, Antioch, Nisibis, Niniveh, and in late 2014, Iraq's oldest Christian monastery, St. Elijah, leveled by the Islamic State.
- The streets of Paris must hear the protests against the attempted rewriting of history at the peace conference and any subsequent Security Council vote. Such protestors are like "a man who would built up the wall and stand in front of God in the gap on behalf of the Land" (Ezekiel 22:30) -- so that the only bastion of democracy, the very defender of Christianity, the last keeper of Judeo-Christian heritage in the Middle East and Europe will continue to prosper.
Journalist Douglas Murray told the event that support for UNSC 2334 was “a bad and embarrassing blot on diplomacy”, that he hoped would retreat into history. “Friends do not kick friends in the back”, he declared.Ex-commander of UK forces warns of 'another anti-Israel resolution' at UN
In a message read out by protest organiser Arieh Miller, UN Watch director Hillel Neuer questioned British UN ambassador Matthew Rycroft’s claim of having worked to secure a “balanced text”.
He said the resolution sent a message to Palestinians that it would be easier to rely on anti-Israel resolutions than to negotiate peace terms.
Retired British Army officer Colonel Richard Kemp revealed a “senior Foreign Office official” had privately told him: “They know these settlements are not illegal. The reason they say they are is to put pressure on Israel. That is duplicitous, dishonest and disgraceful.”
Kemp also warned of another anti-Israel resolution in the pipeline, masterminded by President Obama. He said the planned resolution, which could be voted on as early as 17 January, would lead to “recognition of a Palestinian state and a demand for the state of Israel to be defined on the 1967 borders”.
Britain would be able to stop this diplomatically if it chose to, but the intervention would need to come from Theresa May as the Foreign Office lacked “courage”, he said.
Retired British Army Colonel Richard Kemp on Sunday warned that "there is another anti-Israel resolution in the pipeline being planned" at the United Nations Security Council as he addressed some 200 people gathered before the Houses of Parliament in London to protest of the government’s vote in favor of the recent resolution condemning Israeli as illegal.Former Commander of UK Forces in Afghanistan Says Anti-Israeli Settlement UN Resolution ‘Incites Palestinian Violence, Encourages BDS, Antisemitism’
Kemp, Jonathan Arkush, head of board of deputies of British Jews, as well as other notable names from the UK Jewish community joined the demonstrators standing in solidarity with Israel.
UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which states that Israeli settlements have "no legal validity" and are "dangerously imperiling the viability of the two-state solution", was passed by a 14-0 vote after a rare and momentous abstention by the United States.
Kemp told the audience that the resolution was part of "nothing less than an international conspiracy against Israel," in which he said he was "ashamed to say the United Kingdom is playing a leading role."
He also predicted that the upcoming conference on Mideast peace scheduled to take place in Paris on January 15 would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state based on the borders before the 1967 Six Day War.
The former commander of Britain’s forces in Afghanistan blasted the anti-Israeli settlement Resolution 2334, passed last month by the UN Security Council, on the grounds that it “incites [Palestinian] violence against Jews and encourages BDS movements around the world that will encourage antisemitism.”UN Israel Resolution Debate: Col. Richard Kemp vs Tal Ofer
In a debate on Jewish Internet station J-TV‘s program “Current Affairs” — moderated by the UK-based Henry Jackson Society founder and executive director Dr. Alan Mendoza — Col. Richard Kemp also criticized his government for supporting the resolution and the Obama administration for abstaining from the vote, rather than vetoing it.
Kemp was debating Tal Ofer, a member of the British Labour Movement originally from Israel, who said that though “the resolution is really, really bad for the settlements, it’s actually really good for Israel, because it requires Israel to make a decision into what direction it wishes to go – whether it’s the one-state solution or the two-state solution.”
J-TV hosts a debate on the UN Resolution condemning Israel's settlements and occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Colonel Richard Kemp (Former Commander of the British Armed Forces in Afghanistan) and Tal Ofer (Member of the Board of Deputies Executive Committe and Jewish Labour Movement)
Antisemitic conspiracy theorist in New Zealand media.
New Zealand’s role as a sponsor of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 and the resulting spat between New Zealand and Israel has sparked some intense debate in the New Zealand media. It’s also unleashed some particularly nasty and downright weird characters giving voice to their hatred of Israel.Abbas urges world leaders to prevent US Embassy move to Jerusalem
For example, Patrick Smellie, in the Fairfax Media-owned Taranaki Daily News, opines that Israel may wage ‘war’ on New Zealand through cyber warfare targeting “key elements of New Zealand infrastructure – telecommunications and electricity networks, secure communications channels for diplomats and defence personnel, and the like.”
It doesn’t come as much of a shock that underneath the piece is a note stating that the “article has been edited for clarity since it was first published.”
Not much clarity there.
But worse is to be found in the New Zealand Herald affiliated Hawke’s Bay Today in an appalling opinion piece by Malcolm Eves.
“God’s chosen people”.
First, we have the reference to “God’s chosen people”:
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent letters to a number of world leaders on Monday urging them to prevent the stated goal of the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.PMW: PA religious leaders threaten religious war over Jerusalem
According to the official PA news outlet Wafa, Abbas sent letters to the heads of Russia, China, France, Germany, Britain, the European Union, the African Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Arab League secretary general, “asking them to spare no effort in preventing the US embassy from moving to Jerusalem”
The PA president on Monday also sent a letter to Trump, explaining what he believes are the pitfalls of fulfilling the president-elect’s controversial campaign promise.
Abbas' advisor on NGOs, Sultan Abu Al-Einein:Abbas’ advisor: Moving US embassy to Jerusalem would be “a declaration of war on all Muslims”
"Transferring the American embassy to Jerusalem will lead to bloodshed"
Head of the Supreme Muslim Council and head preacher at the Al-Aqsa Mosque Sheikh Ikrima Sabri:
"What this means is that America recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of the Jews, and in doing so America will declare a new war against the Palestinians and also against the Arabs and the Muslims"
Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee, Saeb Erekat
"If you transfer the embassy and agree to the annexation of the settlements in the West Bank, you will drag the region into a state of anarchy, extremism, and lawlessness"
Fatah Spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi:
Erekat slams US House for condemning anti-settlements UN resolution
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat lashed out Saturday at a US House motion passed last week that demands the United Nations “repeal or fundamentally alter” a Security Council resolution that condemns Israeli settlements as violating international law.PreOccupiedTerritory: Erekat Hopes To Reach 100 Resignation Threats By End Of Year (satire)
In a fiery statement, Erekat implored Congress to “adhere to established US policy toward the illegitimacy of Israel’s settlement enterprise and annexation of Jerusalem, including the most recent position by the Obama administration.”
Last month, President Barack Obama chose to withhold the US veto from a resolution that was highly critical of the settlements, designating them both illegal and an obstacle to reaching a two-state solution between the sides. Resolution 2334 thus passed, by a vote of 14-0, with the US abstaining.
The resolution says the settlement project “has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.” It also calls for a complete end to all construction in areas Israel captured after the 1967 Six Day War, including East Jerusalem.
The Chief Palestinian negotiator aims to issue his one hundredth career threat this year to resign from the position, and voiced confidence this morning that with Donald Trump taking office this month, the situations that might warrant such threats will proliferate to the point that he will have no problem reaching the milestone.Joel B. Pollak: State Dept. Reaction to Terror Attack Contradicts Obama, Kerry, UN
Saeb Erekat, one of the most prominent spokesmen for the Palestinian political leadership, has invoked the prospect of tendering his resignation dozens of times in the last 15 years, by some counts more than thirty. On only one or two occasions has he made good on the threat, afterwards agreeing to assume the title once again within weeks or months. Each of the threatened resignations resulted from Erekat’s need to perform some dramatic act to attract attention to the Palestinian cause, which has been relegated to lower priority in recent years in the international community.
“If Trump begins the process of moving the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, I will resign,” declared Erekat. “If Israel does not cease defending itself from the murderers our society and government glorify and incite, I will resign. If Hamas does not reinstate Fatah functionaries in the Gaza Strip, I will resign. I can resign as many times as necessary to achieve Palestinian national aspirations.”
The U.S. Department of State referred to the site of Sunday’s Palestinian terror attack against Israeli pedestrians as “Jerusalem,” even though the attack — which killed four Israeli soldiers — occurred in the neighborhood of East Talpiyot, which the Obama administration officially considers a “settlement” in the “occupied” city of “East Jerusalem.”East Talpiot attack inspired by Ramallah, imitated Berlin
East Talpiyot is in eastern Jerusalem, across Hebron Road, which marked the heavily-fortified armistice line between Israel and Jordan at the end of Israel’s War of Independence in 1948-9. When Jordan shelled Israel in June 1967, Israel launched a counterattack and overcame Jordanian forces in eastern Jerusalem, which it unified with the western portion of the city.
Sunday’s terror attack took place at the Haas Promenade, known in Hebrew as the “Tayelet,” a popular overlook that offers sweeping views of the Old City of Jerusalem, and which is popular among Jews and Arabs alike for walks, wedding photos and family picnics. It is one of few public spaces where Arabs and Jews interact. Many American tour buses also stop there.
However, the Obama administration regards all Israeli neighborhoods built in eastern Jerusalem after 1967 as “settlements,” even if they are part of the city itself. In addition, UN Security Council Resolution 2234, which President Obama allowed to pass (by declining to veto), regards neighborhoods like East Jerusalem as a “flagrant violation under international law.”
Analysis: The Palestinian Authority started a blitz against the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem and threatened violent repercussions; while it's not yet clear if Abbas and Erekat's pronouncements directly influenced the truck driving terrorist, we can certainly surmise that they set the timing; similar attacks in Europe provided a template to copy.MKs: Palestinian Authority education system incitement inflamed the terrorist
The vehicular attack on Sunday in which four soldiers were killed in East Talpiot is the continuation of a wave of isolated, spontaneous or partially planned terrorist attacks that began in that same border neighborhood in Jerusalem—the rock throwing that led to the death of 64-year-old Alexander Levlovich in September 2015.
The security services term this "popular terrorism." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas prefers the whitewashed term "popular opposition." This allows him, in his public speeches, to call on Palestinians to refrain from using firearms and at the same time legitimize—and even encourage—throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and vehicular attacks in which many Israelis are also killed and wounded.
The "popular resistance" serves Abbas and Saeb Erekat well and carries out its purpose: It reinforces the Palestinian issue in the consciousness of the international media and helps the Palestinian "political intifada" strategy, as it creates a sense of urgency on the international scene.
“We should have full control over the education system in the east Jerusalem neighborhoods,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), reacting to Sunday’s deadly truck ramming attack at the Armon Hanatziv promenade in Jerusalem.Initial IDF probe says soldiers shot at terrorist, countering earlier report of hesitation
Hotovely said the terrorist who carried the attack was exposed to incitement: “It is unacceptable that students living near our capital’s downtown will say that their dream is to be a shahid [martyr].
“The international community needs to demand the complete halt of terrorism, and the complete shutdown of the terrorism-education industry,” she added, referring to the Mideast peace summit in Paris next Sunday and the recent United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.
A number of Israeli soldiers present at the truck-ramming terror attack in Jerusalem on Sunday shot at the terrorist within seconds of the attack starting, an initial IDF inquiry revealed, contradicting claims made by a guide who opened fire himself that the troops hesitated to respond or entirely failed to do so.Lapid: 'Keyboard Heroes' couldn't wait to slam IDF
The probe also revealed that a group of soldiers, mainly IDF cadets, seen running from the scene were ordered to seek cover by an officer as the shooting began. Video footage from the attack, in which four soldiers — three cadets and one lieutenant — were killed and 16 were injured, showed members of the group scrambling to run away which sparked criticism for alleged failure to respond.
Earlier, the head of the IDF officers’ training school said that “at least two” of his cadets shot at the terrorist.
Col. Yaniv Alaluf, who commands the officers’ training course, visited the scene to conduct a preliminary investigation into the attack and the soldiers’ response.
Chairman of the Yesh Atid Party, Yair Lapid, commented today (Monday) on the deadly Jerusalem ramming attack at the opening of the Yesh Atid faction meeting.First Responder in Jerusalem Terror Attack: Meet Abdullah
"Yesterday in Jerusalem Shira Tzur, Yael Yekutiel, Shir Hajaj, and Erez Orbach, of blessed memory, were murdered. Our hearts and our prayers are with the families. We will fight terror without compromise, without hesitation, including house demolitions, including the expulsion of families who were involved in terrorism, including curfews and closures, including entrance to all terror nests, everywhere and at any time. But our struggle is not just against our enemies, but also about the future and the character of Israeli society," began Lapid.
Lapid also called for a stop to the attempts to drag the attack into the political debate, "while the wounded were fighting for their lives, while the security forces were there, while blood - innocent blood - was still on the floor, there were those who were quick to try to drag this terrible attack into the political debate. Abominable lies were spread, like that all the soldiers fled from the scene because of what happened in the trial of Elor Azariya. They called it 'the Azariya Effect'. They ignored the fact that the soldiers shot in real time and killed the terrorist. Instead of embracing them they again attacked the Chief of Staff, the person leading warriors into battle for almost forty years."
One of the first responders on the scene of today's tragic terror attack, who treated many of the injured: Israeli Muslim Abdullah Muhaissen.
A glimmer of hope on a very dark day. Thank you Abdullah.
Everyday, Muslims, Christians, and Jews come to together for one purpose at Magen David Adom: saving lives.
Cabinet orders IDF to raze home of Jerusalem terrorist
The Diplomatic-Security Cabinet on Sunday approved several security measures in the wake of the Jerusalem ramming attack that killed four Israeli soldiers and wounded 15 that day.Hamas holds rally in Gaza to celebrate terrorist ramming that killed 4 Israelis
The terrorist was identified as Fadi al-Qanbar, 28, a married father of four from east Jerusalem. He had a criminal record, but had no known ties to any terrorist group, although he recently posted several pro-Islamic State posts on his Facebook page.
His cousin told Israel Hayom that Qanbar had been "very upset" by recent reports that the United States was considering relocating its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, saying the move would "spark a war."
After the deadly attack, police and Shin Bet security agency raided Qanbar's home in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber and detained his wife, parents and two siblings for questioning.
Qanbar's sister told Palestinian media she was "proud" of his actions and "grateful Allah has chosen him to die as a shahid ['martyr']."
Thousands of Hamas activists and supporters took to the streets of Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza on Sunday night to rally against Israel and praise the terrorist ramming attack in Jerusalem which killed four Israelis.UN Security Council condemns truck ramming attack that killed 4 Israeli soldiers
Earlier on Sunday, a Palestinian rammed his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers on a popular promenade in Jerusalem, killing four of them in an attack which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said had likely been inspired by Islamic State.
Chanting anti-Israeli slogans the protesters marched to the rally where sweets were handed out in celebration.
"The message of our Islamic party Hamas is a message of encouragement and support for every jihadi who carries out an attack that puts an end to the acts of the Zionist enemy," Hamas leader Fathi Hamad, who led the rally, told Reuters.
The Palestinian Islamist group routinely praises those who carry out street attacks against Israelis.
The United Nations Security Council condemned the truck ramming attack in Jerusalem that left four Israeli soldiers dead.Jerusalem terrorist's relatives were aware of his intentions, police suspect
The statement released late Sunday “condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in Jerusalem on January 8” and expressed condolences to the families of the victims and to government of Israel.
The statement was tweeted Sunday night by Sweden’s Mission to the United Nations. Sweden holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month.
“The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security,” the statement said.
The statement said that the council finds any acts of terrorism “criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation.”
Suspicions have arisen among police that several family members of the terrorist who carried out Sunday's deadly truck-ramming attack in Jerusalem were aware of his intentions to target Israelis.None Dare Call It Terrorism: Media Blames Truck For Attack In Israel
Meanwhile, a Jerusalem court on Monday extended by seven days the remand of four brothers and a cousin of the perpetrator of the attack, Fadi al-Qanbar.
Israeli security forces arrested the terrorist's five relatives during raids as part of the investigation into the attack that killed four IDF soldiers and wounded 17 others. Following the attack, Israel sealed off the east Jerusalem neighborhood Jebl Mukabar, where Qanbar had been a resident.
When a Palestinian terrorist drove a truck into a crowd of Israeli soldiers Sunday morning the headlines from major media outlets pinned the blame squarely on the truck, avoiding headlining the story as a terrorist attack.CTV Amends Article’s Headline of Jerusalem Truck Terror Attack After HRC Complaint
“At Least 4 Dead and 15 Injured in Jerusalem Truck Attack,” declared the New York Times.
The lede in the times read, “A truck plowed into a group of people as they were getting off a bus in Jerusalem on Sunday afternoon, killing at least four people and injuring about 15 others, the police said.”
The Associated Press mentioned the driver was a Palestinian, but headlined the story in a way that still called it a “truck attack,” not a terrorist attack.
The AP headlined the story, “Israel police: Palestinian truck attack kills 4 in Jerusalem.”
Today’s shocking truck ramming terror attack in Jerusalem carried out by a Palestinian ISIS sympathizer generated tremendous news coverage here in Canada.Israeli Minister Slams BBC For Its Coverage Of Jerusalem Truck-Ramming Attack
The terror attack killed four Israeli soldiers and injured a dozen, prompting problematic coverage at the websites of CTV News and the Toronto Star.
Earlier this morning, CTV News published a shameful headline to an Associated Press article which made a truck terror attack seem like it was traffic accident, not intentional terror committed by a Palestinian Islamic State sympathizer. The headline stated only: “Truck plows into Israeli soldiers killing 4 in Jerusalem”.
Subsequent to HonestReporting Canada sending a complaint to several CTV News executives, CTV amended the headline to acknowledge that Israel claims the Palestinian terrorist was from the Islamic State and that it was a “truck attack” – not an accident.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett slammed the BBC for its coverage of Sunday’s terror attack in Jerusalem with a headline focusing on the death of the truck “driver” who “allegedly” rammed into pedestrians.Jerusalem Truck Ramming Terror Attack: Headline Fails
The BBC headline, which followed a vehicular terror attack that claimed the lives of at least four soldiers and injured an additional 15, originally read: “Driver of lorry shot in Jerusalem after allegedly ramming pedestrians, injuring at least 15, Israeli media report.”
The BBC’s main story on the attack now reads: “Jerusalem attack: Four dead after lorry driver rams soldiers.”
Bennett took the British news corporation to task for failing to mention the other deaths, for including the word “allegedly,” and for not labeling the driver as a terrorist.
“Yup, BBC. Driver–not terrorist–shot. He only “allegedly” murdered 4 Israelis,” Bennett, head of the Jewish Home party, tweeted.
The truck ramming terror attack in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood that has, so far, claimed the lives of four Israelis and injured many others, generated many headlines around the world.BBC Gradually Discovers Terror Truck Had Actual Driver Behind the Wheel
Why do the headlines matter? As we’ve noted, most people simply skim headlines, both in newspapers and on social media, and do not read most of the actual articles that are presented to them. So for many casual readers who don’t closely follow the Israeli-Arab conflict, all they know about the latest in the Mideast is from the headlines and alerts of articles they don’t read.
In this case, many casual readers will simply be unaware of two salient points:
- A terror attack has taken place;
- It was carried out by a Palestinian terrorist.
Here are a selection of the worst cases of headline bias in the immediate aftermath of the attack. What they all have in common is the attribution of responsibility for the attack to a vehicle, truck or lorry despite the fact that a driver, in this case a Palestinian terrorist, was behind the wheel.
The BBC has a habit of attributing terror attacks to inanimate objects or vehicles. And so it was the case with an appalling truck ramming terror attack that took place in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood of Jerusalem that has, so far, claimed the lives of four Israelis and injured many more.Total Failure: IBT Screws Up Coverage of Jerusalem Terror Attack
The BBC broke the news with the following:
Jerusalem "lorry attack" Injures 15
This gradually progressed to the following:
The BBC appears to be confused as to who or what carried out the attack. Having removed scare quotes from the headline, did a lorry really attack the soldiers? That seems rather strange given that, according to the opening paragraph of the story, a “suspected terrorist” was responsible.
So which is it BBC? A lorry or a terrorist?
Eventually, the BBC appears to have acknowledged that there was actually a driver behind the wheel of the vehicle.
What is going on at the International Business Times‘ UK edition? The first write-up of the truck ramming terror attack in Jerusalem looked like this:BBC Turning Jerusalem Terrorist Murderer’s Family Into The Victims
Besides the headline that places “terror attack” in scare quotes, exactly what has an image of Jewish women at the Western Wall got to do with the incident?
The attack happened at the promenade in Armon Hanatziv, not “at the walled Old City of Jerusalem” as the caption reads. The photo appears to be of Jewish women protesting in favor of egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall. Hardly an appropriate image to accompany a terror attack that occurred elsewhere.
This is our problem with the international press. The BBC rushes to put up a sympathetic interview with the the uncle of the terrorist who murdered four and injured many more in Jerusalem yesterday.SICK: Palestinians Celebrate Death of Four Israelis After Terrorist Attack
They have immediately inverted the story and made the family of the terrorist murderer into the victims of the story.
As of this moment the BBC has no video with the families of the murdered Israelis. They have Bibi speaking and an interview with an eye witness and another video with a title “Jerusalem lorry attack: ‘I fired until my magazine was empty’”.
As The Daily Wire reported Sunday, “a Palestinian man used a truck to ram into a crowd of Israelis, murdering three female soldiers, an Israeli man, and injuring at least 15 more soldiers. All of the dead were in their twenties.” The attack occurred in the city of Jerusalem. As Israel mourned its dead, the people of Palestine launched macabre celebrations:Palestinian Terror Groups Celebrate ‘Sweet’ Jerusalem Truck-Ramming Attack
These weren’t spontaneous celebrations by a few bad actors. Praise for the terrorist came from the top of the Palestinian leadership chain, placing a rubber stamp on a Jew-hating culture of death:
From circulating perversely satirical cartoons mocking dead Jews to passing out sweets to soon-to-be indoctrinated children, the Palestinian people welcomed the “martyrdom” of the terrorist who rammed his truck into unsuspecting Israelis with the kind of glee reserved for birthdays and weddings:
The news of Sunday’s truck-ramming attack in Jerusalem that left four Israelis dead and 17 injured has sparked outbursts of jubilation among Palestinian terrorist groups.Hamas Leaders Preach Against Israel
Hamas welcomed the attack, saying the carnage is a “natural reaction” to the “crimes of the occupation,” and what the terrorist group claimed was the infringement on the “Palestinians’ rights” and their holy sites.
Fawzi Barhoum, the movement’s spokesperson, lauded the attack as a “courageous act in defense of the holy sites and especially Al Aqsa mosque.”
He added that the attack proves that the “Jerusalem intifada [a series of attacks on Israelis that started in October 2015] continues to defend our lands and holy sites, and the Israeli oppression and aggression won’t be able to stop it. The oppression will only increase the determination of the Palestinian people to continue its heroic resistance in all its forms.”
The Iran-backed Islamic Jihad also welcomed the attack, and said in a statement that the deadly truck-ramming represented “a natural reaction to the crimes of the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.”
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