Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, November 20, 2014

11/20 Links Pt2: Sarah Honig: Not Telling It Like It Is; Interview with pro Israel Arab Orim Shimshon

From Ian:

An Israel Radio reporter recently did random street in interviews in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem, where the responders echoed (in fluent Hebrew) Abbas’s characterization of Jews as contaminants.
“Things here will only improve,” argued one fellow, “after the Jews are gone. Yes we want peace, but peace means no Jews.”
Another bystander likewise recommended ethnic cleansing: “Go back to where you came from. Go to Russia, Germany, Poland – anywhere – just not here.”
But there were also kinder voices: “I really don’t like to say so,” remarked a solicitous sort, “but what was done to you in Germany, will be done to you here too.”
These are our peace partners. It’s spine chilling to hear such sentiments from ordinary taxi drivers and greengrocers.
They ring alarmingly authentic.
Day after day, deceptively moderate Abbas hectors that the Jews are out to infest and defile al-Aksa. This is no Johnny-come-lately motif provoked by “Jewish nationalists.” (h/t Yoel)

Michael Lumish: The Third Intifada (Blood Doesn't Lie)

I am getting more than a little tired of constantly having to "absorb" and react to Arab-Muslim violence against my fellow Jews.
These were rabbis praying in a synagogue.
From the perspective of those Arabs and Muslims engaging in these brutal acts of dehumanization and murder against the Jewish people this is a religious war... not a war over land.
They honestly believe that a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount, the holiest site to the Jewish people where David had his temple, is a desecration before Allah and therefore when I went up there a few years ago I was "storming" the very heart of where my people come from.
Many people think that the Jews have it coming for the "Occupation" but there is no occupation.
The word is virtually meaningless in the context of the living of Jews upon Jewish land.
Israel "occupies" Israel like France "occupies" France.
Israel "occupies" Israel like I "occupy" my office.

Interview with Arab pro Israel political activist Orim Shimshon (h/t Daphne Anson)

What we can learn from Palestinian "hasbara"

Here is another heartwarming video about an Arab woman who has had five sons killed by Israel and another five in prison - and yet she manages to move on.It is titled "Undefeatable Woman."

Listen to the music! Listen to her voice cracking! How can Israel do such horrible things to her children?

If you blink, you might miss this shot of a "martyr poster" on her wall that might indicate that her sons were terrorists. (Of course, they were wonderful children - who used to play together!)

Or you might miss the gravestone with the logo of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades:

Israel-haters love to use the word "hasbara" as if it is an epithet. Yet there are far more propaganda videos that whitewash Palestinian terror.

Unfortunately, despite the assertion that Jews (sorry, Zionists now) control Hollywood, the anti-Israel side knows far better than their opponents how to tug at heartstrings. And the way to get people on your side is with emotions, not facts.

This is what so many pro-Israel activists don't get. They know they ae right but they cannot easily convince the college students and casual readers of the media with the facts. The other side, for which facts are optional, use emotional media to get their point across - and once someone's opinion has been swayed by being emotionally manipulated, they don't want to listen to facts that contradict their newfound feelings.

Even more support for terror from UNRWA teachers - and school principals

Continuing on my series that proves that UNRWA teachers actively support terror and war with Israel....

Ali Migdad, a UNRWA teacher in Khan Younis, posts a photo of a baby with a Hamas terrorist headband.

Ayman Nejmeh, a UNRWA teacher in Syria, seems to be a fan of terrorism in a more general sense.

Abo Ahmed Hasan, UNRWA teacher in Lebanon, encourages his students and friends to kidnap Israelis.

Adnan Melhem is a school principal for UNRWA in Syria. One of his heroes is mass murderer Dalal Mughrabi, lovingly depicted here.

Then again, what can you expect from an organization whose "human rights" website included antisemitism and who teaches the kids that Jews are dirty?

11/20 Links Pt1: Sarah Honig: The Perils of Peace; In This Struggle, Israel Can Prevail

From Ian:

Sarah Honig: The Perils of Peace

It’s a perplexing fact of our life: anything that remotely and vaguely resembles peace in Israel’s neighborhood is serially shattered once peace negotiations are kick-started. This is how it has invariably been – all the more emphatically so since the advent of Oslo.
According to this unique pattern, unequalled anywhere else, peace overtures are tantamount to harbingers of death and destruction.
Then, once the violence of peace somehow subsides, we briefly luxuriate in the lull of an impasse – the closest we ever get to calm.
But these rare respites inevitably rub do-gooder meddlers the wrong way both in the US and in the EU. With obsessive peevishness they begrudge us our breather. They summon summits, draw road maps, determine deadlines, weave tapestries, formulate fantasies and in short terminate the temporary time-outs.
It’s an inexorable rhythm. After each round of jibber-jabbering about peace comes the carnage.

Mordechai Kedar: In This Struggle, Israel Can Prevail

Israel can withstand and overcome the current wave of violence, which is just another chapter in the struggle against Arab and Islamist hatred. But to do so, there are concrete steps that Israel should take - now.
First of all, Israel must say emphatically: the Palestinian Authority established on the basis of the Oslo Accords is an enemy entity, an enemy whose goal is establishing an Arab state in place of Israel, not alongside Israel, but on its ruins. That is the reason the Oslo Accords were violated so blatantly and thoroughly by the other side, resulting in them being declared null and void..
In addition, Israel must cease funding the PA on the basis of economic agreements derived from the Oslo Accords. There is no other country that funds an enemy entity, and there is no reason for Israel to be the only country that acts in such a delusional manner.
The government of Israel must condemn those among us who were instrumental in giving us the "New Middle East", even those who once held posts of high honor.

Amb. Prosor on CNN International - Jerusalem Terror Attack

By the way, ISIS took over a Libyan city

From CNN:

The black flag of ISIS flies over government buildings. Police cars carry the group's insignia. The local football stadium is used for public executions. A town in Syria or Iraq? No. A city on the coast of the Mediterranean, in Libya.

Fighters loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are now in complete control of the city of Derna, population of about 100,000, not far from the Egyptian border and just about 200 miles from the southern shores of the European Union.

The fighters are taking advantage of political chaos to rapidly expand their presence westwards along the coast, Libyan sources tell CNN.

The new UNHRC head slammed the Arab world for not being more vocal in condemning ISIS:

The United Nations’ top human rights official called on the Muslim world to denounce the “monstrous” crimes of the extremist group that seeks to establish an Islamic state in Iraq and Syria, calling its actions both a violation of international law and Islamic tenets.

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, a member of the Jordanian royal family and the first Muslim to be named high commissioner for human rights, on Tuesday urged the Security Council to back efforts to overturn the Islamic State’s “ideology of violence.”

His speech was equally a message to the Muslim world.

“It is also disturbing how few to nonexistent have been the public demonstrations of anger in the Arab and Muslims worlds over the crimes being perpetrated in Iraq — notwithstanding the clear condemnation by many Arab and Islamic governments,” Mr. Al Hussein said.

Citing the opinion of Muslim clerics, he said the group had violated Shariah in many instances, through conversions, the reintroduction of slavery and the killing of civilians. He said Islam also prohibited the killing of diplomats and emissaries, which could be extended to journalists and aid workers.

Al Hussein has been considered the most reasonable person to head the Human Rights Council in recent years, but while the UN Secretary General and Security Council condemned the Jerusalem bombings, as far as I can tell the Human Rights Council has not.

Which makes his words about ISIS a little hollow.

I could have written five pages for the right hand side portion...

Haaretz Hebrew reports that a Palestinian Arab mounted three shooting attacks in order to be arrested and sent to jail, so the PA would pay him.

Ashraf Issa was building a house but did not have enough cash to complete it. So he decided to shoot at Egged armored buses, claiming that he chose them in order to ensure that no one gets hurt.

After two attacks where he even called up an Arab TV station to accept responsibility, but no arrest, he chose to do his third attack in broad daylight, standing in front of the bus, shooting at the lower part of it and waiting patiently to be arrested.

Because Issa's testimony held up, he was sentenced to a relatively light 7 years and 10 months, and his attack was classified as "economic" and not "nationalistic."

Even though he seems to have meant no harm, this proves that the cash that the PLO pays to terrorists - a part of their budget that is sacred - actually encourages attacks. This makes the PLO complicit in every terror attack since they provide an insurance policy to all Palestinian Arabs who only need to pay by attacking Jews.

It is a sad commentary that the most moral Palestinian Arab in the news is the one who only shoots towards Jews without trying to actually kill them.

(h/t Missing Peace)

Lessons from the sick, depraved antisemitic Arab cartoons

From Ajnad News almost immediately after the slaughter in Har Nof:

The same source, showing clearly who their targets are as well as their murder weapons:

Another cartoon (original source unknown):

Glee at murdering a bearded, blat-hat wearing "soldier":

The same artist showing his bloodlust:

One more, showing that the target is Jews, not "Zionists":

I must point out again that the existence of bloodthirsty antisemitic cartoons is not in itself evidence that Palestinian Arab society is sick. There are plenty of outliers who have access to the Internet who can easily post gruesome, offensive garbage, and fringe groups can be found anywhere.

However, the lack of any public pushback in Arabic against this clear Jew-hatred and bloodlust does indeed indicate that Palestinian society is sick. It might not be fashionable to say it - and Western reporters are loathe to write about it - but there is no visible counterpoint to these repulsive images and the equally abhorrent messages that accompany them. Images like these are celebrated by many, and condoned by the rest, with their silence.

This is the fundamental story of the massacre. For once, the motives are crystal-clear.

It cannot be about "occupation" or "settlements" because the attack was inside the Green Line.
It cannot be about "Al Aqsa" because the people who prayed there are not the types to ascend.
It cannot be about "Israeli oppression" because the victims were not soldiers or reservists.

The facts are undeniable: the terrorists targeted the most Jewish looking people at a synagogue while they were at prayer.

The cartoons illustrate nicely what the west wants to hide: the targets are Jews. Period.

Palestinian Arab cartoons in general routinely depict "Israelis" as a Nazi-style caricatures of a bearded, black-clad men, even though no Israeli leader has ever resembled that person. These victims did. The cartoons taught generations of terrorists that their enemy is the Jews, not Israelis.

The West wants to find excuses for Palestinian terror, to pretend that both sides are part of the problem. But this attack, and these cartoons, combined with the glaring absence of any Palestinians who object to this kind of incitement, reveal the ugly truth: that in the end it is about Jew-hatred. All the other reasons being given by pseudo-intellectuals of "occupation" or "Al Aqsa" or "Gaza" or bus drivers who commit suicide are simply excuses to divert the world's attention from the simple fact that this is really about the world's oldest hate.

Once you realize this you can start to understand the reality and not the spin that we've been fed for decades.

(h/t ADL, Israellycool)

EXCLUSIVE: Jordan's parliament recited a prayer for the murderers!

MP and terror cheerleader Khalil Attieh

On Wednesday, Jordan's parliament offered a prayer in honor of the spirit of Ghassan Abu Jamal and Uday Abu Jamal - the terrorists who slaughtered five people.

The prayer was held as the House of representatives session opened.

MP Khalil Attieh requested his fellow representatives to recite the Fatiha for the "spirit of the heroes."

The Fatiha is the first chapter of the Koran, recited on important occasions.

Attieh further declared that the murders were a "natural reaction to the occupation crimes against the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinians."

In addition, MP Mohammed Al-Qatathh of the House of Representatives issued a statement to the assembly condemning the "Zionist attack on Jerusalem and its people" in the wake of "the heroic operation" on the synagogue in Har Nof.

Moreover, a Jordanian clan opened up a mourning tent in Jordan's capital in honor of the terrorists.

Earlier in the day the Jordanian minister of media affairs pretended to condemn the attacks but only issued a vague statement that the government of Jordan "condemns the targeting of civilians, and denounce all acts of violence and terrorism against civilians, no matter who or why it is done." The condemnation was not nearly as specific as the honor for the terrorists given in Parliament.

Perhaps the US State Department should be asked to comment on how our ally's representatives praise terror attacks.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

11/19 Links Pt2: The Third Intifada is About the Post-Two-State Future; Temple Mount Status Quo?

From Ian:

The Third Intifada is About the Post-Two-State Future

The two-state solution is, effectively, dead. It was mortally wounded long before today’s terror attack on a Jerusalem synagogue, which marks a third intifada. The final straw came with the Gaza war this past summer, when Hamas rockets and tunnels showed why it would be insane to let Palestinians to rule more than a portion of the West Bank. The Obama administration’s addiction to pressuring Israel has also destabilized diplomacy.
But the attack on the synagogue in Har Nof sends a different message: namely, that Jews and Arabs may not be able to live together easily even in the same country. There are areas of coexistence–in Haifa, for example, where locals joke that they get along because Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed never came there. There are also Arabs who serve with distinction in the Israeli military, and at the highest levels of the Israeli government.
Yet that could be more difficult in future. David Brinn of the Jerusalem Post wrote candidly today: “When two of the regular staffers entered my office in the afternoon to empty the trash bin and replace it with a new nylon bag, I found myself for the first time tensing up and watching their every move out of the corner of my eye.” His feelings are, no doubt, shared by many well-meaning Jewish Israelis–and reciprocated by Arab Israelis, too.

Sweden’s Gaza refugee contradiction

Now that Sweden has assessed that Palestine meets the criteria of a state, is it prepared to address this longstanding Palestinian refugee narrative, along with UNRWA’s role in perpetuating it? The way to do so would be to issue a clear statement that Palestinians living in Palestine (the West Bank and Gaza) would no longer be recognized as “refugees.”
If the Swedes fail to take this simple and logical move, the implication would be that their recognition of Palestine is intended not to promote peaceful co-existence between Israel and Palestine, but rather to perpetuate dangerous and irredentist policies that have long characterized the Palestinian narrative, not to mention the refugee agency that purports to speak in its name.

Spanish Parliament Recognizes 'Palestine' After Jerusalem Terror Attack

The lower house of the Spanish parliament, the Congress of Deputies, passed a resolution Tuesday to recognize a Palestinian state. The vote came in the wake of a gruesome Palestinian terror attack Tuesday morning that targeted Jews praying at a synagogue in West Jerusalem, which drew widespread international condemnation.
Reuters reports that the resolution received the support of all political parties. The support for Palestinian statehood follows similar resolutions in the UK, Sweden, and Ireland, and is conditional on a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
It is merely symbolic–but on a day of terror, is a potent symbol indeed.

Israel decries Spanish vote on recognizing Palestine

“The declaration of the Spanish parliament only distances the chance of reaching an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, because it encourages the Palestinians to become more extreme in their positions,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.
“It would have been better if the Spanish parliament had instead chosen to do the right thing by condemning the abominable slaughter carried out by inflamed Palestinians in a synagogue in Jerusalem.”
Late on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu accused the international community of ignoring the bloodshed and seeking instead to reward the Palestinians, in a thinly veiled reference to the vote.
“Unfortunately, there are some who are trying even now to give the Palestinians a prize… of a Palestinian state, which doesn’t even recognize the Jewish state,” he said.
“We won’t put up with this.”

UNRWA school director likes those who murder Jews - and kids with guns

Meet Naief Al-Hattab, school director of UNRWA's Zaitoun Elementary School Boys "B" and former school headmaster of Shijia Elementary School Boys "A" for Refugees.

He has met the UN Secretary General, so you know his opinions must be valued by the UN.

Unlike most UN employees in New York and Europe, Naief doesn't seem to be an advocate of gun control:

In fact, he seems to like photos of kids with guns, as he enthusiastically commented on this photo - maybe his own son? - that the subject was a "son of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades!"

Al-Hattab also gave his heartfelt approval to the terror attack yesterday, congratulating the terrorists for their wonderful "revenge."

The UN is such a force for world peace, isn't it?

The series of UNRWA teachers supporting hate continues...

(h/t Bob Knot)

Waqf To Allow Jews Over Age Of 150 To Pray On Temple Mount (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Waqf To Allow Jews Over Age Of 150 To Pray On Temple Mount

Jerusalem, November 19 - Palestinian religious authorities softened their stance on Jewish access to the Temple Mount today, declaring that they had removed the restriction on Jewish prayer at the compound for anyone more than 150 years old.

The Waqf, or religious council that administers the site, announced the new policy amid Palestinian violence against Jews in the city, attacks that the Palestinian leadership and media have blamed on Israel's "assault" on the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Israel has allowed Jews and other non-Muslims to enter the area that once held both ancient Jewish Temples and is considered Judaism's holiest spot, angering Muslims with such a "desecration" of Islam's third-holiest location. Israeli and other regional leaders have been working to calm tensions, and the Waqf's pronouncement sounded a conciliatory note in an otherwise polarized environment.

Jewish activists have been demanding greater access to the Temple Mount, and a leader of those activists was seriously wounded by a Palestinian gunman several weeks ago. Other attacks over the last several months have involved Palestinian drivers deliberately ramming their cars into Israeli pedestrians, or stabbing them. Four were killed as recently as this morning when a pair of Palestinian attackers stormed a synagogue and used a meat cleaver, guns, and an axe to kill and maim as many Jews as possible. Palestinian media incite Muslims to "defend" Al-Aqsa "by whatever means necessary," incitement that finds a willing audience among Palestinians predisposed to blame Israel for their ills.

Waqf officials boasted that the new policy proves the they are being flexible while Israel is showing intransigence. "We are a religion of peace," said Imam Mithu Sallah. "As an indication of our willingness to accommodate others, we are allowing any non-Muslim born before the Hijra year 1286 to enter the Haram-al-Sharif and even pray," he continued, referring to the lunar Islamic calendar and calling the Temple Mount by its Arabic name. He contrasted the Waqf's tolerance with Israel, which stubbornly insists on maintaining religious, historical, and cultural ties to the site despite Muslim objections.

"This policy is even more flexible than it seems," added Sallah's colleague Labna Raami. "It uses the Islamic calendar, according to which 150 years is less time than in the Gregorian calendar." He explained that today's date in the Muslim year 1286 corresponds to May 7, 1869, almost five years less than a full 150 according to the western reckoning. The Gregorian year is slightly more than 365 days; the Islamic, 354. "So you see, we are even willing to accept people as young as 146 and a half," he boasted.

11/19 Links Pt1: Politics Can't Explain the Israeli Synagogue Attack. Only Hatred Can

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Unjustifiable horror

Though Palestinian nationalist movements have always been murderously violent, the most depressing and wretched spectacle of the last decade has been the degeneration of Palestinian nationalism into a theocratic, death-worshiping radical Islamism. Even assassins from the ostensibly secular PFLP, founded by the nominally Christian Palestinian George Habash, now shout Allahu Akbar so that no mistake can be made about the source of their murderous inspiration.
The obscenity of what transpired Tuesday morning in Har Nof’s Kehilat Yaakov Synagogue cannot be explained away by glib terms like “despair” or “occupation.” There are millions of people living between the Mediterranean and the Jordan – Jewish, Muslim, and Christian – who may fall into despair without resorting to heinous crimes like the one perpetrated in Har Nof.
Nor does the murder of innocent civilians advance the Palestinian cause. Religious Jews wrapped in prayer shawls and phylacteries lying in pools of their own blood on the floor of a synagogue is an instantly recognizable image – not just for Jews. It conjures up centuries of violent anti-Semitism and places the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the context of just another example of irrational – and therefore incurable – Jew hatred. It seems to prove to Jewish Israelis that there is really nothing to talk about with the Palestinians, let alone a peace agreement that must of necessity rest on mutual trust.

At funerals for synagogue terror victims, mourners grieve with 24 orphans from one street

Thousands of mourners gathered in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood Tuesday evening to pay their last respects to three of the four men killed while praying in their local synagogue earlier in the day in a terrorist attack. A fifth victim, policeman Zidan Saif, who was shot in the head in the shootout with the terrorists, died of his wounds late Tuesday in the hospital.
The crowd assembled outside the synagogue where Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, 40, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, and Rabbi Kalman Levine, 50, were killed by two Palestinian terrorists. The three were buried at the Har Hamenuhot cemetery in a joint funeral.
The funeral of the fourth victim, 59-year-old Rabbi Moshe Twersky, took place earlier on Tuesday.
Twersky, Kupinsky and Levine also held US citizenship, and Goldberg held British citizenship.
President Reuven Rivlin arrived at the synagogue to pay his respects to the victims’ families. Shas MK Eli Yishai and a number of other Israeli parliamentarians also attended the funerals.

Thousands attend funeral of policeman who died defending worshipers in synagogue attack

Thousands of loved ones, neighbors, politicians and well-wishers from across the country made their way to the village of Yanuh Jat in the Galilee on Wednesday, to bid farewell to Zidan Saif, the Druse policeman who died of a gunshot wound suffered at the scene of the terror attack at a Jerusalem synagogue.
The funeral was attended by President Reuven Rivlin, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, National Police Commissioner Inspector General Yochanan Danino, and leaders from the Druse community of Israel.
“We are burying a hero of the Israel police, who laid down his own body to protect the worshippers at the synagogue in Har Nof,” Aharonovitch said in his eulogy. “Zidan was there first and operated with courage. Without hesitation he charged inside, in the face of the horrors there. He followed the principles of the Israel Police and did what is expected of a courageous warrior.”
The minister added that “his heroism cost him his life, but saved the lives of others. Zidan is a source of pride for his family, for the Druse community and for the police and the people of Israel.”

Rabbi Kalman Levine

Here is President Obama's statement of condemnation for the terror attack yesterday:

I strongly condemn today’s terrorist attack on worshipers at a synagogue in Jerusalem, which killed four innocent people, including U.S. citizens Aryeh Kupinsky, Cary William Levine, and Mosheh Twersky, and injured several more. There is and can be no justification for such attacks against innocent civilians. The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the victims and families of all those who were killed and injured in this horrific attack and in other recent violence. At this sensitive moment in Jerusalem, it is all the more important for Israeli and Palestinian leaders and ordinary citizens to work cooperatively together to lower tensions, reject violence, and seek a path forward towards peace.

The most obvious problem with this statement, of course, is the sickening implication that Jews in Israel are inciting violence and that they must limit their own human rights because Arabs react violently to Jews acting like equals.

But there are a couple of other problems with this statement that indicate a lack of respect by the President towards the American murder victims.

Obama (or his aides) chose to call Kalman Levine by a name that he hasn't used for at least three decades. Instead, he chose to call him by his birth name. (Kalman is a Yiddish name, probably from German.)

This would be no big deal, except that the President seemed to go out of his way to call Peter Kassig "Abdul Rahman" in his condemnation of his execution.

Is an American who converted to Islam while in captivity more deserving of being called by his Arabic name than a Jew to be called by the Jewish name he's used since 1982?

It is also interesting that Obama didn't bother to dignify the terror victims with the title "Rabbi." That is basic etiquette, and it is a glaring omission.

The President's statement shows a disgraceful lack of respect for the victims, for Rabbi Levine in particular, and for Israeli Jews altogether.

Lebanese news site El Iwaa today published a profile of the religious Zionist yeshiva Mercaz HaRav.

Yeshiva Mercaz HaRav is not an ordinary religious school, nor is it only meant to ordain rabbis for the Israeli army, butit is a leader in teaching the religious Zionist movement since the founding of the State of Israel to realize the dream of a national home for the Jews.

It goes on to say that the yeshiva's leaders have encouraged Jews living in "so-called" Judea and Samaria.

The photo illustrating the story isn't of Mercaz HaRav, however. It is of the synagogue that was attacked yesterday.

Why would an Arab paper decide, out of the blue, to profile a fervently Zionist yeshiva in Jerusalem? And to publish it the day after an attack on a synagogue, that many Arab papers are now using as evidence that the Jews have started a "religious war" by visiting the Temple Mount?

The story does not mention that in 2008, an Arab with an AK-47 murdered 8 students at Mercaz HaRav, in an attack that was supported by 84% of Palestinians surveyed.

If Arab media wants to encourage "lone wolf" attacks against Jews, they could hardly do a better job than pointing out targets. The only thing missing from this article is the address of the yeshiva.

El Iwaa highlighted a photo of Arabs celebrating in its article on yesterday's attack.