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| Middle East |
| 11 Israelis killed in bus bombing... |
| 2002-11-21 |
| Up to 11 Israelis were killed and forty-one others wounded when an explosion rocked an Israeli bus in West Jerusalem early Wednesday morning. Israeli officials say that the bus was the latest Palestinian suicide bombing and vowed retaliation. Retaliation sounds appropriate... A civilian bus was reportedly traveling through the Kiryat Menachem neighborhood in Jerusalem when a bomber detonated explosives he carried, killing himself and up to eleven others. The precise number of casualties is yet to be determined, although news reports and medical sources say that the number of those killed ranges between 8 and 11. Israeli sources say that most of the dead were civilians, including school children. An Israeli spokesman, Yeruham Mandola, for the Megen David Adom paramedics service told Israel Radio and was cited by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz saying that there are students among the wounded." Schoolkids are legitimate targets to Paleos, of course... Meanwhile, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharons office, David Baker told AP Palestinian terrorists continue to cling to the bloodshed agenda and they are satisfied only when innocent Israeli lives are taken. Sounds like an accurate assessment of the situation... The Palestinian Authority, unlike Israel, often condemns the killing of civilians from both sides. This is usually after gangs associated or allied with the PA have intentionally slaughtered large numbers of civilians — like today. The Israelis don't intentionally target civilians... Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a leading Palestinian official and human rights activist told Al-Jazeera satellite television that the Israeli right-wing governments policies are responsible for the bloodshed. Barghouti cited the latest carnage in Tulkarm, where human rights groups claim extra-judicial assassinations took place Tuesday, November 19. The death toll stands at 5 in Tulkarm, including one child. Ten other Palestinians were arrested, including five children, and were taken to an unknown destination. Two more Palestinians were killed in Tulkarm today, and two others in Gaza. The "one child" seems to have been the 15-year-old who was shot when he climbed on top of a tank. His name in Arabic was "Dumbass"... The Jerusalem bombing is expected to generate another escalation in Israeli military violence, although Palestinians say that Israel needs no excuses to go on a rampage in the Occupied Territories. The Paleos sure seem to give them plenty of excuses, though... Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a top leader in the Islamic Movement, Hamas in Gaza, called Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television and stated that the suicide bombing is justified by the right of Palestinians to defend themselves. He asserted that daily Israeli killings of Palestinian civilians is hardly viewed with the same level of outrage in the West as are killings of Israeli civilians. He vowed that more attacks would be carried out in retaliation of the Israeli armys brutal treatment of the Palestinian population. In a just world, that single statement would be Rantissi's death warrant. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |