Elponitnatsnoc
Master Debater
JERUSALEM — A gunman entered a prominent Jewish seminary in the heart of Jerusalem Thursday night, killing at least eight students and wounding at least nine others, three of them seriously, the Israeli police said.
In a scene of havoc and confusion while the students prayed, the gunman killed two people at the entrance to the Mercaz Harav yeshiva and then entered the first-floor library, spraying the religious students with gunfire from a Kalashnikov rifle, according to the Israeli police.
The gunman, who has not yet been identified, was thought to be either a Palestinian or an Israeli Arab living inside Jerusalem. The dead were thought to be mostly between 20 and 30 years of age.
It was the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians in nearly two years and the first attack inside Jerusalem in four. It occurred at the start of the Hebrew month in which the Purim holiday occurs, and many of the witnesses at first thought the gunfire was firecrackers in celebration at the 84-year-old institute, an ideological base for the settler movement.
Only one gunman appeared to be involved, and he was killed at the scene by a part-time student and security officers passing by.
But the attack came at a time of increased Israeli-Palestinian tension, after a spate of violence in Gaza that has seen longer-range rockets attacks on the Israeli city of Ashkelon, a medium-size Israeli military operation in Gaza and the deaths of nearly 130 Palestinians in the last week. Four Israelis have died, including a soldier on Thursday.
Thursday’s killings, which drew criticism from President Bush and the United Nations, are bound to put more pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to respond somehow, somewhere with force. The Gaza violence has led to unrest in the occupied West Bank as well and further complicated the political situation for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.
Mr. Abbas originally suspended contacts and peace talks with Israel indefinitely; after a plea from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to keep talking, he agreed on Wednesday to return to negotiations, but refused to say when.
Mr. Abbas condemned Thursday’s shootings.
In Gaza, the radical Islamic movement Hamas did not take responsibility for the attack but praised it. In a text message, Hamas said: “We bless the operation. It will not be the last.”
Mark Regev, spokesman for Mr. Olmert, said that “tonight’s massacre in Jerusalem is a defining moment.” He said that “the same warped and extremist ideology behind tonight’s massacre is also behind the daily rocket barrages in the south.”
Mr. Regev admitted that responsibility for the murders was still unclear. Asked about an Israeli response, he said: “Before we can speak of response we have to ascertain exactly who was behind it. We will act to protect our people.”
Chief Inspector Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, said at the scene that there had been no prior warning of the attack, giving weight to the unconfirmed report that the killer was from East Jerusalem and needed no special permit to enter the predominantly Jewish western part of the city.
Daniel Seaman, head of the Israeli government press office, said: “Jerusalem is a town where Jews and Arabs live together. The terrorist took advantage of the fact that he could move freely in west Jerusalem.”
The mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, said: “This is a sad evening for Jerusalem. We had about gotten used to quiet and calm.”
The scene outside the yeshiva was furious and passionate, with at least 50 ambulances and as many police cars on the streets outside, and angry yeshiva students and local residents lined up behind police tapes, chanting, “Death to Arabs,” “Olmert — you are to blame,” and “Who gave them weapons?”
Rabbi David Shalem, 43, the director of the Institute of Talmud Studies inside the yeshiva, where he has spent the last 22 years, tried to wipe his tears away. "Tomorrow instead of religious lectures there will be funerals,” he said, then shouted: “Let the government go to hell! Write that down. Let the government go to hell!”
Asked what the government should do, Rabbi Nachum Levy, 60, said, “I would like to see Olmert go with a strong hand.” Where? “Everywhere, in Gaza and the north and inside,” he said, “and not dismantle settlements.”
The yeshiva is famous, a symbol of the national religious strain of Judaism that provides the backbone of the settler movement. After the 1967 war, the national religious movement was the ideological father of the idea of redemption through reclaiming the land. The yeshiva itself was founded in 1924 by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and it is considered an elite institution, with 400 students. Thursday night the library contained some 80 students, witnesses said.
“We are shocked that base killers came to do murder in one of the holiest places in Jerusalem,” said Haim Katz, 46, the yeshiva secretary, as the bodies of the dead were lined up in a row.
Yitzhak Dadon, a part-time student, told Israeli radio that the gunman “came out of the library spraying” gunfire. “The terrorist came to the entrance, and I shot him twice in the head,” Mr. Dadon said.
Mr. Rosenfeld of the police said, however, that the gunman, who has not yet been identified, was killed by an army officer who was passing by and two undercover policemen who were in the area. The gunman had a pistol and a Kalashnikov rifle and managed to change clips at least once, Mr. Rosenfeld said.
Avi Katz, 23, was one of the first volunteers to enter the building as part of a medical help organization that gathers body parts for burial.
He was shaken by the sight. “I’ve seen terrorist acts before, but never like this,” he said, breathing shallowly. “We came to the library and saw two bodies at the entrance on the floor, and it was very bad. There were bodies and Jewish books all over the floor.” He and a colleague tried to save one student’s life until ambulance workers came, he said. “It’s not just the symbolism of the yeshiva,” he said. “They were shot one by one.”
In a statement issued tonight, President Bush said: I condemn in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack in Jerusalem that targeted innocent students at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. This barbaric and vicious attack on innocent civilians deserves the condemnation of every nation. I have just spoken with Prime Minister Olmert to extend my deepest condolences to the victims, their families, and to the people of Israel. I told him the United States stands firmly with Israel in the face of this terrible attack.”
Earlier on Thursday, Palestinian gunmen from Islamic Jihad blew up an Israeli army jeep patrolling the Gaza border, then attacked a rescue crew, killing one soldier and wounding three more, according to the Israeli military and Palestinian witnesses.
The jeep was moving just inside Israel near the old Kissufim crossing in central Gaza when a roadside bomb exploded and set it on fire. Several other army vehicles and a helicopter came under fire when they arrived to rescue the wounded.
After the attack, Israeli troops moved a few hundred yards into Gaza, exchanging fire with gunmen near Deir al Balah, and an Israeli airstrike on a rocket-launching team killed one Palestinian militant and wounded another in northern Gaza.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak of Israel announced that he would indefinitely postpone a trip to the United States because of the uncertain situation in Gaza, and also called President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to discuss Gaza.
Israeli farmers working in the fields of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, where the attack occurred, also came under fire. As Israeli tanks moved to cover the evacuation of the wounded, they came under mortar fire.
Israeli officials said that the explosive device was large, shaped and sophisticated. They suggested it was built after weapons training in Iran, the main sponsor of Islamic Jihad, a small, radical religious group that rejects both participation in politics and talks with Israel.
Hamas, which rules Gaza, said it also participated in the attack, which Islamic Jihad said was revenge for an Israeli attack the day before that killed one of its commanders.
Also on Thursday, Palestinians fired at least seven Qassam missiles toward Israel; two hit houses in Sderot, injuring one Israeli civilian. One hit the house of Elisheva Turjeman, doing significant damage but causing no injuries. The family heard an alert and ran to a protected part of the house. The rocket collapsed the roof, covering the living room with red powder from the crushed roof tiles, and started a fire. Mrs. Turjeman yelled at reporters, “Soon there will be no more homes standing in Sderot!”
In Egypt, talks continued on how to reach a cease-fire between Palestinians and Israelis in Gaza. A delegation from Hamas and Islamic Jihad met with Egypt’s intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, in the Egyptian city of El Arish, near Rafah. Egypt is trying to get Hamas to stop the rocket firing in return for a halt to Israeli attacks on Gaza.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/w...e3ddf484&ex=1362546000&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
I'm horrified and distressed by this, obviously- especially by the extremely crass remark by Hamas. It's obviously a response to the recent Israeli encroachments into Gaza and the West Bank, but do the Pro-Palestinian people here think this kind of violence is justifyable?
In a scene of havoc and confusion while the students prayed, the gunman killed two people at the entrance to the Mercaz Harav yeshiva and then entered the first-floor library, spraying the religious students with gunfire from a Kalashnikov rifle, according to the Israeli police.
The gunman, who has not yet been identified, was thought to be either a Palestinian or an Israeli Arab living inside Jerusalem. The dead were thought to be mostly between 20 and 30 years of age.
It was the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians in nearly two years and the first attack inside Jerusalem in four. It occurred at the start of the Hebrew month in which the Purim holiday occurs, and many of the witnesses at first thought the gunfire was firecrackers in celebration at the 84-year-old institute, an ideological base for the settler movement.
Only one gunman appeared to be involved, and he was killed at the scene by a part-time student and security officers passing by.
But the attack came at a time of increased Israeli-Palestinian tension, after a spate of violence in Gaza that has seen longer-range rockets attacks on the Israeli city of Ashkelon, a medium-size Israeli military operation in Gaza and the deaths of nearly 130 Palestinians in the last week. Four Israelis have died, including a soldier on Thursday.
Thursday’s killings, which drew criticism from President Bush and the United Nations, are bound to put more pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to respond somehow, somewhere with force. The Gaza violence has led to unrest in the occupied West Bank as well and further complicated the political situation for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.
Mr. Abbas originally suspended contacts and peace talks with Israel indefinitely; after a plea from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to keep talking, he agreed on Wednesday to return to negotiations, but refused to say when.
Mr. Abbas condemned Thursday’s shootings.
In Gaza, the radical Islamic movement Hamas did not take responsibility for the attack but praised it. In a text message, Hamas said: “We bless the operation. It will not be the last.”
Mark Regev, spokesman for Mr. Olmert, said that “tonight’s massacre in Jerusalem is a defining moment.” He said that “the same warped and extremist ideology behind tonight’s massacre is also behind the daily rocket barrages in the south.”
Mr. Regev admitted that responsibility for the murders was still unclear. Asked about an Israeli response, he said: “Before we can speak of response we have to ascertain exactly who was behind it. We will act to protect our people.”
Chief Inspector Micky Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman, said at the scene that there had been no prior warning of the attack, giving weight to the unconfirmed report that the killer was from East Jerusalem and needed no special permit to enter the predominantly Jewish western part of the city.
Daniel Seaman, head of the Israeli government press office, said: “Jerusalem is a town where Jews and Arabs live together. The terrorist took advantage of the fact that he could move freely in west Jerusalem.”
The mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, said: “This is a sad evening for Jerusalem. We had about gotten used to quiet and calm.”
The scene outside the yeshiva was furious and passionate, with at least 50 ambulances and as many police cars on the streets outside, and angry yeshiva students and local residents lined up behind police tapes, chanting, “Death to Arabs,” “Olmert — you are to blame,” and “Who gave them weapons?”
Rabbi David Shalem, 43, the director of the Institute of Talmud Studies inside the yeshiva, where he has spent the last 22 years, tried to wipe his tears away. "Tomorrow instead of religious lectures there will be funerals,” he said, then shouted: “Let the government go to hell! Write that down. Let the government go to hell!”
Asked what the government should do, Rabbi Nachum Levy, 60, said, “I would like to see Olmert go with a strong hand.” Where? “Everywhere, in Gaza and the north and inside,” he said, “and not dismantle settlements.”
The yeshiva is famous, a symbol of the national religious strain of Judaism that provides the backbone of the settler movement. After the 1967 war, the national religious movement was the ideological father of the idea of redemption through reclaiming the land. The yeshiva itself was founded in 1924 by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and it is considered an elite institution, with 400 students. Thursday night the library contained some 80 students, witnesses said.
“We are shocked that base killers came to do murder in one of the holiest places in Jerusalem,” said Haim Katz, 46, the yeshiva secretary, as the bodies of the dead were lined up in a row.
Yitzhak Dadon, a part-time student, told Israeli radio that the gunman “came out of the library spraying” gunfire. “The terrorist came to the entrance, and I shot him twice in the head,” Mr. Dadon said.
Mr. Rosenfeld of the police said, however, that the gunman, who has not yet been identified, was killed by an army officer who was passing by and two undercover policemen who were in the area. The gunman had a pistol and a Kalashnikov rifle and managed to change clips at least once, Mr. Rosenfeld said.
Avi Katz, 23, was one of the first volunteers to enter the building as part of a medical help organization that gathers body parts for burial.
He was shaken by the sight. “I’ve seen terrorist acts before, but never like this,” he said, breathing shallowly. “We came to the library and saw two bodies at the entrance on the floor, and it was very bad. There were bodies and Jewish books all over the floor.” He and a colleague tried to save one student’s life until ambulance workers came, he said. “It’s not just the symbolism of the yeshiva,” he said. “They were shot one by one.”
In a statement issued tonight, President Bush said: I condemn in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack in Jerusalem that targeted innocent students at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. This barbaric and vicious attack on innocent civilians deserves the condemnation of every nation. I have just spoken with Prime Minister Olmert to extend my deepest condolences to the victims, their families, and to the people of Israel. I told him the United States stands firmly with Israel in the face of this terrible attack.”
Earlier on Thursday, Palestinian gunmen from Islamic Jihad blew up an Israeli army jeep patrolling the Gaza border, then attacked a rescue crew, killing one soldier and wounding three more, according to the Israeli military and Palestinian witnesses.
The jeep was moving just inside Israel near the old Kissufim crossing in central Gaza when a roadside bomb exploded and set it on fire. Several other army vehicles and a helicopter came under fire when they arrived to rescue the wounded.
After the attack, Israeli troops moved a few hundred yards into Gaza, exchanging fire with gunmen near Deir al Balah, and an Israeli airstrike on a rocket-launching team killed one Palestinian militant and wounded another in northern Gaza.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak of Israel announced that he would indefinitely postpone a trip to the United States because of the uncertain situation in Gaza, and also called President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to discuss Gaza.
Israeli farmers working in the fields of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, where the attack occurred, also came under fire. As Israeli tanks moved to cover the evacuation of the wounded, they came under mortar fire.
Israeli officials said that the explosive device was large, shaped and sophisticated. They suggested it was built after weapons training in Iran, the main sponsor of Islamic Jihad, a small, radical religious group that rejects both participation in politics and talks with Israel.
Hamas, which rules Gaza, said it also participated in the attack, which Islamic Jihad said was revenge for an Israeli attack the day before that killed one of its commanders.
Also on Thursday, Palestinians fired at least seven Qassam missiles toward Israel; two hit houses in Sderot, injuring one Israeli civilian. One hit the house of Elisheva Turjeman, doing significant damage but causing no injuries. The family heard an alert and ran to a protected part of the house. The rocket collapsed the roof, covering the living room with red powder from the crushed roof tiles, and started a fire. Mrs. Turjeman yelled at reporters, “Soon there will be no more homes standing in Sderot!”
In Egypt, talks continued on how to reach a cease-fire between Palestinians and Israelis in Gaza. A delegation from Hamas and Islamic Jihad met with Egypt’s intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, in the Egyptian city of El Arish, near Rafah. Egypt is trying to get Hamas to stop the rocket firing in return for a halt to Israeli attacks on Gaza.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/w...e3ddf484&ex=1362546000&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
I'm horrified and distressed by this, obviously- especially by the extremely crass remark by Hamas. It's obviously a response to the recent Israeli encroachments into Gaza and the West Bank, but do the Pro-Palestinian people here think this kind of violence is justifyable?
