Latest Terrorist Attacks in Israel

Nadene Goldfoot

Israel has warned the Gazans that it will not stand by and allow Israelis to be shot from Gaza without reprisal.  On Tuesday a civilian, a Bedouin Israeli,  was shot and killed near the Gaza border fence by sniper fire.

The IAF retaliated by hitting a base west of Khan Younis.  As Prime Minister Netanyahu stated, "This is an extremely serious incident and we will not stand idly by.  Our policy up until now has been to thwart and retaliate with force.  That's what they are doing.

The Defense Minister in Israel said, "If there is no peace in Israel, there will be no peace in Gaza.

"The Palestinian Authority continues to instigate against the State of Israel and its citizens and is not encouraging a culture of peace, so Israel feels that they are forced to deal with terror attacks."  mentioned Ya'alon.   It's an intolerable situation for Israel who has had to deal with attacks in southern Israel since 2001.  The people in Gaza, the Hamas terrorists,  have not accepted any thoughts of peace and it's high time they did.

Such action from Gaza encourages other acts of violence in Israel.  On Sunday a bus driver near Tel Aviv was alerted by a passenger that a large black knapsack was sitting in the bus unattended.  The passenger opened it to find  a bomb in it whereupon the driver had the passengers disembark from the bus.  A sapper attempted to defuse the bomb then but it blew up.  A policeman was slightly injured in the blast.  This was a terrorist act.

Another 41 year old police officer on the security force was stabbed literally in the back by a long knife wielding Palestinian as a terrorist attack in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Adam.  The attacker fled to a nearby Palestinian neighborhood.  This happened the day after the bus attack.

And so, the state of Israel on this 24th of December must always be aware, at least in this era, of attacks on its population that can come at any time so long as the Arabs are withholding any measure of peace for all men  and no good will towards any Israeli.

Resource:  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4469142,00.html
UPdate 12/25/13 http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-man-severely-wounded-by-sniper-fire-from-gaza/
UPdate 12/25/13http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4469142,00.html
UPdate 12/25/13http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/12/24/israeli-worker-shot-and-killed-by-gaza-sniper-update/

Barak and Communities in Judea and Samaria

by Nadene Goldfoot

The USA has called for a freeze on any building planned for Israel, but Israel's government has its own decisions to make and decided to allow 50 new homes in Judea-Samaria to be built. There are plans for 1,450 houses, but nothing was said about those.

A few hours after this decision, Defense Minister Ehud Barak flew to the USA to talk to George Mitchell, something I'd hate to do. Israel's need is to relocate settlers from Migron to Adam, which lies north of Jerusalem. Adam is where the 1,450 homes are needed.

Obama is pressuring Israel to stop all building so that the "Palestinians" would join in peace talks needed to create a Palestinian state. Here we have Israel, already a state, experiencing a population growth with the need to build some homes for people who were removed from the neighborhood they had just recently built, deeming that other neighbood "illegal". They have to go somewhere.

I might add that most of Israel consists of apartment buildings. Individual homes are a rarity. I lived in a high apartment building in Safed, and was lucky enough to be invited to a couple of exceptional homes for a visit. One was dug out of some earthquake ruins and was beautiful. Another was more like an American home with a backyard belonging to a writer friend of ours. So the opportunity to actually have a home is very special.

There are 500,000 Israelis living in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem. There are over 1,000,000 Arabs living in the state of Israel. Arabs do not want any Israelis living in their so called future state. Obama looks like he's accepting this unfairness. Palestinians are insisting that Judea and Samaria Jewish neighborhoods are illegal. In my previous blog, I refute that. Obviously Israel also is refuting it by allowing building to take place. As I note, the Palestinians have not recognized Israel to this date, something a new neighbor should do to be neighborly.

Tensions are mounting now between the two different groups; Palestinians and Israelis. Palestinians are claiming that the Israelis raided the village of Asira al-Qiblya and fired guns at their windows, injuring two of them. In the news, the word "village" was used. Why is it that Palestinians are said to have villages and in many newspapers while the term "settlements" and "West Bank" is used instead of the name of villages or towns and Judea and Samaria. I believe these terms were chosen for their political usage. The Israelis said that the action began with a Palestinian arson attack on Yitzhar. While they were trying to put out the fire they were stoned by Palestinians and that an Israeli was hurt. Troops called in used rubber bullets, not real ones.

In Ramallah, Abbas said that he refuses to negotiate with Israel until they stop building. I say-I would refuse to negotiate with him until he accepts the reality of an Israel and deal with it! Abbas expects Israel to just accept their state being there and not put conditions on it as it is meaningless. I do not understand his logic at all. It's not computing other than the Arabs refuse to accept a Jewish state in their midst. And just how badly do they really need their own state? They don't plan on taking a first baby-step of accepting Israel's existence.

Being that Israel is a democracy, we have a group of Israelis called "Peace Now." They are protesting the construction activity planned for Adam. They're claiming that 2,500 homes are in the future plans and are even under construction already.

Reference: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090629/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_settlements_8