By Rafael D. Frankel
NETANYA, Israel—Five people were killed and over 40 injured Monday when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a popular mall in this coastal city.
The blast tore through the concrete wall of the Canyon Ha Shomron mall and sent glass from the above façade crashing down to the crowded sidewalk below. There it laid for hours after among body parts, a pair of boots, shopping bags, and the leaves of a nearby tree which were blown off in the blast.
Pieces of burnt and bloodied flesh were sent 50 yards in every direction and blood stained the mall wall as high as 20 feet above ground after what both an Israeli police spokesman and an NYPD counter-terrorism expert said was anunusually large explosion.
However a far greater loss of life was prevented by the diligence of private mall security guards and three or four policemen who identified the bomber as suspicious and, with weapons drawn, ordered him to the side of the entrance, Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said.
"The fact that the security guard and policemen managed to identify the bomber meant that they prevented a major disaster," Israeli Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi said. Though reports were unclear as of press time, at least one security guard was killed and police officers were among the injured.
The terrorist group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack and named 21-year-old Lutfi Amin Abu Salem, from the nearby West Bank village of Kafr Rai, as the bomber. Shortly after the bombing, the group released avideo of Abu Salem posing with a grenade launcher and an assault rifle.
Buchnik Gal, 36, who was stopped in his car at a traffic light directly across from the entrance to the mall said after the explosion there were “lots of bodies on the ground and on the road and people yelling out.”
The driver’s side window on Gal’s car was blown out and the front windshield was cracked in the explosion which also deposited a piece of flesh in the door slot where his window was. Additionally, a ball bearing shot through the shell of his car just one inch from the gas tank. (Suicide bombers here often pack their bombs with ball bearings to maximize injuries and damage.)
This was the third bombing of the Canyon Ha Shomron mall since the last intifada began more than five years ago.
The attack comes at a time of heightened tensions in Israel after a series of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israeli towns the last two days, prompting Israel to retaliate with artillery fire into the territory recently evacuated by the Israeli civilians and the army.
No life was lost in those attacks and counter-attacks, but just hours before the suicide bombing, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz announced the IDF was authorized to resume its assassinations of Palestinian militants both in Gaza and the West Bank.
Though Palestinian militant groups signed on to a cease-fire with Israel at the beginning of the year, Islamic Jihad has nonetheless been responsiblefor at least five suicide bombings since then, and leaders in Damascus, Syria, had recently said they would likely not extend the cease fire beyond the end of the year.
The bombing drew a harsh verbal response from Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who said "the Palestinian Authority will not go easy on whoever is proved to be responsible" and that he would issue arrest orders for anyone connected with the attack.
However Israeli officials were skeptical of his promise, saying Abbas had talked tough before but had not delivered results. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom called the attack "additional proof of the inaction of the Palestinian Authority under [Abbas]. He added: "The leadership of the Palestinian Authority is refusing to act against the terror organizationsand to dismantle them."
Government Spokesman Ra’anan Gissin further accused Syria, Iran, and the terrorist group Hezbollah, which operates in southern Lebanon, of encouraging the attack to deflect growing international pressure against them.
IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz warned Sunday that he does not think diplomacy will compel Iran to give up its nuclear weapons program and Iran fired back that any Israeli attack would be met with a harsh reply.
©2005 Rafael D. Frankel and The New York Daily News
Monday, December 05, 2005
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Peres to quit Labor, join Sharon
By Rafael D. Frankel
JERUSALEM—Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, the stalwart of Israel’s Labor Party and the longest serving member of the Knesset will quit Labor and party politics to join his long-time friend and political rival Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a potential new government, a top Sharon advisor told reporters Tuesday.
Though the advisor, Lior Horev, back-tracked, saying he was not in a position to speak for Peres, the cat was already out of the bag.
On Monday, in Barcelona, Peres told reporters: “My goal is to make peace and it doesn't matter with which party.” Many in Israel also feel his motivation stems from a feeling of betrayal at the hands of newly elected Labor Chairman Amir Peretz, whom Peres brought back into the party only to be defeated by him in primary elections.
The vice prime minister is currently in Spain attending a soccer match between a joint Israeli-Palestinian team and FC Barcelona sponsored by his Peres Center for Peace and is expected to make a formal announcement of his intentions when he returns to Israel Wednesday night.
Under a deal with Sharon, Peres would be a senior minister in charge of negotiations with the Palestinians and development of the Negev and Galilee regions of Israel in a new Sharon government. He would not, however, run as a member of Kadima for the Knesset, ending his record streak of serving in Israel’s parliament since 1959.
The seeds for Peres’s departure seem to have been laid on Nov. 20 at the final cabinet meeting of the government before it fell. “This is the beginning of the joint work between us,” Sharon told Peres at the time. “I won't let you turn away from completing the missions you are destined for. I'll call on your assistance in the future.”
The defection of Peres from Labor represents a coupe-de-gras for the prime minister who has wielded his influence and soaring poll numbers to pull stars from both the left and right of Israeli politics to join him in his new Kadima party. “Kadima” means “forward” in Hebrew.
Abraham Diskin, a professor of political science at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said Sharon’s political power has grown both from weak rivals and his capturing of the vast Israeli political center which has given up on the idea of real peace but has also accepted the inevitability of a Palestinian state.
“The alternative [candidates to Sharon] are not really very trustful or admired by most of the people, so compared to others, his personality shines,” Diskin said.
“People on the left gave up the idea of a rosy peace and people on the right gave up the idea of Greater Israel and [both] moved to the center. No one represents that better than Sharon himself, and now no one looks more reliable than Sharon,” he said.
Though the most high-profile defection to Kadima from Labor, Peres is not the first. Popular Knesset member Haim Ramon left Labor last week and Dalia Itzik, a close Peres ally, announced her decision Monday. Sharon has also taken with him 13 Knesset members from his old Likud party, including ministers Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni.
Sharon also received a boost Tuesday when Uriel Reichman, a founder of the secularist Shinui party and a well-known academic in Israel, bolted his party to join Kadima.
Assuming the latest polling numbers are correct, Sharon’s Kadima party will gain the most mandates in the March 28 elections, followed by Labor in second and the depleted Likud in a distant third. The prime minister will then decide whether to look left or right to form a new governing coalition.
Though it is believed his preference is to join with Labor again, Diskin said, one thing will be clear: “Sharon will hold all the cards in his hand and he will be the one to make the decisions.”
©2005 Rafael D. Frankel & The New York Daily News
JERUSALEM—Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, the stalwart of Israel’s Labor Party and the longest serving member of the Knesset will quit Labor and party politics to join his long-time friend and political rival Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a potential new government, a top Sharon advisor told reporters Tuesday.
Though the advisor, Lior Horev, back-tracked, saying he was not in a position to speak for Peres, the cat was already out of the bag.
On Monday, in Barcelona, Peres told reporters: “My goal is to make peace and it doesn't matter with which party.” Many in Israel also feel his motivation stems from a feeling of betrayal at the hands of newly elected Labor Chairman Amir Peretz, whom Peres brought back into the party only to be defeated by him in primary elections.
The vice prime minister is currently in Spain attending a soccer match between a joint Israeli-Palestinian team and FC Barcelona sponsored by his Peres Center for Peace and is expected to make a formal announcement of his intentions when he returns to Israel Wednesday night.
Under a deal with Sharon, Peres would be a senior minister in charge of negotiations with the Palestinians and development of the Negev and Galilee regions of Israel in a new Sharon government. He would not, however, run as a member of Kadima for the Knesset, ending his record streak of serving in Israel’s parliament since 1959.
The seeds for Peres’s departure seem to have been laid on Nov. 20 at the final cabinet meeting of the government before it fell. “This is the beginning of the joint work between us,” Sharon told Peres at the time. “I won't let you turn away from completing the missions you are destined for. I'll call on your assistance in the future.”
The defection of Peres from Labor represents a coupe-de-gras for the prime minister who has wielded his influence and soaring poll numbers to pull stars from both the left and right of Israeli politics to join him in his new Kadima party. “Kadima” means “forward” in Hebrew.
Abraham Diskin, a professor of political science at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said Sharon’s political power has grown both from weak rivals and his capturing of the vast Israeli political center which has given up on the idea of real peace but has also accepted the inevitability of a Palestinian state.
“The alternative [candidates to Sharon] are not really very trustful or admired by most of the people, so compared to others, his personality shines,” Diskin said.
“People on the left gave up the idea of a rosy peace and people on the right gave up the idea of Greater Israel and [both] moved to the center. No one represents that better than Sharon himself, and now no one looks more reliable than Sharon,” he said.
Though the most high-profile defection to Kadima from Labor, Peres is not the first. Popular Knesset member Haim Ramon left Labor last week and Dalia Itzik, a close Peres ally, announced her decision Monday. Sharon has also taken with him 13 Knesset members from his old Likud party, including ministers Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni.
Sharon also received a boost Tuesday when Uriel Reichman, a founder of the secularist Shinui party and a well-known academic in Israel, bolted his party to join Kadima.
Assuming the latest polling numbers are correct, Sharon’s Kadima party will gain the most mandates in the March 28 elections, followed by Labor in second and the depleted Likud in a distant third. The prime minister will then decide whether to look left or right to form a new governing coalition.
Though it is believed his preference is to join with Labor again, Diskin said, one thing will be clear: “Sharon will hold all the cards in his hand and he will be the one to make the decisions.”
©2005 Rafael D. Frankel & The New York Daily News