Are Palestinians Against Receiving Aid? They’re Shooting Themselves in the Foot

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Yesterday’s terrorist attack was different than most. Not just because “only” two people were killed (talk to their families – see if they care that it was “only” two). In case you don’t know, 4 Palestinians snuck into Israel yesterday and murdered two Israelis who were working at a fuel terminal close to the border. It is believed that they were looking to kidnap Israelis.

The Palestinian gunmen took advantage of Israel’s eases on roadblocks. As part of an agreement made when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Israel, Israel eased many restrictions on the Palestinians, including opening up a checkpoint and removing 50 roadblocks.

A Beautiful Murderer

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I received this by email. I Googled it and found out that it has been published several times on different blogs, but I feel the topic is important enough to publish again. Hopefully others will do the same. This letter was written by the family of Malki Roth.

[Several months ago,] the New York Times carried a review of a film called “Hot House” that goes inside Israeli prisons and examines the lives of Palestinian prisoners. We’re not recommending the film or the review. But we do want to share our feelings with you about the beaming female face that adorns the article.

The film is produced by HBO. So it’s presumably HBO’s publicity department that was responsible for creating and distributing a glamor-style photograph of a smiling, contented-looking young woman in her twenties to promote the movie.

That female is our child’s murderer.

Facebook Update

So this was actually publicized yesterday, but I didn’t have the time to update the blog. So here goes.

Following much controversy surrounding Facebook’s changing some Israeli towns to Palestine instead of Israel, Facebook is now giving people the choice between listing Israel or Palestine for their towns. In itself, this seems like a great thing, right? All is right with the world?

Not so much. This doesn’t change the fact that Ariel, Ma’ale Adumin, etc. will never be Palestine. Like I mentioned in my previous post about Facebook, were these towns to be part of a future Palestinian state, they would surely not keep the Hebrew names these towns have.

So what have we achieved here exactly? It seems that Facebook, in light of much controversy regarding taking sides of political conflicts, is trying to be as parve (neither here nor there) as they can. In the process, they are making some decisions that do not make sense. I understand giving the choice between Israel and Palestine for Hebron (leaving aside the fact that technically there is no such country as Palestine at the moment), but how can you compare Hebron (a predominantly Palestinian territory with very few Jewish settlers) to a town that is made up only of Israelis (Jewish, Arabic, or otherwise)?

Ariel, Ma’ale Adumim, and other Israeli towns will NEVER be part of a Palestine. Were these towns to be given to the Palestinians under any future agreement (and these particular towns are not up for negotiation, but this is not the point here), the towns, as they are, would cease to exist and new Palestinian towns would rise over them with PALESTINIAN names.

Be a bit sensible, Facebook.

It’s time to take care of the hate groups now. You know, those who advocate for killing any Israelis overseas (it seems the group has been shut down, thankfully) and the one praising the murderer of the 8 kids at Merkaz Harav a couple of weeks ago (still up).

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8 Dead, 7 Injured, No One Claims Responsibility (Yet)

It is 8 dead, there are still 7 injured. No one has actually claimed responsibility yet, though it will surely happen soon.

Several of the injured are still in surgery, one is still touch and go, the others are mostly going to be OK.

Also, it seems there was only one terrorist, not two.

The Unknown (and unimportant, by comparison) Side

I really really really need to go to the bathroom and I’m starving. More than anything, I REALLY need to go to the bathroom, but there’s only one of each of us, so there’s no one to switch with me. I’ve been on air for the past 4 hours straight – we’ve been on longer, but it doesn’t help my poor bladder.

It reminds me of the day when Saddam Hussein was caught. We had just finished the morning news (from 6-9 am) and as we were leaving the control room, the head producer said “it looks like they caught Saddam – we’re going on air.”

We literally went back to our seats and were on air for hours – it was one of the hardest shows I had done – and at around 1, the head director of the channel came to relieve the morning director. Since TECHNICALLY it wasn’t 1 yet, I literally pulled the director into my room, showed him what was going on (“Sadam archives on 1, Udai and Kusai dead on 2, We’ve got him! on 3, Sadam beard on 4!”) and RAN to the bathroom.

Except there was so much going on that there were “traffic jams” going on in the newsroom, all of which is visible from the newscast going on live. This in itself isn’t so much of an issue – people are used to it and it gives “a feel” or action – except I had about 3 seconds to go to the bathroom, so I had to sprint and, unfortunately, my sprint was caught on live TV.

I wouldn’t've known this had ALL my friends called to ask me if I was OK. Too funny. (Not so much, but the more I type, the less I realize my bladder is exploding).

Final Numbers: 7 Dead, 7 Injured, Arab-Israelis Claim Responsibility

The good news is that one less family that previously thought will be mourning their loved ones. Hopefully the injured will get well soon – hahlama mehira to all the injured.

An Arab-Israeli organization has claimed responsibility for the attack. In case you don’t know, Arab Israelis are 100% Israeli citizens who have the same rights as Israelis and vote in our elections. This would be like any faction of American citizens carrying out attacks in the US.

Security Officials Examining Yeshiva Building

Since an explosives belt that, thankfully, did not go off (thus preventing a MUCH worse event, considering there were 80 people in the dining hall at the time) was found, security officials are going through every single room and section of the building and surrounding areas to make sure there aren’t any more explosives anywhere.

It seems that a terrorist attack very similar to this one was averted last week, also at a yeshiva.

Hamas has NOT claimed responsibility for this event. An organization that has already claimed responsibility for previous attacks has claimed responsibility, but there is so much noise in the control room, and I have so much going on (which you wouldn’t know by my typing), that I couldn’t really hear.

By the way, the emergency number in Jerusalem right now is 125523106. I’m not sure how to dial from outside the country since I;m not even sure how to dial from here either.

Palestinians Dancing in the Streets

They are celebrating the deaths of innocent civilians. They’ll probably begin handing out candy soon like they usually do when Israelis are killed (Americans too, BTW – don’t be disillusioned).

You will NEVER and have NEVER seen a single Israeli or Jew dancing in the streets and handing out candy to celebrate the death of people. ANYONE.

It’s a disgrace to humankind in my opinion.

It’s been 2.5 years for me

Since I have worked through a terrorist attack. Other than the sadness that this has happened, I am amazed at how easily I slipped back into what used to be “usual.” I’m working on automatic pilot again (clearly since I am updating my blog as I am working), which is just scary.

Er, it seems there are 8 injured now, not 7. Still three are in bad condition (not quite critical, but I am still paying attention to my work so I can’t remember how to say the word in English).

8 dead, 7 injured

3 of the injured are critical.

People Jumped Out Windows to Escape

It seems people started jumping out of the windows to escape from the terrorists. A guy is being interviewed and he said about he, along with 15 others, jumped out the windows.

I think that Hamas is taking responsibility because I just got a video from them.

Update: Seems that there are 2 critical, 1 lightly Injured

It’s a good thing we can loop visuals, so I have a few minutes to update every now and again. The posts are taking longer than they technically should because I can only type a few words at a time.

News is very mixed. No one has precise details – it’s always like this in the first hour, just if you’re not watching it on TV (or worse, if you’re not at the news station), it’s difficult to see what the confusion is like.

The official word is that there are no more injured people left in the Yeshiva. So the injured list is correct. Hopefully the two criticals will make it.

6 injured, not 35

That’s good. 3 are categorized as having “light” injuries, and the other 3 as having serious ones.

Makes me think of MyShrapnel. I can’t find the link right now, but I will link to it later.

6 dead?

It seems there are 6 dead, not 8, but there are rumors in the newsroom that it’s 12. I hope not. Maybe 10?

2 terrorists entered the school and opened fire on the students. They were both killed.

8 dead, 35 injured

In the attack. It will probably change before the end of the night.

When I started this post, it was 7 dead, FYI.

By the way, these are all kids (students at the Yeshiva).