Suicide Bomber Hits Tel Aviv Club, Several Dead

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20050225/ts_nm/mideast_explosion_dc

By Lee Marzel

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - A suicide bomber exploded next to a queue of people outside a Tel Aviv nightclub on Friday, police said, and Israeli media said several people were killed.

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actually in the backs of our minds we were kind of waiting for it:

though it was under arafat, everytime:
IDF pulled out of the palestenains cities
loosened up the checkpoint rules to let palestenians in israel to work

we all waited for the next suicide bomber.

more than that, for all those extremist groups, those kids/thugs indoctrinated in killing its probably impossible to "stop" all at once (classic example being the IRA and the REAL IRA). after all, some of these members are simply thugs who have found an outlet for their violent tendencies

that said I am willing to assume that this time is a bit different with Abbas, but then we shall see. If israel once again closes the borders we then enter the "cycle"....

how many "death credits" must israel endure before returning to military response? Will abbas actually do something serious?...stay tuned for the next version of:

I can't find any more words to express the sadness of these killings.

Israel is facing terrorism from two sides: Palestinian radicals that want to destroy the Jewish State, and Israeli radicals that want Sharon and the peace process DOA.

He will never endorse it; never accept it; never allow it.

and IBM's Sam Palmisano and Applied Materials' Dan Mydan and Oracle's Larry Ellison and Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates and Ford Motor Co's Willima Clay Ford are collectively holding guns to Abbas' head, and Mubarak's head, and Sharon's head -- and telling them, collectively as a group

"Play nice - or you will never see real economic growth - we will play in India --- and we will cherry pick - very selectively - your best and brightest with L-1 and H-1-B visas and "Green Cards.""

And the investment is not even going to Qatar or Indonesia or Malaysia either (Malaysia is becoming a Japanese game).

The Muslim heads of state have seen what Big Oil has done to their people -- as in classical Karl Marx mineral exploitation (look at West Virginia or Kentucky or South Eastern Ohio to South western Pennsylvania to see what the mineral industries do to the working -- not the thin patina of "Bushies" at the top)

Read the daily "San Jose Mercury News" - and the weekly "Jewish San Francisco"

These murderers need to be stopped.

We can speculate that the authors of this terrorist attack could be anyone on either side of this conflict: From Islamists to ultra-Orthodox. One thing is for certain, the government of Israel and the fledging Palestinian government will have to work together to combat terrorism. The revolving doors of arresting and then releasing terrorists that the Palestinians have been so fond of playing when Arafat was alive must come to a swift end.

though that could be nothing more than an attempt at publicity, an easy way to say that they're opposed to the attempts to find a sane solution and still trying to actively stop it from happening.

You are right about Israeli/Palestinian cooperation - what Abbas has been doing, perhaps due to Sharon's spoken concessions, has been a good degree more effective than the IDF incursions. If Sharon acts on what he says and Abbas remains sincere, I think we will get more progress.

I hope this doesn't stop all of that. Unfortunately it could well happen; it would not be the first time.

for prosecution will be a good day for the peace loving people in the region. Talk is cheap, let's see some results!

The Palestinians prosecute and punish them themselves.

Either way, the ball is in Abbas' court. Whether the militant leaders are giving him the finger or whether it's the most radical elements breaking away (see post 12, below), this is an attack on his credibility. He can't allow this.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20050226/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians

<snip>

"The Palestinian interior minister said Saturday the Palestinian security forces have arrested two West Bank men in connection with a Tel Aviv suicide bombing that killed four Israelis outside a nightclub.

The minister, ex-general Nasser Yousef, spoke to reporters after a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. He did not provide details about the arrests."

Defense sources told Haaretz that the bomber, Abdullah Badran, a resident of the West Bank town of Deir al Ghusun, had connections to Fatah and Islamic Jihad agents in the Tul Karm region as well as with Hezbollah. Palestinian security officials issued a similar assessment.

The village of Deir al Ghusun is adjacent to the separation fence. Security officials said it remains unclear how Badran was able to reach Tel Aviv, though they believe Badran travelled through Jerusalem.

The Israel Defense Forces imposed a curfew early Saturday on a West Bank village, arresting five people and informing a family that their son was the suicide bomber who earlier attacked a Tel Aviv night club, Palestinian security officials said.

The Palestinian Authority's interior minister, Nasser Yousef, told reporters that PA security services had arrested two Palestinians in connection with the attack. No further details were given.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/545139.html

Israel......

will leave Gaza

releases 500 jailed terrorists

stopped the campaign of taking out terrorists before they murder

stopped the established policy of destroying terrorists homes

turns over 3 cities to the PA SECURITY forces

agrees to cease-fire with Abbas


The result.....4 butchered,50 injured.


Now, apparently abbas will arrest a few people AFTER the fact.

How about actually going after the infrastructure BEFORE the fact.

I think this is a possibly major difference from before.

L-

but is this the new "acceptable" balance ?

Suicide attack ----> Arrest whoever ----> Blame Hizbollah


"OH...ITS NOT US....NO,NO,NO....ITS THEM...ITS HIZBOLLAH"


Sorry, Abbas ,during his campaign, said he will not take on the terrorists and that they are his "brothers".

We will see....

if they arrest the right people

if they actually prosecute these people

if they act to prevent more attacks

if Abbas will dismantle the terrorist infra-structure as they agreed to do as part of roadmap


Sorry if i'm a little jaded....i've seen this movie before.

Now they have to feel the force of the law. Abbas must show he means business.

If Palestine were a state -- and, as far as I am concerned, there's nothing to stop them from declaring one -- then that state must assert its prerogative to make war and peace. When the Israelis deal with the Palestinian leadership, they must know that when those leaders declare there shall be peace that they can enforce it.

Someone wants the fighting to continue. :(

Pseudo Islamist nihilists and anarchists committed to staying in a pseudo Islamist feudal state -- little realizing that their own rulers and Big Oil are giving them daily colonoscopies. (Hey - they cam get that from Gannon-Goucher)

just a few dead jews who were threatening them by being on line to get into a disco....like who gives a shit.

Heard on radio abbas condemned attack......(so did arafat)

Claims he will bring murderers to justice.....(so did arafat)



Must have also missed the outrage by france,germany and the EU.


Let the war crimes and attempted genocide continue.


Not to worry....after a few more suicide attacks , Israel will have no choice but to defend themselves.......then of course the EU, ICJ and the UN will immediately condemn israel.

are like the Gingrich-Starr Articles of Impeachment against Clinton. About as "fair and balanced."

Obviously this is horrible news. But while Arafat would routinely condemn terrorism, he rarely made promises to do anything about it. Abbas is quotoed in the press saying

""The Palestinian Authority will not stand silent in the face of this act of sabotage," Mr. Abbas said in a statement issued from Ramallah. "We will follow and track down those responsible and they will be punished accordingly."

This is different than what we would hear out of Arafat. Arafat basically shrugged his shoulders and all but said "What can we do? You created the conditions that made this nonsense happen." In other words, he implicitly endorsed the terrorism.

Abbas is saying, we won't tolerate this and we're going after the bad guys. Now the question is whether he's going to follow through.

This is the test for Abbas. How he handles this crisis will tell us whether we have real hope for peace or more war.

Personally, I remain hopeful.

We have to give Abbas a chance. This is his moment. As for Sharon, he's had his, and we already know where he has to stand.

1. The militants, collectively, are giving Abbas the finger.
2. A group of particularly radical militants are breaking away in the tradition of the Real IRA and intend to bring havoc regardless of what anybody else thinks.

For the time being, possibility number two appears more likely. Terrorists usuallyclaim responsibility unbiguously. Here, we have at least two groups each claiming and denying it at the same time. They do not appear to be speaking with one voice, as they have in the past.

However, possibility number 1 cannot be discounted. When Arafat chose Abbas to be his Prime Minister, the choice was criticized because Abbas had no natural popular constituency. That really hasn't changed. We may like him in the west, but he is a weak leader.

The blame/credit for this attack has been passed around quite a bit today:

1) A senior commander of a Palestinian militant group, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah (search), which is funded by Iran and has been trying to disrupt the cease-fire, hired a Palestinian from the northern West Bank to carry out the bombing. Palestinian security officials also implicated Hezbollah.

A Hezbollah official in Beirut denied involvement: "As far as we are concerned, there is no need to respond to such lies."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,148782,00.html

2) According to Israeli news outlets, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the militant wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call.

Hamas, through it’s spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that his organization was “fully observing the period of quiet, as we told Abu Mazen at our last meeting in Gaza. But the responsibility lies with the Israeli enemy, because even though we are observing this period of quiet, the Israeli aggressions and crimes are continuing”. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad also denied any role in the attack on the Tel Aviv disco on behalf of which it’s spokesman Nafiz Azzam declared “Islamic Jihad is committed to calm in accordance with the understanding it has reached with President Abu Mazen. The Islamic Jihad has no knowledge of the attack in Tel Aviv.”

http://www.arabmonitor.info/news/dettaglio.php?idnews=8855&lang=en

3) The senior commander who implicated Hezbollah is a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is loosely tied to Abbas' Fatah party. Al Aqsa has largely honoured Abbas' efforts to maintain a recent ceasefire with Israel. But elements of the militant group, which comprises many autonomous cells, are widely believed by Israeli and Palestinian officials to have received orders and funding from Hezbollah.

Palestinian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had tracked recent communications between Hezbollah militant Kais Obeid and a Palestinian who they believed was the attacker. They did not name the attacker.

Hezbollah's television station, Al Manar, reported the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad had claimed responsibility but the group, as well as the Palestinian militant group Hamas, both issued denials of involvement.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050225/w022579.html

I only say it odd because there is usually no reluctance to claim responsibility for such attacks by the perpetrators.

BTW, Al-Aqsa is not affiliated with Hamas as stated in the second report.

this time I think they are not getting the praiseful adulation of the Palestinian people.

Enough is enough.