Late on Friday, something terrible happened in the West Bank: A premeditated, evil terrorist attack killed a teenage girl, and wounded two other members of her family, one very seriously. The story is heartbreaking and infuriating, and the details of the bombing itself are truly diabolical -- via the Jerusalem Post:
The IDF late Friday afternoon was scouring the West Bank for the terrorists responsible for a terror attack that killed a teenage girl and wounded her father and brother near a natural spring close to the West Bank settlement of Dolev. The military said that an improvised explosive device (IED) had been used in the attack at the Ein Buvin spring. According to the police, it was determined that the IED had been planted earlier at the spring and remotely detonated when the family approached... Rina Shnerb, 17, of Lod, was critically wounded in the explosion at Ein Bubin spring and was treated at the scene before succumbing to her wounds. She was buried in her home city of Lod at 3.30 p.m., just one week after celebrating her birthday...Her father Rabbi Eitan Shnerb was moderately injured and his 19-year-old son Dvir is sedated and on life support with injuries to his entire body.
Here is the innocent victim:
This is 17-year-old Israeli Rina Shenrav, who was murdered in this morning’s Palestinian terror attack in the West Bank. May her memory be a blessing and may her brother and father, wounded in the attack, have a full and speedy recovery. ?? pic.twitter.com/TN6olpQlZ3
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) August 23, 2019
The Israeli security service says it has "foiled a series of attempts by the military wing of Hamas to establish terrorist cells in the West Bank and that it had arrested an explosives expert who entered Israel with a humanitarian permit for medical treatment," according to the story. While nobody has explicitly claimed responsibility for the lethal bombing, Hamas immediately applauded it, hailing the violent targeting of Jews:
“Today’s operation is proof of the vitality of our people, and their bravery and their failure to surrender to the crimes and terrorism of the occupation.” Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh said that the attack was a warning to Israel to stay away from the “powder keg” that is Jerusalem. “I welcome today's operation, and although I don't know who carried it out, I support them and wish them safety. The operation is a warning to the occupation concerning Jerusalem and Al Aqsa,” he said in a statement.
Nothing cries "bravery" like planting a bomb at a swimming spring and detonating it from afar, murdering a girl and badly maiming her brother. But such moral depravity is expected from Hamas, a vicious, amoral terrorist organization that the people of Gaza elected after Israel's unilateral 'land-for-peace' pullout from the territory in 2005. In response to this heinous attack, US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, an anti-Israel zealot with serious anti-Semitic baggage, shared a tweet that blamed...the United States and Israel, of course:
This is absolutely tragic & horrible. My heart goes out to Rina's family. More than ever we need to support nonviolent approaches to ending the Israeli occupation and guaranteeing equal rights for all. Extremism that puts innocent lives at risk moves us no closer to peace. https://t.co/lQ4qrYf6ig
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 24, 2019
What's remarkable is that she likely believes that her tweet constitutes a condemnation of what happened, even though she criticizes the "occupation" and amplifies a morally-bereft sentiment that places blame on the governments of anti-terrorism countries, as opposed to the terrorists. Aside from the odious victim-blaming, invoking the "rightward drift" of Israel and America's political leadership is also ahistorical garbage. Let's not forget how the Palestinians reacted to very generous peace offerings from Israel and the US when both nations were led by center-left governments:
The Sbarro bombing came on the heels of Palestinian leadership rejecting yet another peace deal. It wasn’t a deal authored by the Likud party or by Netanyahu, but the center-left Israeli government. President Bill Clinton, not George W. Bush or Donald Trump, brokered the negotiations. Clinton would later, on numerous occasions, blame the Palestinians for walking away from a generous deal that included virtually everything Yasser Arafat had asked for, other than the “right of return” — which, of course, would be suicide for Israel. Instead of embracing peace, Fatah, Hamas, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Islamic Jihad, and others initiated a concerted war on civilians, with hundreds of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks that led to the murder of 1,000 Israelis and tens of thousands of cheering Palestinians.
Liberal leaders proffered nearly everything the Palestinians claimed they wanted, the Palestinians said no, then launched the bloody 'Second Intifada' shortly thereafter. That deadly campaign of terror resulted in so many deaths that Israel erected a series of security barriers and checkpoints, which have been extremely effective. Tlaib denounces these safety precautions as symbols of 'oppression.' It's almost as if it doesn't matter what the Jews actually do. Meanwhile, the so-called "moderate" Palestinian leadership in the West Bank (which operates a martyrs fund to reward terrorism) is refusing to negotiate at all, and saying things like this:
Palestinian Authority President Abbas At Jalazone #Refugee Camp: We Will Enter #Jerusalem As 'Millions Of Fighters'; We Reject 'Designation Of Our Martyrs As #Terrorists' – 'They Are Martyrs Of The Homeland' https://t.co/517z9m0SfF pic.twitter.com/fSjpdPPXjj
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 21, 2019
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threatened this week that "million of fighters" would swarm Jerusalem and topple the Jewish state's capital city, warning that "no matter how many houses and how many settlements they declare that they [plan to build] here and there—they shall all be destroyed." Abbas, in an Arabic language speech at Jalazone Refugee Camp near Ramallah that was heavy with threats of destruction, doubled down on the Palestinian government's policy of using public money to pay convicted terrorists and their families, telling his audience, "We will not accept their designation of our martyrs as terrorists. Our martyrs are the martyrs of the homeland." Abbas went on to rally those in attendance to swarm the city of Jerusalem and destroy all Jewish people living there.
Definitely sounds like Israel is the real problem here, no? No matter how egregious the conduct of the Palestinians, it's always important to subordinate such "distractions" in order to focus on the priority of scapegoating, attacking and punishing the world's lone jewish state. I'll leave you with more monstrous behavior from those terrible Israelis:
A tragic car accident killed a Palestinian father and sent his wife and baby into intensive care. When the injured baby refused to take a bottle as his mother was too ill, this Jewish nurse breastfed him through the night as she does her own children. https://t.co/1SpPmBXQzS
— hend amry (@LibyaLiberty) August 22, 2019
UPDATE - More attacks aimed at Israeli civilians:
Imagine defending, sympathizing and excusing terrorists who fire rockets on innocent civilians attending a music festival. There is no moral equivalence in this conflict. #IsraelUnderFire https://t.co/2ZfulGSoza
— Zak (@itzhakbendavid) August 25, 2019
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