Gunman kills 8 at Jerusalem seminary

By ARON HELLER and STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer Thu Mar 6, 10:20 PM ET

JERUSALEM - A gunman entered the library of a rabbinical seminary and opened fire on a crowded nighttime study session Thursday, killing eight people and wounding nine before he was slain, police and rescue workers said. It was the first major militant attack in Jerusalem in more than four years.

Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip praised the operation in a statement, and thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza to celebrate.


......Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the shooting. But Regev said the Palestinian government must take steps against the extremists — not just denounce their attacks.

"Tonight's massacre in Jerusalem is a defining moment," he told The Associated Press. "It is clear that those people celebrating this bloodshed have shown themselves to be not only the enemies of Israel but of all of humanity."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who only on Wednesday persuaded Abbas to return to peace talks with Israel, called the attack an "act of terror and depravity."

Israeli defense officials said the attacker came from east Jerusalem, the predominantly Palestinian section of the city. Jerusalem's Palestinians have Israeli ID cards that give them freedom of movement in Israel, unlike Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the attacker walked through the seminary's main gate and entered the library, where witnesses said some 80 people were gathered. He carried an assault rifle and pistol, and used both weapons in the attack. Rosenfeld said at least six empty bullet clips were found on the floor.

.....Hamas stopped just short of claiming responsibility (but later proudly claimed responsibility http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080307/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflicthamasclaim_080307144100;_ylt=ArXk.6q5QeauYqClV0J0sAMUvioA    ) for the Jerusalem shootings. "We bless the operation. It will not be the last," Hamas said in a statement sent to reporters by text message.

At mosques in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, many residents performed prayers of thanksgiving — only performed in cases of great victory to thank God.

About 7,000 Gazans marched in the streets of Jebaliya, firing in the air in celebration, and visited homes of those killed and wounded in the last Israeli incursion. In the southern town of Rafah, residents distributed sweets to moving cars, and militants fired mortars in celebration.

Rice said she spoke with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to express U.S. condolences to the people of Israel and the families of the victims.

"This barbarous act has no place among civilized peoples and shocks the conscience of all peace loving nations. There is no cause that could ever justify this action," she said......

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080307/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians_24;_ylt=AhqKvI8zZ4HWdQZex60uKv8UvioA

World disgusted by attack on Jerusalem school

Fri Mar 7

WASHINGTON (AFP) - World governments issued a fresh wave of condemnation Friday of a gun attack in a Jerusalem religious school, after the Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility for the shooting.

The strongest language came from Washington, where there was anger over the scenes of joy in the streets of Gaza, where crowds of Palestinian gunmen fired into the air to celebrate Thursday's murder of eight teenagers.

"It was extremely disheartening to see people in the streets in Gaza and elsewhere celebrating such an attack. That is fairly disgusting, actually," White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080307/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictisraelattackworld_080307165642;_ylt=AmHu_7aJ2VKr2Ofnc2AIp8IUvioA

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it"
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/hamas.htm

Of course you conveniently forget that most of those killed were militants, the rest were allowing the militants to operate in civilian areas. Sadly, hiding behind women and children doesn't matter to the terrorists.  Roll Eyes--Terry Mathis

You miss the forest for the trees. The point is that all this would stop if Hamas quit attacking Israel, as Israel has every right to proactively protect itself. Are you a anti-Hebrew? Sure post like one. 

Unforunately, I seriously doubt that the fighting between the two will EVER stop ..... At least, not until Israel completely unleashes it's full military-might, and a MAJOR conflict/war happens.  Then, and IMO, only then, it will stop, and it's not going to be good for the Palestinians.  This mini war has been going on way too long for people just to suddenly stop....It's not going to end like that....not in a truce or not in a peace agreement.

Why is that good deeds toward the Palestinians always go unrewarded?

By Bob Tyrrell
March 20, 2008

On the evening of March 6 in Jerusalem, a heavily armed Palestinian terrorist from nearby east Jerusalem entered the Mercaz Harav yeshiva and opened fire on the unarmed teenage students studying there. Eight died, and 11 were badly wounded before another student and an off-duty soldier shot the terrorist. The atrocity ignited wild celebrations in Gaza.


If you thought that the celebrations were anomalous, you might want to know about recent findings just published by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, an independent polling organization based on the West Bank. According to its polls, 84 percent of Palestinians approved of this attack. Moreover, 64 percent approve of Hamas randomly firing rockets and mortars from Gaza into Israeli communities, and 75 percent favor ending negotiations between their leaders and the Israeli government.

In September 2005, Israel, in an irenic gesture, withdrew its military from Gaza, but since then, it has endured about 2,500 rocket attacks from Gaza and almost an equal number of mortar attacks. I wonder whether 64 percent of the Palestinians would approve if Israel began reciprocal random attacks on Gaza. What is the old line, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"?

Instead of lobbing artillery randomly, the Israel Defense Forces have attempted to counter Hamas' attacks with surgical strikes against their leaders and their rocket factories. However, Hamas' leaders nestle their headquarters and rocket factories in civilian neighborhoods, and civilians suffer collateral damage. That appears to have made Palestinians angry, and not at Hamas for its bellicosity but at Israel for responding to these cruel attacks. According to Khalil Shikaki, the Palestinian pollster who headed the aforementioned poll, never in the 15 years that the poll has been conducted has a majority of Palestinians favored rocket assaults on Israel or an end to negotiations. For handing over Gaza to the Palestinians, this is the thanks Israel has received. Now Palestinians want further Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank. One does not have to be a student of the late Niccolo Machiavelli to advise against further withdrawals. Shikaki's poll demonstrates that such withdrawals only make the Palestinians angrier.


When the Israel Defense Forces withdrew from Gaza (taking with them civilian settlers), the Palestinians had an opportunity to set up a peaceful community that might encourage further accommodations from Israel. As JWR contributor Victor Davis Hanson observed in a recent column, "Gaza has plenty of natural advantages. It enjoys a picturesque coastline on the Mediterranean with sandy beaches and a rich classical history. There is a contiguous border with Egypt, the Arab world's largest country and spiritual home of pan-Arabic solidarity." Hanson mused imaginatively that Gaza could become another Singapore or Hong Kong. Instead the Palestinians immediately began a civil war among themselves, and after that, they began lobbing rockets and mortars into Israel. Somehow I doubt these people want peace. In fact, I suspect peace would be a disappointment to many of them.

A recent report, "The Global War on Terrorism: An Assessment," by Robert C. Martinage of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, illuminates the problem that Israel faces with Hamas and that the West faces with Islamic terror in general. Says Martinage, "Since the death of Muhammad in 632, Islamic history has been punctuated by many periods in which various heterodox sects have emerged and clashed violently with mainstream Muslims, as well as with the West." We are living through one of those periods. Whether Israel existed or not, these Islamic terrorists still would be with us.

All that Israel and the West can do is resist the terrorists, the best way being to go on the offensive. Withdrawing from Gaza certainly has not weakened the terrorists. It has made them and their Palestinian sympathizers more eager for violence. There is one sentiment, however, in this poll that I, for one, agree with: Negotiations have been of no benefit, at least not to those who want peace.

 http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/tyrrell032008.php3