https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2015/10/08/white-house-neutral-on-palestinian-terror-attacks-on-israelis/White House neutral on Palestinian terror attacks on Israelis
By Jennifer Rubin
October 8
There has been a horrible spate of Palestinian terrorism in Israel, including such horrifying scenes as this:
Yedioth Ahronoth’s Nahum Barnea offers a first-hand account of the Old City stabbing on Wednesday morning by a female assailant.
“It was 10:40 a.m., yesterday morning. I walked on Hagai street, accompanied by a resident of the Old City who was witness to the murderous attack on Saturday night. I wanted to understand what exactly happened there when a terrorist attacked Aharon Banita and his wife Adele, where she ran to, in whose ears she screamed ‘help!’… Suddenly we heard a woman’s piercing scream, an almost inhuman scream in its power, and a few moments later the sound of a gunshot.”
Israel Hayom reported on Israeli women Liat Ohana of Kiryat Gat and Rivi Lev-Ohayon of Tekoa:
“I entered my house with my groceries and as I was about to close the door, I felt a hit. The terrorist opened the door with a huge bang with his gun. He grabbed my shirt and I saw my life flash before my eyes,” says Ohana. Ohana said the terrorist, armed with an M-16 he took from an IDF soldier, then entered the kitchen to find a knife. Ohana said she believed the gun was not loaded. Ohana then scuffled with the Palestinian, and said she “fought like a lion.” She then managed to run out of the house with her mother.
Lev-Ohayon, who was attacked by a mob in the West Bank, said, “By a miracle, I was saved from a lynching. In the moments when they attacked me I told myself: ‘This is it. I’m dead. The girls will have no mother.’ I have three little girls. I felt that I must try to save myself for my family.” Lev-Ohayon suffered head and hand injuries, and various cuts.
Then there is this, recounted by columnist Ruthie Blum:
The stabbing of an Israeli family by a 19-year-old Ramallah resident and Jerusalem law student — culminating in the death of 22-year-old Aharon Bennett and 41-year-old Rabbi Nehemia Lavi, who came to the rescue; the critical wounding of 21-year-old Adele Bennett; the injury to the couple’s two-year-old boy and trauma to their physically unscathed baby daughter — was not merely brutal. It was documented on the cellphones of Arab onlookers, who laughed and spit at the young mother covered in blood, begging for help as she tried to flee the scene with a knife wedged in her shoulder.
The uptick in Palestinian terror began a week ago when a Hamas terror cell killed Eitam Henkin and his wife, Naama, while the couple’s four children sat in the car. When stabbings continued in the Old City, the Israelis temporarily limited access to the Temple Mount.
You will notice a few things. The attackers are Palestinians. The victims are Israeli Jews (including police officers) or, in one case, an American journalist. And third, the media treat “violence” or the “spiral of violence” as something with a will of its own. CNN’s report is typical: “The spike in violence between Palestinians and Israelis shows no signs of abating, with three stabbing attacks reported Thursday.” But wait, isn’t that violence by Palestinians against Israelis? Oh, yes:
In Tel Aviv, a female Israeli soldier was stabbed with a screwdriver, allegedly by a Palestinian. Another soldier shot the attacker dead, Israel police spokeswoman Luba Samri told CNN. The attack left four people lightly wounded, including the soldier.
In the Kiryat Arba settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron, an Israeli man was in serious condition after being stabbed in the stomach, Samri said. Israeli security forces are still looking for that attacker.
Earlier Thursday, a Palestinian stabbed an ultra-Orthodox Jewish student, 25, in Jerusalem, wounding him seriously, police said. A 19-year-old Palestinian from the Shuafat refugee camp has been arrested in that attack at a light rail station near Jerusalem’s main police headquarters.
These are the latest in a series of knife and gun attacks on Israelis, many concentrated in Jerusalem, the city that both sides claim as their capital. Four Israelis were killed in two attacks last week.
So you would expect the Obama administration, which shares a common goal of fighting terrorism, to issue a tough-minded statement and show solidarity with Israel. You’d be wrong. On Saturday, a State Department spokesman, not even Secretary of State John Kerry, issued a statement epitomizing moral equivalency, and thereby misleading the country and the world as to what is occurring: “The United States strongly condemns all acts of violence, including the tragic stabbing in the Old City of Jerusalem today that left two victims dead and two injured. We call for all perpetrators of violence to be swiftly brought to justice. We are very concerned about mounting tensions in the West Bank and Jerusalem, including the Haram al Sharif/Temple Mount, and call on all sides to take affirmative steps to restore calm and avoid escalating the situation.” All sides? Who are the perpetrators?
Subsequent statements from the State Department were equally lacking in clarity. On Monday: “Well, you saw we — as we put out a statement I think yesterday, we strongly condemn all acts of violence. We’re very concerned about mounting tensions in the West Bank and Jerusalem, including the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount area, and call on all sides to take affirmative steps to restore calm and avoid escalating the situation.” On Tuesday, when asked about Israeli accommodations to reopen access to the Temple Mount, a spokesman said that was a step in the right direction.
No condemnation of terrorism. No issuance of warnings to Palestinian leaders of their obligations not to incite violence. No solidarity with our ally Israel. This all follows reports that, in a peevish show of disrespect, the White House ordered at least one top official not to attend the prime minister’s United Nations speech. And then there are the former ambassador to the United Nations Michael Oren and former Obama adviser Dennis Ross — who both confirm in their respective books the administration was vindictive and hostile toward Israel. It is almost as though this president does not like or have any empathy for our one democratic ally in the region.
And you wonder why our enemies don’t fear us and our friends don’t trust us?
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