Israel Update for March 2008

The Israeli capital suffered a major terrorist atrocity on March 6 after four years of relative calm following a three year Palestinian terror blitz that left over one hundred Jerusalem residents dead and many hundreds injured. Dozens of young Israeli religious students were gathered inside Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, one of Jerusalems oldest seminaries and the bedrock learning institution of the national religious movement, which strongly advocates Jewish resettlement in Judea and Samaria. They were gathered in a festive atmosphere to mark the beginning of the month of Adar II - a special leap month added every four years to keep the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar in line with the 365 day solar year.

Suddenly Ala Abu Dhaim, a 26 year old Arab from the southeast Jerusalem neighborhood of Jebel Mukaber, which abuts East Talpiot, burst into the seminary dressed as an Orthodox Jew. He immediately took his hidden AK-47 Kalashnikov automatic rifle out of a music case and opened fire. The Muslim terrorist managed to let loose around 600 bullets before being shot dead by an off duty IDF officer who heard the carnage from his nearby home and rushed into the building-past several Jerusalem policemen who were apparently hesitant to enter the fray, and are now under official investigation for their widely condemned non-action.

Before being killed, the wicked terrorist managed to kill seven teenage male students ranging in age from 15 to 19, all from Jerusalem or surrounding communities, along with a student in his mid 20s from the port city of Ashdod. Eight others were wounded, three seriously. The emotional funerals of the slaughtered students received extensive Israeli media coverage the next day-the eve of the weekly Sabbath-adding to the country's grief as suddenly bereaved parents and siblings said goodbye to their young loved ones amid anguished cries and rivers of tears.

Heeding warnings from security officials that anti-Arab riots could break out at any time in response to the heinous massacre-which was publicly celebrated in many Palestinian cities and towns (an opinion poll commissioned by the New York Times revealed an astonishing 84% of West Bank Palestinians supported the atrocity) - Prime Minister Olmert told his cabinet the following Sunday that the government would not rest in its pursuit of Palestinian terrorists and those that support them. However he also rebuffed calls from many quarters that he immediately suspend peace talks with PA officials.

Indeed, some 22 young Jewish protestors were arrested during scuffles with security forces one week later as hundreds gathered near the terrorist's home to denounce the massacre. Amid many shouts of "death to the Arabs," several policemen and some of the protestors were injured in the three hour melee. Dozens of protestors managed to break thru a police cordon around the home and hurl stones at it, while others mimicked the popular Arab protest action of burning tires in nearby streets.

The incident came just days after several Jewish Jerusalem municipal inspectors were ambushed with rocks and stones as they drove through the heart of the Arab business district northwest of the Old City. Several of the Arab attackers attempted to tip the city car over that the inspectors were cowering in, as windows were smashed by the angry mob. The ugly scene, broadcast on Israeli television stations, spread fears that mass violence could once again return to Jerusalem streets. Later in the month, a Jewish rabbi was stabbed and wounded as he was walking near the Old City's Damascus Gate.

Demons In The North

Israeli forces were placed on an extra alert as the 40 day Muslim mourning period for slain Hizbullah terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyeh came to an end on March 23. Iranian and Hizbullah leaders again blamed Israel for the February 12 killing in Damascus, a claim Israel has denied. Still, Israeli officials announced the holding of the largest ever countrywide war preparation drills beginning April 6. The massive five day emergency exercises will test preparations for a possible non-conventional chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons attack, involving military and civilian rescue and medical squads, hospitals, and other public emergency services. Air raid sirens will be sounded in many areas, with local residents asked to proceed to local bomb shelters as if an actual attack were taking place.

The unsettling drills will be held just a couple weeks after visiting American Vice President Dick Cheney said Iran may have resumed its nuclear weapons program-which Israeli leaders say is definitely the case. Along with visiting presidential candidate John McCain and Condoleezza Rice, he publicly vowed that the United States will stand by Israel if any major attack takes place. The same pledge was made with strong emotion by visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who pledged in a speech before the Israeli Knesset that her country will never allow another holocaust to take place against the Jewish people.

As Israel's sixtieth birthday approaches in the midst of growing violence and gathering war clouds-a country created in the virtual ashes of the Nazi mass slaughter-we can take heart in the fact that "Surely in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel" (Jeremiah 3:23).