07-Mar-15: For some, but only some, Friday's Jerusalem ramming/slashing was yet another terror attack

The Jerusalem Arab who rammed his car into
Israeli pedestrians on Friday [Image Source: Ynet]

We now know that the dramatic events we described on Friday morning ["06-Mar-15: Jerusalem, Purim and terror... once again"] were a classic terror attack. They involved an ideologically committed jihadist who signaled ahead of time that he planned to do it; a loving mother (a genre with which we are only too familiar) who beams with pride at her son's murderous passions; a car driven into a group of pedestrians; and a thwarted attempt to seriously maim and kill people via a butcher knife that failed only because alert people with guns sized up the situation and popped the attacker, leaving him lying in a pool of his own blood, but alive.

Here's what we now know happened.

First, yes, it was certainly a terror attack, executed by a Jerusalem Arab. Several news sources (this Times of Israel story for instance) say he advertised his intentions via Facebook a day before. His mother supports the son's 'heroic' ploughing down of defenseless pedestrians.

Of course, the state of journalism being what it is, major newsagencies like Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Friday's attack without once mentioning the words "terror", "terrorism" or "terrorists". The closest AFP came was to say

The car ramming on Friday bore the hallmarks of a series of "lone wolf" attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem last year. [AFP as carried by Telegraph UK yesterday]

As for the BBC with its notoriously selective see-no-terrorism policy, see BBC Watch for another fine example of its usual penetrating critical analysis.

The attacker is Mohammed Salaymeh from the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ras al-Amud, according to family members. (The Jerusalem Post has his name as Mohammed Mahmoud Abdel Razek Salaima.) His portrait above shows a proclivity for wrapping Palestinian Arab flags around his torso.

His 'resistance' activity involved pointing his Honda sedan at a group of young Israelis standing on the sidewalk in the vicinity of a Jerusalem Light Rail tram stop on the city's Route 1. At about 10:00 am, Friday morning, Purim in Jerusalem and thus a day on which many Jerusalemites were on the streets, he managed to strike five people. Four were young women, all serving in the Border Police, all in their twenties, all standing near the entrance to the Border Police centre.

He then drove several hundred meters further along the road where he then struck a bicycle rider said to be in his fifties. All five victims suffered light-to-moderate injuries.

Same terrorist, immediately
after his attack was forcefully stopped
by alert security personnel
[Screen shot from eye-witness
video]

The terrorists was armed with
this butcher knife [Image Source]

After smashing his car into the people, the terrorist jumped out, brandishing a butcher’s knife that he used to slash at passersby. Fortunately, before he caused more injuries, the terrorist was shot and neutralized, though not killed, by an alert Border Policeman and a Jerusalem Light Rail security guard at the scene. He is in a Jerusalem hospital now, getting Israeli medical care.

No one here thinks for a moment that this terrorist attack was the last of its kind.