07-Jun-21: Kill some Jews, earn your family a new home

Image Sourc: Times of Israel

We're thinking back to the string of Arab-on-Israeli knifing attacks that embittered so many lives in this part of the world five/six years ago.

One of those, known as the Lions Gate stabbings was a murderous attack on Aaron and Odell Benita (also reported as Bennett) and their two small children in strollers. They were on their way to the Kotel - the Western Wall - to pray. 

We wrote about the awful events more or less in real time for our blog: "03-Oct-15: Arab violence escalates in Jerusalem: Multiple stabbings in Old City tonight". 

In its coverage, the New York Times ["Survivor of Jerusalem Stabbing Recounts Attack on Her Family"] quoted the young mother and wife describing how she was:

running down an alley in the Old City of Jerusalem with a knife stuck in the base of her neck, desperately seeking help. And most vividly, she described the cruel and mocking reactions she said she met from shopkeepers and passers-by. “I screamed, I begged for aid,” Mrs. Bennett, 22, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish mother of two, said in an interview on Tuesday from her hospital bed, where she was recovering from multiple stab wounds. “They stood chatting and laughing — they spat at me,” she said of the Palestinians in the alley. One man continued drinking cola out of a can, she said; others shook her off when she tried to hold onto them to lift herself off the ground. “I was looking for one glimmer of mercy in their eyes,” she said in a weak voice.

Horrifying. Almost beyond belief. There was no mercy to be found there that day.

The assailant was a kid of nineteen who was shot dead in the act by fast-moving - though not fast enough - Israeli security personnel. That knifer ands his family have gotten an obscene amount of sympathy, attention and money in the years that have passed. 

The two Israeli men who were killed Saturday evening in a terror attack in Jerusalem’s Old City were named by police as Nehemia Lavi, 41, and Aharon Banita, 22. The two died of their wounds shortly after being stabbed in Jerusalem’s Old City by a Palestinian terrorist. Banita’s wife was in serious condition and their two-year-old baby was lightly wounded. She was taken to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem and was undergoing surgery. The toddler was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment where he remained in stable condition. Lavi, a Jerusalem resident, leaves behind a wife and seven children. A rabbi at the Old City’s Ateret Cohanim yeshiva who lived nearby, he had rushed to the scene when he heard screaming in the street. [Times of Israel, October 3, 2015]

* * *

There's news today of what happened after those tragic, savage events: 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday ordered that the family of a Palestinian terrorist who murdered two Israelis be paid more than $40,000 and be given new housing, the Kan public broadcaster reported.

Ramallah Governor Laila Ghannam, an Abbas appointee, met with the family of Muhannad Halabi and gave them some 30,000 Jordanian Dinars  ($42,000), reportedly to help them cover housing costs since their home was destroyed by the IDF following the killings, Kan said.

Ghannam also told the family that Abbas had instructed his security services to help them find permanent housing. Home demolitions are a controversial policy that the IDF says helps deter future terror attacks.

The payments are the first high-profile payments to terrorist families since the Biden administration took office, despite claims that the Palestinians were willing to rethink the controversial policy as part of an effort to improve relations with Washington.

Halabi killed two Israelis, Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Banita, and injured Banita’s wife, Adele, and their 2-year-old son in a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem on October 3, 2015.

[Source: "Palestinian Authority pays $42,000 to family of terrorist who killed 2 Israelis", Times of Israel, June 7, 2021]

Knifing victims Lavi and Banita of blessed memory [Image Source]

Palestinian Media Watch, in a bulletin issued today, adds this dimension. 

The murderer’s sister claims that a sum of 130,000 Jordanian dinars (about US$183,359) was donated at some point to the murderer’s family. This munificent gift put them in a position to acquire a replacement home. 

But this being the Palestinian Authority, after various 'deductions' (evidently to benefit other worthy "martyrs") had been applied to the cash, what they received was a mere 100,000 dinars - not enough to complete the purchase. 

The vendors - the Arab owners selling the home but not yet paid - to the Muhannad Halabi's bereaved family sued to enforce the contract of sale, putting the Halabi people into a squeeze. 

At that point, renowned philanthropist and generous-hearted arch-terrorist Mahmoud Abbas, president-for-life of the Palestinian Authority, stepped up and provided the bridge funding in the form of a gift of 30,000 dinars. That allowed the murderer's family to complete the purchase and for the incentive to fresh acts of murder to be publicized to a willing audience of Palestinian Arabs who gobble up just this sort of sociopathic gesture. 

(The source for the narrative quoted by PMW is material broadcast on the ”Gaza” YouTube channel on May 29, 2021.)

* * *

This isn't the first time the despotic Palestinian Authority has honored the memory of that same cherished murdering knifer. Nearly six years ago, we wrote here ["28-Oct-15: The Pal Arab passion for knife attacks isn't just for social media: they sincerely mean to kill"] that

As the Jerusalem Post reports, the Palestinian Authority controlled by Mahmoud Abbas has just decided to honor Muhannad Halabi [the thug whose family has just been awarded the astronomical sum we reported above] by naming a street after him. Halabi is the 19-year-old murderer of two Jews killed close to the Old City's Lion's Gate on October 3, 2015 in a stabbing and shooting "operation" that took the lives of Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Benita and seriously injured Benita’s wife, Adele, and their two-year-old son.

The assailant was shot dead by police at the scene. Palestinian Media Watch reported several days ago that the Palestinian Bar Association has already grotesquely bestowed an honorary law degree on the deceased stabber/shooter/attacker. Now the municipality of Surda/Abu Qash, in the suburbs of Ramallah, will name a street for him "to emphasize the national role played by Palestinian municipalities."

It's also not the first time "Ramallah Governor Laila Ghannam", who handed the Pay to Slay prize to the killer's family, has played a key role in the nurturing of fresh, young killers in Palestinian Arab society. 

We wrote about her eight years ago ["14-Jun-13: When the murderers go free, what does it really do to you?"]

The despicable Abdullah Barghouti, convicted on 67 separate counts of murder, was honoured first by means of an official “solidarity” visit to his family’s home. The PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, led the honour parade, accompanied the District Governor of Ramallah, Laila Ghannam. Then the PA’s tightly controlled official television channel arrived and recorded a video homage to Barghouti, including interviews with proud family members.

Here's how this disgraceful terror-embracing public official is profiled on a European Union website:

Dr. Laila Ghannam (ليلى غنام) has been the governor of Ramallah and al-Bireh since 2014. From 2008 until 2014 she was member of Fatah’s leadership committee for the governorate. Ghannam was previously a lecturer at al-Quds University (Abu Dis) and chairwoman of the Wattan Center for Women between 2005 and 2007.

About the despicable Kuwaiti mass-murderer Barghouti who remains imprisoned for now and who made the exploding guitar case that destroyed the Sbarro pizzeria where our child was murdered in August 2001, see "21-Jun-13: In dark corners, remorseless killer of 66 innocents is called 'administrative detainee' and 'captive'" and "01-Jul-13: 66 acts of murder make him a hero in parts of the Arab world. What does this tell us about parts of the Arab world?"

* * *

Don't let anyone tell you differently: money is a key enabler in the Palestinian Arab descent into the horrors exemplified by what Abbas. Ghannam and the now-deceased knifer Halabi did. 

The Mahmoud Abbas regime can't function without massive doses of aid. Abbas can't function, his Pay to Slay scheme can't function, Ghannam's municipality can't function, the parents of Halabi can't function. That flow of foreign gifts - cash in the billions of dollars each year - is what allows the scandalous failed PA regime to keep the lights on.

Who pays? We're preparing a blog post that reviews the cast of givers (there's some data here) but of one thing we can be certain and so should you: If you pay taxes in a European Union country, in the United States, in the United Kingdom, you are certainly part of the problem even if you don't realize it yet. 

18-Aug-20: An Arab-on-Israeli knifing in Jerusalem's Old City and a dead assailant

Screen cap from the Israel Police video report [here]

The general sense of fury being projected by a wounded and failed Palestinian Authority leadership in the wake of Israel's suddenly open 'normalized' relationship with the United Arab Emirates received its depressingly predictable expression last night.

Here in Jerusalem, near Lion's Gate (שער האריות) in the Old City at around 8:40 pm Monday night, shortly before Muslim evening prayers and close to the Bab Huta entrance (one of several) to the Temple Mount, an attacker wearing a protective face mask launched an explosive knifing attack. His victim was a 19 year old armed Israeli security officer who came out of it with moderate injuries but alive and recovering.

The attacker was almost immediately shot by security personnel and died of his injuries. Palestinian Arab news reports like this one predictably say the young Arrab was 'executed'.

The security camera video [here] makes plain the usual procedure: young Arab male, walking along one of the Old City paths, lunges without warning towards a security forces member standing guard to protect the peace, whips a knife out of his clothing. Thrusts a hand holding the weapon towards the upper body of the Israel, causing what undoubtedly would be the first of several lethal wounds if no one stops him. But he is stopped by the shots of another alert Israel Border Guard officer and falls to the ground.

Arabic-language news reports (like this one from the official Palestinian Press Agency, archived here) say (translated from the Arabic original) "the Israeli occupation forces executed a Palestinian youth", that "the martyr... is from the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem" and "he is 30 years old".

The murderous assault comes against the background of what a Times of Israel report calls "a general lull in terror activity in the capital, which had not seen a stabbing attack in nearly three months".

The teenage border guard, presumably in the midst of his compulsory national service, was taken to hospital (Yediot Aharonot says Shaarei Zedek; Times of Israel reports Hadassah Mount Scopus Medical Center) for emergency treatment. Initial first aid was given at the site by Magen David Adom medics. The hospital reports that he sustained stab wounds to the chest and is "stable and fully conscious”.

Haaretz quotes Israel Police announcing that the Temple Mount gates were closed immediately after the knifing. Social media reports (like this) say that in the Shuafat neighborhood of north Jerusalem there were clashes in the hours that followed between Israel Police and locals.

25-May-20: Monday: Two Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attacks

Image Source: NYTimes

Ramadan, culminating in Eid al Fitr which was marked by Moslems on Saturday and Sunday, has ended and the head of the Palestinian Authority has notified the world that security co-operation with the Israelis is now ended.

There are signs that the Palestinian Arab street has taken note.

A report broke this morning around 10:30 am of a thwarted Arab-on-=Israeli stabbing attack. Eight Palestinian Arabs are reported [JNS] this morning to have approached a group of soldiers on patrol near Amichai, a small new Jewish community of some 200 inhabitants, first populated in early 2018 and located northeast of the Palestinian Arab administrative capital, Ramallah. 

Two of the Arabs, said to be residents of nearby al-Mughayyir village (Times of Israel said they were brothers), assaulted the soldiers attempting to injure them with what the IDF called “sharp agricultural instruments.” The soldiers fired back at the assailants, reportedly hitting them in the lower extremities and injuring them. They subsequently received medical attention at a hospital in Ramallah, according to the IDF. 

The Palestinian Authority’s WAFA news agency offered no details about the extent of their injuries. The Israeli soldiers suffered no injuris in the course of the attack.

Later today (Monday around 4:15 pm), an Arab said to be about 30 and armed with a box cuttter knife [pictured here] as well as tear gas (according to Times of Israel) charged at a Border Guard police officer on on Meir Necker Street in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood. The location of the attack close to Jabel Mukaber, an Arab quarter. The attacker was reportedly shouting “Allah Akbar” as he hurled himself on his target.

He was shot by other officers at the scene and according to JNS was being ttreat at Hadassah Ein Karem medical center where he was said to be in serious condition.

An Israeli police officer was injured in the attack.

06-Feb-20: A day of rising apprehension

The scene of the vehicle-ramming at First Station, Jerusalem,
Credit: United Hatzalah [Image Source]

Wednesday February 5, 2019

• The terrorists of Hamas issued a call to Palestinian Arabs "for escalating confrontations with the occupation and its settlers and fighting their assaults against the land and holy sites, especially the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque" [Times of Israel].
• Palestinian Media Watch publicized a brief video on TikTok – a social network popular among children - that encourages murdering Israelis by means of graphic animated recreations of actual terror attacks: four specific Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks that involved drive-by shootings, rammings and knifings. The appalling animation clip is here.

Thursday February 6, 2019

• In a pre-dawn, Thursday morning vehicle ramming attack on Jerusalem's David Remez Street, adjacent to the popular First Station restaurant and entertainment compound, a terrorist slammed his car into a group of IDF Golani soldiers brought to Jerusalem for their swearing-in ceremony. (They were walking around just prior to their early-morning ceremony at the Kotel, the Western Wall in the nearby Old City.) Twelve are injured, one of them now in serious condition. Times of Israel says he is in serious but stable condition, unconscious and connected to a respirator in the intensive care unit. A search is underway for the attacker. The vehicle used in the 2 o'clock attack had Israeli license plates and was later found abandoned in the Palestinian Arab village of Beit Jala, adjacent to Bethlehem, a few minutes drive from the site of the ramming. "Clashes broke out in the village and the surrounding area as Israeli troops searched for the driver, who had fled the scene after hitting the soldiers. Palestinian media reported that Israeli troops seized security cameras around Bethlehem, apparently as part of the search effort" [Times of Israel].
• Thursday noon: An Arab-on-Israeli shooting attack at the Lions' Gate in Jerusalem's Old City resulted in an Israeli being wounded. According to Ynet, he is a 38-year-old Border Guard policeman. The shooter was shot dead by other police in the vicinity. 
• Thursday mid-afternoon, an Israeli man was wounded by gunfire in an evident drive-by shooting on a road near Dolev, an Israeli community in the Binyamin region. The shooter is still on the loose. Hamodia says the victim, an IDF soldier in his 20s, is lightly wounded and getting treatment at Sheba Tel Hashomer hospital near Tel Aviv. Hamodia says the shooting happened at the Post Intersection, named for the post office located nearby during the time of the British Mandate. It's today a busy intersection, near the Palestinian Arab villages of Ras Karkar and Kharbatha Bani Harith, and the Israeli communities of Neria and Na’aleh. Ras Karkar is now under IDF closure as forces search for the terrorists.
• Thursday 5:00 pm: The IDF is positioning an extra battalion in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to respond to the upsurge in Arab-on-Israel violence. Times of Israel says IDF battalions normally include several hundred soldiers.

The post-attack scene this afternoon in the Old City [Image Source]

Few doubt the Trump conflict-resolution proposals announced on January 28 are what has brought the Fatah and Hamas leadership of the Palestinian Arabs to encourage fresh and escalating violence. Times of Israel says

"In the week and a half since the plan’s release, the military has noted a significant increase in violence in the West Bank, with regular riots, rock-throwing and violent opposition to Israeli arrest raids...

We've been down this route enough times already to know that the Arab side act as if the threat to them of peace is more dangerous than war and fighting. The Palestinian Authority (PA) regime rejected the US proposals before they were even announced. Speaking a day before the plan was released, and before he had any way to know what it contained, PA prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said: "We reject it and we demand the international community not be a partner to it".

Writing in Fathom Journal this month, Alex Ryvchin of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry writes that

be sure, it is the Palestinians who have the most to gain from securing a deal. The Jewish people have their national home – a stable, successful, innovative, liberal-democratic state that despite facing incomparable threats and challenges, and despite having virtually no natural resources compared to its neighbours, has matured into an economic and military power in just 71 years. But the Palestinians remain stateless and stricken by all the consequences of such a condition... calling the plan a ‘hoax’ and a ‘fraud’ and summoning their people to a new ‘day of rage’...PA Prime Minister Shtayyeh delivered a strikingly candid explanation, perhaps unwittingly, for why the Palestinians, who claim to seek independence above all else, are rejecting a proposal to give them just that. ‘It is nothing but a plan to finish off the Palestinian cause,’ he said. Herein lies the answer to the vexing question of why a people that claims they want nothing more than a home of their own and an end to the conflict, have rejected five comprehensive offers of statehood and have now taken to rejecting new offers before they are even presented. The conflict is not a territorial dispute to be settled by delineating borders and agreeing land swaps. It is a clash between the Jewish national movement which desperately craved a scrap of land to call their own so that they and their contributions to humanity should not vanish from this Earth, and the ‘Palestinian cause,’ which seeks no precise outcome beyond thwarting its rival, and holding out, digging in, struggling on, resisting. 

Few of the Israelis we know think these irreconcilable outlooks are going to be somehow resolved in the foreseeable future.

UPDATE 6:30 pm Thursday February 6, 2019: The alleged vehicle rammer was arrested this afternoon at Gush Etzion Junction, south of Jerusalem. He's said [Times of Israel] to be a male, 28, a resident of East Jerusalem's A-Tur neighbourhood and with no previous terror convictions.

UPDATE 9:00 pm Thursday February 6, 2019: The First Station ramming suspect is now identified as Sanad al-Tourman, who according to Israel's Channel 13 TV news operates a flower shop in a Jerusalem shopping mall. No further details for now.

18-Jan-20: Red lines, defilement and more Arab-on-Israeli knifings

The Kiryat Arab victim in today's Israel National News report

If you rely on news reports alone, the ebb and flow of Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks can seem to happen without any obvious pattern or underlying motivation.

But sometimes, you wait a little and you learn that there are forces at work that wanted these to happen.

We're mostly in the dark about what's driving events here in the Jerusalem area today. But as always, there are clues. And yes, a Palestinian Arab child is involved. Again.

From Times of Israel, we know a man of 22 suffered moderate injuries this afternoon (Saturday - Shabbat) when he was stabbed in the shoulder by "a Palestinian youth" (a term that can have multiple meanings) in Kiryat Arba. The knifer was arrested while trying to escape the scene of the attack according to the IDF is in their hands for questioning. Haaretz says the stabber is an as-yet-unnamed seventeen year old. Keep that in mind the next time you see, and you surely will see, hostile news coverage complaining of how Israel takes so many children into custody.

The knifing victim is in Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center where they say he is in stable condition. Israel National News this evening says the Israeli is Moshe Greenblatt, who says from his hospital bed that "Thank G-d, I feel good... The knife broke and he didn't manage to stab any of the people around me."

Earlier today (Saturday - the Jewish Sabbath), a Palestinian Arab female said to be "in her fifties" was taken into custody by Border Police officers after threatening them with a knife at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City. The Times of Israel report says she was subdued by officers and a civilian who happened to be at the scene and is also undergoing questioning.

Friday morning, right after the completion of their morning prayer service which were attended by an estimated 8,000 people, hundreds of Muslim Arab worshipers chanted about killing Jews outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Police dispersed the crowd. Times of Israel says no one was injured in the clashes with police.

TV footage from the march shows members of the unruly crowd shouting in Arabic “Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.”

Video clip from 124news.tv

It's a recurring theme - the chant recalls how in the seventh century Muslims massacred and expelled Jews from the town of Khaybar, located in today's Saudi Arabia. Their chants also included “With spirit and blood, we will salvage Al-Aqsa” and “Jews, the army of Al-Aqsa is returning.”

Hamas, on Friday, declared itself happy with the unrest. Times of Israel quotes one of its spokespeople saying the morning prayers “support our people in their campaign against the Zionist occupation and thwart its racist plans.”

This past Wednesday, Hamas publicly called for Palestinian Arabs to “mobilize” during Friday’s prayers against the “defilement” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs by “the Zionist occupation.” The terrorists sought to persuade Israeli authorities that “our sanctities are a red line that cannot be tolerated.”

17-Oct-19: At dawn today, a thwarted Arab-on-Israeli vehicle-ramming-and-knifing attack

The attack vehicle driven by a 20 year old
Palestinian Arab [Image Source]

In another Arab-on-Israel vehicle ramming attack around dawn this morning (Thursday) on the outskirts of Ramallah, a vehicle driven by a Palestinian Arab drove directly at police officers in an attempt to run them over. Haaretz says the officers were in plain clothes and their car was unmarked.

The resulting impact significantly damaged the police vehicle. The attack car was too (see right).

The officers realized almost immediately that their attacker was clutching what a news report ["Palestinian attempts ramming attack against Border Police", Jerusalem Post, October 17, 2019] calls "a suspicious object". This turned out to be knife.

Israelis have visceral reactions these days to rampaging Arabs with knives in their hands. They promptly directed live fire at their attacker who, we now know, is a resident of eastern Jerusalem said to be twenty years old.

His injuries are currently being tended to in Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center hospital. He is reportedly alive and in serious condition.

Al-Amari, called a refugee camp for the past seventy years [Image Source]

Rioting ensued soon after the attack, with rocks and Molotov cocktails (firebombs) being hurled at Israeli security officials, who "responded with riot control measures" in the words of the Jerusalem Post report.

The violence took place in the al-Amari "refugee camp" which is today under full Palestinian Authority control. It houses about 5,000 Palestinian Arabs and has existed since 1949.

The Arab version of what happened according to the alquds.com Arabic-language news site includes a car and a shooting. But no ramming and no knife:

An eyewitness said the driver of the vehicle was surprised by the presence of army patrols which led to a collision with one of the military jeeps. The soldiers fired three shots at the driver who was seriously injured and was taken by ambulance while the soldiers arrested a second young man beside him after forcing him to undress and undergo a search.

Ronen Lubarsky, 20, a soldier in the elite IDF Duvdevan Unit, was struck on the head during an operation to arrest suspected terrorists in the same al-Amari neighborhood on May 24, 2018 [Times of Israel, May 28, 2018]. A heavy slab of granite hurled from a third-story rooftop struck the young soldier who was hospitalized in critical condition at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem’s intensive care unit. He died some days later. A Palestinian Arab, Islam Yusef Abu Hamid, was subsequently charged with his death and convicted in April 2019.

16-Aug-19: Children with knives and another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing frenzy

Photo montage from an online source [here] shows the stabbers

as depicted today in the social media and via security cam footage

In the latest such attack, two Palestinian Arab children armed with knives ["Cop injured in Jerusalem stabbing attack; 2 assailants shot", Times of Israel, August 15, 2019] were stopped from killing their Israeli targets on Thursday.

Both are minors. At least one is 14 years old. Some reports, but not all, say the other is too.

Two teenage assailants stabbed a police officer, moderately injuring him, in an apparent terror attack in Jerusalem’s Old City on Thursday, officials said. The assailants were shot by security forces at the scene. One of them was pronounced dead at the scene, the second was critically wounded and taken to the hospital, a police spokesperson said.
Graphic video footage from the scene showed the two teenagers walk up from behind a group of police officers stationed in the Old City. As they approached, they suddenly pulled out knives and began repeatedly stabbing one of the cops. Other officers at the scene opened fire at the pair as they were stabbing the victim.
The injured police officer was approximately 40 years old. He sustained multiple stab wounds to the upper body, medics said.
“We gave him medical care, including stopping the bleeding and bandaging him, and we took him to the hospital,” one of the medics on the scene said. The officer was taken to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

Via social media [click to view], there's high quality graphic security cam video of the actual attack and of the quick and focused response by the Israeli security personnel.

The location is said to be the Old City's Chain Gate. It's one of the dozen open gates (though sometimes closed) that lead to the Temple Mount and is limited, in accordance with current Israeli security measures, to Muslim worshipers and visitors only. In Arabic, they call it Kubat A Silsila.

Shortly after the attack [Image Source]

Haaretz names the 14 year old knifer as Hamuda Khader a-Sheikh who is being treated for his wounds, and a 17 year old (in their version) they name as Nassim Abu Rumi who is said to have died at the scene. (In its report, Ynet says the dead attacker was also fourteen.)

Both evidently, though not confirmed, are from Al-Azaria, a village on the slopes of Jerusalem's Mount of Olives. It's better known to some as the Biblical town of Bethany, the home of Lazarus (hence its Arabic name).

Arab reports include wide-ranging claims that deny and distort:

• Eyewitnesses refuted the IDF's allegations and confirmed that there was no stabbing. They explained that a settler tried to storm the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and when the guards tried to stop him, he opened fire on the guard's foot... [Sabaharabi, Egypt]
• The police opened fire on two citizens at the Gate of Chains [in the Old City] from the outside, then announced the martyrdom of one of them. The injury of the other is described as medium. An Al Aqsa guard was shot in the foot. [Arabic edition of Ma'an News, Bethlehem]
• The Zionist media reported that a cop was injured by two Palestinian stabbers who attacked him in occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem). The Israeli occupation troops shot directly at the two youths, injuring both of them, and closes the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to Palestinian sources. [Al-Manar, Lebanon]
• Video shows the pair approaching a group of Border Police officers and then lunging at them. The officers immediately open fire on the boys, and do not appear to attempt to subdue them with nonlethal means [from the especially loathsome propaganda mill of Electronic Intifada].
• From a Gaza-based Arab reporter: "2 palestinian kids got murdered by israeli occupation fire in occupied Jerusalem after allegedly stabbing operation #BDS" [Twitter account with more than 6,000 followers]

Source

How Palestinian Arab society weaponizes its children and encourages stabbing attacks in particular has troubled us for years. 

It's a chronic form of incitement that starts at the highest levels of the Palestinian Arab power structure: click for indexed articles.

Three years ago we wrote about how there is no way of avoiding the reality of large swathes of Palestinian Arab society being in the obvious thrall of a passionate embrace of vicious bigotry, murderous savagery and explicit incitement of their own children and grandchildren to murder and to be killed.

Two outside actors deserve a special mention in this grotesquerie:

• The central role of UNRWA, ostensibly an agency that exists to ameliorate the suffering of Arab refugees (Palestinian Arab refugees to be more precise) but in reality a cornerstone of the seven-decades-long Arab strategy to keep the Palestinian Arabs displaced, as miserable as possible and in the news - ought to be acknowledged at this point. By their own reckoning, they play a huge role in the education of Palestinian Arab children. They are certainly part of the problem and not of the solution.
• Amnesty International's increasingly explicit identification with the practitioners of the Palestinian Arab brand of terror makes plain their abandonment of principle and betrayal of their supporters' values. As we have noted several times [most recently here: "20-Sep-16: Another Pal Arab boy with a knife died today - exactly as the PA intended him to"], there's no longer anything to expect from them.

More than 80 of our blog posts have the tag "Weaponizing Children". This would be an excellent time to re-acquaint ourselves with the betrayal of, and the outrages perpetrated on, the children of Palestinian Arab society by those responsible for their well-being.

It's a reality that's difficult to deny or ignore though plenty of reporters and their editors nonetheless do just that.

13-Dec-18: On Jerusalem's Hagai Street in the Old City, another Arab-on-Israeli knifing attack this morning

Image Source: Haaretz

A little before a chilly dawn in Jerusalem's Old City today, a 26 year-old Palestinian Arab is caught by a security camera pushing a recognizably ultra-Orthodox man to the ground in Hagai Street, one of the pedestrian lanes running down the hill from the Damascus Gate (in Hebrew, Sha'ar Shechem).

That location is the favored entry point for observant Jews on their way to early morning prayers at the Kotel.

It has also become a popular site for recent Arab-on-Israeli knifings and is heavily patrolled. (Clich here for past Hagai Street attack reports.)

Times of Israel describes how the surveillance footage from the scene shows the attacker using a  knife to try to stab the worshiper. This does not work out, and an instant later [as the video shows] the assailant's attention is directed at two nearby Border Guard police. 

The male officer is (in the favored manner of Palestinian Arab knifing attacks) stabbed in the face, near his eye. The female border guard is stabbed in the leg. Ynet says she is 19, the male 21. The attacker was shot dead by the officers. His weapon was recovered at the scene.

Haaretz, quoting Arab sources, says the knifer's name is Majd Matir. He was a resident of the Qalandiya neighborhood on Jerusalem's north side.

The Arabic edition of the European-financed Ma'an News Agency (but not the English) names him as Majed Jamal Mutair, 25, and in traditional terror-incitement fashion calls him a martyr.

10-Nov-18: In Melbourne, the stabber is called "lone wolf" but with connections to Islamic State

Image Source: Video capture

I am traveling [this is Arnold Roth] and am spending a few days in Melbourne, Australia.

Here's a summary of the terrorist attack that turned the downtown area here into a murder scene during this past Friday afternoon's peak hour.

• A man drove his utility vehicle - a Holden Rodeo - onto the sidewalk of the central business district's Bourke Street, near the busy corner with Swanston Street where around 4:20 pm Friday it exploded in flames. It later emerged that he had loaded it up with gas cylinders. A large explosion was evidently his plan.
• A man, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, aged about 30, exited the vehicle armed with a large knife. He attacked several pedestrians in an evidently random way, stabbing 74-year-old Sisto Malaspina. According to one Australian source, the man yelled “Allahu Akbar” during the attack "but [police] Commissioner Ashton said this had not been confirmed."
• Malaspina is the well-known co-owner of Pellegrini's Espresso Bar, a Melbourne icon. 
• Two other men were next: Rodney Patterson, 58, suffered head injuries; a male security guard aged 24 is injured in the neck, evidently from being stabbed. Both of them are in stable condition as of Saturday night as we write this.
• Transit police arrived at the scene. The attacker punched one of them through the window of their vehicle.Many more police quickly arrived as the two transit police engaged with the attacker. The knifer then lunged at them with his weapon. A bystander tried to assist police by ramming a shopping trolley between them and the suspect.
• At about this point, a police officer fired at the attacker. He was hit in the chest and fell to the ground. He was rushed to hospital in critical condition and later died.
• In the words of The Age, a Melbourne daily, "Police have said it was a lone-person terror attack, and that the threat has been mitigated."
• All streets in the vicinity remained closed to traffic and pedestrians until 8 on Saturday morning as police examined the attack scene.
• The knifer, a child migrant who arrived in Australia with his parents from Somalia and now dead, is widely described tonight as "known to counter terrorism agencies... and 
  known to have radical views
  ... 
  His passport was seized in 2015  when he made plans to travel to Syria". Though he "had links" to ISIS, he was "not actively monitored". 
• Australia's national broadcaster, ABC, reported that "his family is well known and respected within the Somali community in Melbourne."
• They attended the Virgin Mary Mosque in Hoppers Crossing, west of Melbourne.
• His wife, parents and siblings have been questioned by police in the past day and his home raided and combed for evidence.
• The Age again: "The police have been given the green light for the first time to use preventative detention, where they may detain terror suspects for four days without a court order."

Lots of questions to be answered here.

18-Oct-17: The luckiest Arab in the entire Gush

This photo of the scene accompanies the Ma'an Arabic report quoted here

Ynet reports this afternoon (Wednesday)

IDF force stops attempted terrorist attack | Palestinian armed with knife runs towards IDF force near Gush Etzion; force incapacitates him by shooting at his legs, arrests him.
Elisha Ben Kimon Published:  18.10.17 , 13:46
An IDF force carried out a suspect arrest protocol at a knife-wielding would-be Palestinian terrorist near the Gush Etzion junction Wednesday. A soldier from the Nahal's 50 Battalion was stationed in a pillbox at the junction's security checkpoint. The terrorist was running north, going against traffic. The soldier noticed he was carrying a suspicious object, which later turned out to be a knife, and called out to him, ordering him to stop. When the terrorist kept running, the soldier initiated a suspect arrest protocol, during which he shot the would-be terrorist in the stomach, incapacitating him. The suspect was taken to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem in moderate condition. There were no Israeli casualties.

Times of Israel says the attacker

ran at them with a knife at the Gush Etzion Junction... The soldiers called for the man to stop. When he didn’t, they opened fire, the army said... According to the hospital, the man is in moderate to serious condition, with a gunshot wound to the stomach. He is approximately 20 years old.

Then there's the version provided by Ma'an, a European-funded Palestinian Arab news source, with its customary spin on the facts:

A Palestinian youth was shot and injured by Israeli forces on Wednesday at the Gush Etzion junction south of Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank, for allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing attack. Israeli media reported that the youth disembarked from a bus at the Etzion bus station carrying a knife and was immediately shot by Israeli soldiers in the area... Witnesses told Ma’an that the youth, who remained unidentified, was crossing the street running to catch another bus that was departing when Israeli soldiers opened fire at him... Though Israeli forces have claimed that Palestinians were allegedly attempting to carry out attacks in a majority of instances when Palestinians were killed, rights groups have disputed Israel's version of events in a number of cases, and argued that many alleged attackers could have been subdued in a non-lethal manner.

(There's little doubt in our minds that Ma'an's disingenuous spinning of terror-attack reports encourages more of them. Their Arabic language edition is even more pernicious. We wonder how much their European government funders are aware of the nature of Ma'an's work-product. Or care.)

Readers might be interested to know that the Arabic version of the same Ma'an news organization has the same surreal accounting - innocent fellow, minding his own business, rushing to catch a bus and shot down in cold-blood by "occupation forces" - adding the not-so-inconsequential detail that the Arab was killed. No other report says he was, and it's fairly clear he wasn't.

This would-be killer is someone's son. If we were his parents, we would be busy this moment composing a heart-felt thank you note to the commanding officer of the young, cool-headed Nahal soldier doing guard duty at the Gush Etzion Junction where innumerable Arab-on-Israeli knifing attacks have resulted in deaths on both sides during the past two years. We would be saying thank you for sparing the life of our misguided, brain-washed, irresponsible and undeserving son who will now have the opportunity to either regret or to relive today's events.

That soldier, in the space of the handful of seconds available to him, had the power and the equipment to stop the knife attacker permanently. Instead he stuck to instructions and incapacitated him, leaving the medical professionals to bring the Pal Arab terrorist back to health - and a future.

A future which will now - as of this afternoon - include a guaranteed monthly salary from the terror-fixated Abbas regime and its appalling Rewards for Terror scheme. He's unlikely to ever be able to otherwise earn anything close to what the PA - thanks to unwitting or merely apathetic European and North American taxpayers - is about to start paying him for what he did in the Gush this afternoon.

02-Aug-17: Yet another Arab-on-Israel stabbing attack, this time in Yavneh

In a Shufersal supermarket in the southern Israeli city of Yavneh, a store worker busy with unpacking and placing kitchen paper rolls on the shelf this morning was the target of a Palestinian Arab stabber. A high quality security camera (below) caught most of the horrifying savagery.

תיעוד פיגוע הדקירה ביבנה בעיני מצלמות האבטחה - 2.8.17 from rams on Vimeo.

What we know at this stage about the victim is limited. He is said to be a 43 year old man who suffered severe injuries in the frenzied knifing attack and is fighting for his life in Rehovot's Kaplan Hospital. The injuries, in conformance with the knifing incitement currently in vogue among the Palestinian Arabs, are to the upper part of the victim's body: the chest, the neck and the head.

The attacker, said by Times of Israel to be a 19-year-old Palestinian Arab male from the West Bank city of Nablus (but an Arab source names him as a teenage resident of Yatta), attracts no particular attention in the video. He's shown walking down an aisle where the worker is going about his business with no evident sign of wariness. Then with the worker's back turned to him, the resistance hero with the kitchen knife hurls himself at the victim, inflicting what we now know to be life-threatening injuries.

The attacker was eventually stopped and pinned down by ordinary people in the shop. They held him there [video] till police arrived [video].

There will probably be some rationalizations later in the day - desperate, impoverished, avenging his brother's girlfriend's room-mate - as the young thug with the knife helps the police with their enquiries.

But for those of us beyond the stage of "explanations", it's clear enough that what is depicted in the video is the outcome of a society lusting for blood and engaged in incitement-to-murder around the clock. There are many guilty parties.

UPDATE August 2, 2017 at 4:30 pm: The attacker is identified as Ismail Ibrahim Ismail Abu Aram, 19, from Yatta. We last mentioned that town here in connection with - what a coincidence! - an Arab-on-Israeli knifing attack barely a month ago. See "28-Jun-17: The obscene ordinariness of another woman with a knife at an Israeli checkpoint". And a year before that when a couple of Yattans opened up with machine-gun fire on Israeli customers in the Sarona Market terror attack in Tel Aviv, murdering 4 and injuring 16 others: "09-Jun-16: The Tel Aviv killings: Hamas claims credit but Fatah/PA demands some of the glory too".  And before that too: "24-Dec-15: A thwarted stabbing assault near Hebron". Yatta has about 65,000 residents and is situated on Hebron's southern flank. Some 1,800 years ago, it was entirely Jewish until overrun by settlers.

11-Jul-17: Incitement to terror: Sometimes it really is all about the money

Taylor Force was murdered by an Arab assailant while he jogged on Tel Aviv's foreshore on March 8, 2016. He was 29 and a student at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management. He is pictured here with his sister Kirsten [Image Source]

The US Senate is due to hold hearings tomorrow (Wednesday) on the Taylor Force Act which, if passed, is likely to substantially cut US funding to the Palestinian Authority:

The Taylor Force Act is a legislative bill co-sponsored in the United States Senate in 2016 by U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Dan Coats (R-Indiana), and Roy Blunt (R-Missouri). The legislation proposes to stop American economic aid to the Palestinian Authority until the PA changes its laws to cease paying stipends funneled through the Palestinian Authority Martyr's Fund to individuals who commit acts of terrorism and to the families of deceased terrorists. [Wikipedia]

Palestinian Media Watch - an Israel-based nongovernmental organization and media watchdog group founded in 1996 by Itamar Marcus documents cases of incitement in Palestinian media - yesterday released a transcript (translated from the original Arabic) of an Israeli Police interrogation of a Palestinian Arab terrorist, one Khaled Rajoub, caught after an unsuccessful attempt to murder Israelis.

In the course of Rajoub's interrogation on February 2, 2014, he gave the police a stunningly candid rationalization for his deeds: so that he would be killed by the Israelis and his wife and children would become entitled to monthly payments from the PA's Rewards for Terror scheme.

It's material that ought to get the widest publicity. But, things being what they are, probably will not.

The text extracted below is based on a longer PMW online version ["Interrogation of Palestinian terrorist proves: PA payments motivate terror", Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, Palestinian Media Watch, July 10, 2017] and an earlier version of that same report here.

Had this Rajoub died in the course of carrying out an Arab-on-Israeli terror attack, the PA would have certified him as a "martyr" (in Arabic: shaheed). His family would have become entitled to a monthly allowance of 2,800 New Israeli Shekels per month based on NIS 1,400 base pay, NIS 400 for the wife (for her life) and NIS 200 for each of the five children (for their lives). It's a good, family-sized salary in their society's terms. It would have brought honour on the head of the dead-ender who made it possible by attacking Israelis.

As PMW has reported, it's not only “martyr” families who receive monthly payments; under PA law, every terrorist prisoner is granted a monthly PA salary while in jail, ranging from 1,400 shekels to NIS 12,000 a month based on the time spent in prison. For Khaled Rajoub, the PA's Rewards for Terror and its financial rewards were all the incentive he needed. The scheme works.

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "I am a man with a family of seven, including me and my wife. I don't work. I have accumulated large debts and am unable to pay them off. I reached a point where, if my son wants a shekel, I have nothing to give him. Therefore I decided to die. It didn't matter how, by hanging, any way, [just] to die. I thought about it and said to myself that if I die by hanging, or any other way, I won't get anything out of it, so I decided to do something serious such as committing murder, something in which I will both kill and die and then my family will get money [meaning from what we call the Palestinian Authority's Rewards for Terror scheme] and will live comfortably. In other words, something will come out of my death. In the end I decided to kill Israeli soldiers. I got in a car and drove to Al-Fawwar, to the junction because there's always a military post there, and I said [to myself] that I'll run [the soldiers] over in my car and kill as many as I can and they'll shoot me and kill me. However, I didn't find a military post in Al-Fawwar. I continued to drive to a second post, to the gate of [the Israeli community of Beit] Hagai because I know there are always soldiers standing there... I did not find [any soldiers] there either. I had no other hope or way, so I broke through the gate of the settlement [meaning Beit Haggai]... I broke in with my car and smashed it and rammed into the second gate. But I couldn't smash it and the guards were behind the second gate. I tried to smash it in order to bring it down on them but it didn't come down and they didn't shoot me, but captured me instead. I was injured during the incident and they took me to a hospital..."
Interrogator: "Do you have a gun?"

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "I've never carried [a gun]."

Interrogator: "Did you consider bringing a gun?"

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "I have nothing to eat. How can I buy a gun?" 

Interrogator: "Why did you decide to kill soldiers, and not someone else?"

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "The best is to kill soldiers. That way they have guns and they'll shoot me and kill me. But if I'm not able to kill soldiers, I'll try settlers, guards - in other words any Israeli target - the important thing is that I will die and they will kill me, so that my children will receive a [PA] allowance and live happily."

Interrogator: "What did you want to achieve by killing soldiers or settlers, or any Israeli target?" 

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "So they'd shoot me and I'd die, and my children would receive an allowance."

Interrogator: "Are you still determined to do that?" 

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "Of course, 100%. I'm telling you: if you'll set me free, I'll do it again as soon as possible. I'll bring another car, and I'll run over [soldiers] at the first military post I see. I'll kill as many as possible, and they'll shoot me, and I'll die. There is no other solution... I say to you again - I don't regret what I did, and if I have the opportunity, I'll do it again, and I'll kill soldiers or any Israeli I come across."
Interrogator: "If you have the opportunity to kill soldiers or an Israeli [civilian] in another way - shooting, stabbing, or any other way - will you do it?"

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "I don't know. Something like that requires checking. Why? Because someone like me, small and disabled in his leg - I barely walk - needs a thorough plan to kill in a different way. The easiest way for someone like me is to run over [someone] with a car."

(We're still trying to track down details of the circumstances of the terror attack.)

For what it's worth, let the record show we're strongly in favour of the Taylor Force Act and urge the US Congress to bring it into law as soon as possible. Can there be any doubt, after you read open and candid admissions like Rajoub's, that defunding the PA's Rewards for Terror scheme will save lives - on the Palestinian Arab side as well as on ours?

Are Europe and the UK listening?

10-Jul-17: Outside Tekoah, an Arab-on-Israel vehicle ramming attack followed by a thwarted knifing

Scene of today's vehicle ramming attack [Image Source]

On a fiercely hot July Monday, an IDF soldier of about 20 was today attacked and moderately injured in what the military are calling a suspected car ramming attack outside the West Bank community of Tekoa.

The attack happened at a junction on the road between Tekoa and Ma'ale Amos, a short distance south of the capital. The driver of the vehicle was shot dead by security forces according to a Times of Israel report.

The injured serviceman was treated at the scene by both civilian first responders and military medics. Magen David Adom, the Israeli ambulance service, says the soldier was not struck by the vehicle but instead hurt by a falling street light that hit him it was impact by the attack vehicle. The soldier has injuries to his arms and legs and was broughr to Jerusalem’s Shaarei Zedek Medical Center for emergency treatment. His condition, initially given as moderate, was lowered to mild at the hospital.

The attacker's knife  [Image Source]

The attacker has not yet been identified. It's reported that immediately after carrying out the ramming, he exited the vehicle and tried to stab a second IDF soldier before being shot. Army medics treated him at the scene but he was soon pronounced dead.

Here's how the Fatah-aligned Palestinian Arab Ma'an News Agency reports the attack:

An eyewitness told Ma'an that he saw the Palestinian, who was wearing a red shirt, lying motionless on the ground, and claimed that he saw two wounded Israeli soldiers -- one suffering from a serious injury and unable to move, and another with a minor injury. However, the Israeli army spokesperson said just one soldier had been wounded. According to Ma’an documentation, the man, who remained unidentified, became the 37th Palestinian to be killed by an Israeli in 2017. Eight Israelis have been killed by Palestinians during the same time frame.

The Arabic-language report of the same Ma'an organization says the Arab-on-Israeli "alleged" attacker, whom it calls "martyr", is a 25 year old Arab called Mohammed Ibrahim Jibril.

13-May-17: In Jerusalem's Old City, a Jordanian stabs an Israeli and the Jordanians are outraged (so are we, for different reasons)

Lions' Gate [Wikipedia]

Recent (and very recent) events have gotten us thinking about the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and its attitude to terror. One thing's clear: there are aspects of this that ought to be much better known. We feel a duty to help that happen.

First, the drama of today. There has been an early-afternoon Arab-on-Israeli knifing attack in Jerusalem's Old City today (Saturday), close to what Israelis call Lions' Gate. It's also known as St. Stephen's Gate or Sheep Gate and it's one of the seven open Gates in Jerusalem's Old City walls.

The Israeli victim is injured but alive and getting emergency treatment at Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center for knife wounds to the neck and head. He was conscious and in stable condition when rushed to the hospital.

The attacker, said to be a visitor from Jordan who arrived in Israel (yes, indeed, Jordanians can do that) a couple of days ago, is dead.

What happened is, as usual, largely a matter of the prejudices and openness a person brings to the discussion.

According to the Israeli left-wing daily Haaretz, the knifer:

was shot dead after stabbing a police officer in Jerusalem on Saturday...  According to Israel Police, Skaji [there are different versions of his name - see below] stabbed a police officer in his late 30s Saturday afternoon in Jerusalem’s Old City near the Lions' Gate. The officer, who was moderately wounded, managed to hold off Skaji and shoot him. A second man at the scene was lightly wounded in his arm. The police stated that Skaji had arrived as part of a tour group. Police are investigating whether the attack may have been driven by a personal grievance or a mental issue... [Haaretz]

Reuters has some additional details:

A Jordanian citizen stabbed and wounded an Israeli police officer who then shot him dead in Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday, Israeli police said, the latest in a string of street attacks. Police spokeswoman Luba Simri said the officer was walking down a street when he was attacked by a 57-year-old Jordanian who had arrived in Israel for a visit a few days earlier. "The terrorist rushed toward him, whipped out a knife that he had in his possession, stormed him and began stabbing him. The police officer responded with determination and in a professional manner, managed to activate his weapon and neutralized him," Simri said.
Ten seconds of security camera footage released by the police appeared to show a man, knife in hand, lunging toward a policeman falling backwards onto the ground, then jumping on him while wielding the knife and making stabbing motions.
Israel's ambulance service Magen David Adom said the police officer was not severely wounded. ["Jordanian stabs Israeli police officer, shot dead: police", Reuters, May 13, 2017]

The dramatic security camera video they mention is here. Here's another video showing the aftermath.

Times of Israel names the attacker as Muhammad Abdullah Salim al-Kassji, 57 years old and a Jordanian. Ynet points out that he had not one knife but two and shows them [here]. It adds that

The commander of the Israel Police’s Jerusalem District, Deputy Commissioner Yoram Halevy, visited the 37-year-old police officer, who has only been identified as 1st Sgt. N., at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center... “We are very proud of you, proud of what you did and of how you reacted,” Halevy said. “In the end we save lives, save civilians. You knew to respond correctly, and you were in the right place..." [Ynet]

In typical fashion, starting with its headline ["Israeli forces shoot, kill Jordanian man in Jerusalem's Old City over knife attack"] the Palestinian Arab source Ma'an News Agency adopts an attacker-centric tone, along with skepticism about the Israeli version of what happened, but then concedes

An eyewitness and local shop owner corroborated to Ma'an that he saw an assailant wearing a black coat stab the Israeli policeman multiple times in the neck and face. Surveillance camera footage later released by Israeli police showed the first moments of the attack, in which a man dressed in black can be seen throwing himself at a policeman while swinging a knife, tackling him to the ground. A passerby by in a white tank top and black jogging pants seems to make a brief attempt to intervene as other bystanders move away, with the footage cutting off while the policeman continues struggle to overcome the attacker. 

Ma'an's Arabic version, adopting its customary template, refers to the thwarted attacker as "shaheed" ["Jordan: Israel bears responsibility for the martyrdom of Alexja"]. Another Arabic report from Ma'an [here] also calls him "martyr".

Now to the Hashemite Kingdom's role in all this.

In an official statement from the Jordanian government's news site Petra, its official spokesperson, "State Minister for Media Affairs, the government's spokesman, Mohammad Al-Momani" expresses fury at what happened.

Correction: Expresses fury... at what the Israelis did to the unfortunate Jordanian!

The Israeli government, as the occupying power, bears responsibility for the shooting and killing of a Jordanian citizen in the occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday, the government said... [T]he Ministry of Foreign and Expatriates Affairs is following-up, through the Jordanian Embassy in Tel Aviv, on the killing of Jordanian citizen, Mohammad Abdullah Salim Al-Kasji, to find out the details and circumstances of the incident. The government condemned as "terrible" the crime committed against the Jordanian citizen and demanded Israel to reveal the full details of the crime. Al-Kasji has recently left the Kingdom through the Sheikh Hussein crossing, northern Jordan, via Israeli tourist visa and didn't return with the tourist group that he traveled with. ["Jordan holds Israel responsible for killing Jordanian citizen", Petra, May 13, 2017]

Only one crime is mentioned: the one committed against the stabber.

And the facts on which the Jordanians base themselves? None, because they are awaiting "the details and circumstances" from the Israelis. But the would-be killer "didn't return with the tourist group that he traveled with", which in Jordanian means the Israelis did something "terrible".

Before we sink into despair at the absence of a Jordanian moral compass, we point out that they did in fact condemn the act of terror. Yes: in a separate report, the same Mr Al-Momani is quoted today in the same government news site, Petra, doing the right thing: not only condemning the terror but also urging everyone to gang up against the terrorists.

Problem is, the terror he manages to condemn... is in Saudi Arabia.

Here it is:

The FBI is notifying Arabic-speakers
that it wants Ahlam Tamimi removed from Jordan
and brought to the US to face justice. Is this
poster on display anywhere in Jordan?

Jordan condemns terror attack in Saudi Arabia | Amman, May 13 (Petra)-- Jordan condemned the terrorist attack that occurred in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, where a number of terrorists attacked a development project, killing a toddler and a Pakistani expat and injuring 10 people, including six Saudis and four residents. Minister of State for Media Affairs, Mohammad Momani, expressed Jordan’s support and solidarity with Saudi Arabia in facing terrorism. Momani highlighted the need for collective efforts in the Middle East region and the whole world to confront terrorism wherever it existed. The minister offered the Jordanian government's condolences to Saudi Arabia and wished the injured a speedy recovery. [Petra (Jordan's official government online mouthpiece, today]

Don't bother looking for Jordanian sympathies for the Israeli injured or Hashemite wishes for their speedy recovery. They don't exist.

Mr Al-Momani's call for "collective efforts" to "confront terrorism" wherever it exists is obviously quite selective. He doesn't, for instance, mean to include our daughter's murderer, Ahlam Tamimi, who has been given shelter in Jordan even though she is now on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list.

He doesn't mention that the FBI's Arabic language poster announcing that they want to put Tamimi on trial for serious crimes is nowhere on display in Jordan, according to sources who have been keeping us updated on how Jordan is dealing with the Tamimi scandal. We will be writing to Mr Al-Momani to ask why.

Jordan has a 22 year-old extradition treaty with the United States, but has decided to repudiate it. We have been writing about the implications of this brazen strategy and would appreciate the help of our readers in giving these posts some wider exposure:

• 28-Apr-17: Calling the Jordanians to account for the cold-blooded murder of three Green Berets
• 12-Apr-17: A modest step toward justice: Twitter today suspended the account of our daughter's murderer
• 05-Apr-17: Abdullah in the White House today: Questions need to be asked
• 30-Mar-17: Years of pursuing a child's killer: Setbacks, challenges and a roller-coaster ride
• 28-Mar-17: Terror, justice and the Hashemite king of Jordan
• 24-Mar-17: Our daughter's smiling killer: "Shocked" that US "decided to go after her for no obvious reason"
• 23-Mar-17: Looking for justice in Jordan, Jerusalem and Washington
• 21-Mar-17: Tamimi extradition: When it's claimed that something is illegal in Jordan...
• 20-Mar-17: The Hashemite Kingdom's courts have spoken: The murdering FBI fugitive will not be handed over
• 19-Mar-17: A thought about Jordan and its treaty obligations
• 15-Mar-17: Sbarro and justice

We are currently hard at work trying to ensure the greatest number of people in the United States, especially in the Congress, the White House and the news media, have a full and comprehensive awareness of what a bunch of hypocrites the people who run Jordan are.