Why It Matters : Jerusalem: An Unnerving Spate of Attacks

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Jerusalem: An Unnerving Spate of Attacks

Newsweek

By Kevin Peraino

In the first three years after I moved to Jerusalem, there were virtually no high-profile attacks in the city. When I arrived, in January 2005, Yasir Arafat had just died, and the second intifada seemed to be coming to a close. Suicide bombers still managed to strike from time to time in Tel Aviv or Israel's south. Yet over the next few years, Israelis were increasingly puzzled about the militants' inability (or unwillingness) to strike in Jerusalem, as attackers did frequently during the height of the intifada. Conventional wisdom held that the controversial wall Israel was building around--and through--the city was having at least some effect at stopping would-be bombers from crossing into Israel from the West Bank.

Something seems to have changed this year. Three times already in 2008, attackers have gone on rampages in the heart of the city. In March a Palestinian from East Jerusalem opened fire at a yeshiva at the entrance to town, killing eight students. Earlier this month another East Jerusalemite began attacking drivers on a busy West Jerusalem thoroughfare with the bulldozer he was driving, killing three Israelis. Then today, in an apparent copycat attack, a third Palestinian from East Jerusalem used a backhoe to flip and smash cars on one of the city's busiest intersections. Nobody was killed except the attacker, who was quickly shot dead by bystanders, and there are no signs at this stage that the incidents are anything other than random. Still, the cumulative effect of the bizarre wave of violence in the city center has had an unnerving effect on city residents--not to mention the campaign staff of Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, who was due to check into a hotel just up the road just a few hours later.

I learned of the attack today before the news hit the wires, the same way as the other two: the wail of dozens of emergency sirens converged in the air over Jerusalem from all over the city. I walked down to the scene, which is just around the corner from my apartment. The attacker lay dead on the sidewalk, stripped to the waist, his torso riddled with bullet holes. The windshield of his bulldozer was pocked with the white coronas of several gunshots. Photographers clambered up a tall olive tree trying to get a better view. One car lay upside down, resting on its hood, windows smashed. Another small white car was crumpled like a tin can. A crowd of right-wing settlers from Hebron began to chant hawkish slogans over the din of the sirens.

In nearby Liberty Bell Park, I bumped into a young Israeli paramedic named Yerach Tucker, who I first met at the scene of the yeshiva shooting in March. "It's the very, very, very center of the city," he said, shaking his head. The first responder had told me back in March that, despite the attacks, he favored direct negotiations with Hamas. This time he conceded that talks with the Islamists are somewhat beside the point in these cases, when the attackers are coming from East Jerusalem rather than Gaza or the West Bank. "I think it's just random, but it's very frightening," he told me. "They're coming from Jerusalem. You can't trust anyone now."

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Member Comments

Posted By: rmisrahi (August 14, 2008 at 9:19 AM)

Peraino has already his narrative set, and it won't change.

When a terrorist strikes Jerusalem with a bulldozer, his story is not about the woman who threw her baby out the window before being crushed to death. It's about the terrorists aspirations and frustrations.

Hebron Settlers are already a key phrase that he can use to support his narrative. Talk about journalistic dishonety.

I was born in Mexico, and I wonder what he'd have to say if Mexicans crossed the border -to one of the states that used to belong to Mexico- and started crushing people to death out of personal frustrations. Will he explain that in terms of the US inability to make them more "docile" (a term he likes to use regarding Palestinians) by increasing their standard of living? I know many Mexicans that would like to have $50K to buy a house, not the $100K the Caterpillar terrorist needed.

Peraino has a story he wants to tell, and he will spin the events to fit them in it. Whatever happened to HONEST JOURNALISTS without and agenda?

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Posted By: MartinCarmel (July 24, 2008 at 12:22 AM)

A portion of this nation has CLEARLY lost its mind. Obama will expedite the potential destruction of Israel......and he does not know anything about foreign affairs. HOWEVER.....he learned A LOT from people who hate. Wake up America!!!! Obama is a scam artist who has NO business being where he is. Give us a black President, no problem, but NOT this man. Here is the reality: Obama had a "close, personal, 20 year relationship" with a bigot named Reverand Wright......who is close friends with one of America's BIGGEST racists, Louis "I hate Jews and White Devils" Farakhan. Did Obama object when his OWN CHURCH gave Farakhan a lifetime achievement award? This is the conversation at the water coolers of the nation, folks. Most Jews and Hillary fans will NOT vote for Obama and the polls are showing it.

The Obama Fever is wearing thin. Gallop now shows a 6 point lead. Remember, John Kerry had a 6 point lead over George Bush in 2004.....and he lost in November. Same with Dukakis and Bush 1 in 1988....a double digit lead in July. And he got smoked in November.

This is the SAME nation that re-elected an unpopular President Bush during an unpopular war just 3 1/2 years ago. Translation? Watch it unfold and watch the accusations of racial bias when Obama loses. So predictable.- McCain will win in November.

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Posted By: paul a ticks (July 22, 2008 at 9:52 PM)

Writer, perhaps stringer, maybe just-observer Peraino is living in Jerusalem, one extrapolates. But does that confer on him supervision and superexamination powers? He comments that a group of "right-wing settlers from Hebron" began to pitch slogans at the general state of destruction and mess after the backhoe attack: How does he know they were from Hebron? How does he know they are ''right-wing"--since leftwing anti-Israel protesters are quite common in the capitol, including even, one believes, the wife of the current prime minister. And how does he know they are "settlers"? The word for people living in a country--even Israel--is "residents." So either your fact-checking crew were all wholly asleep at the switch with the story, or you simply did not consider the political implications of insult, unfactuality, derogation and casual kennings occasioned by the writer's unthinking (one assumes) triple-play presumptuous skew. It is the journalistic task of Newsweek to responsibly sanitize such verbal bigotry (against "right-wing" "settlers" of "Hebron"). It leaves a noxious taste in the mouth to see how conveniently scare quotes are left out, fact-checkers failed to note the slams, and Newsweek thinks itself, possibly, a responsible news vehicle. If you had not before realized these terms are loaded and unfair, you are aware of that fact now. Do your jobs.

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