Archives » Tuesday, July 22, 2008
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Newsweek
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Jul 22, 2008 12:07 PM
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.
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