Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Palestinian militants threaten to attack Jews abroad (via Jihad Watch)
Two other main Palestinian militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, also said they supported violence to free more than 8,000 prisoners held by the Jewish state, but neither explicitly backed attacks on Jews outside Israel.
The call by militants of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades could heighten tension between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which has been crippled financially by the loss of Western aid, and of tax and customs revenues frozen by Israel, after Hamas's crushing electoral win over Fatah in January. "This is an open call to all our fighters in the homeland to focus on kidnapping Israeli soldiers and civilians inside our occupied land. And if the enemy does not release our prisoners, then Zionists outside Palestine will be an easy target for our fighters," the group said in a statement.
The threat was made shortly before a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and six other people at a sandwich stand in Tel Aviv, an attack claimed by both Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa...
...Senior Fatah official and lawmaker Saeb Erekat declined to comment directly on the threat, but said securing freedom for prisoners was at the top of Abbas's agenda...
I tend to think Israel makes a major mistake expressing its European ideological roots by eschewing the death penalty. They should have it for terrorists...at least for terror organizers. They can make all the martyr posters they want, at least they have no hope of ever seeing them again in this life. Live prisoners can be swapped for hostages.
One thing's for sure -- the Palestinian terror groups would make a huge mistake striking American targets. They'll make it personal with us, and no one is so quick to pick up a stick in defense as when their own hide is one the line. Witness the late American entry into WW2 and the evaporation of the Vietnam War protests when the draft was abolished as examples. The Europeans I wouldn't trust not to turn on their own Jews for bringing "their war" to them when appeasement had appeared to be working for so long, but America I have more faith in.
Sweden has already made it official. Jews are on their own, and can expect no protection from the Swedish government. They are esentially saying that it isn't their fight, even when it occurs on their soil. I expect more of this spineless response from other European countries. Below is courtesy of LGF.
Earlier this year Swedish Chancellor of Justice Mr Göran Lambertz decided to discontinue his department’s pre-trial investigation into the Grand Mosque of Stockholm, where audio cassettes with highly inflammatory anti-Semitic content were being sold. After Swedish radio programme Dagens Eko unveiled the contents of the cassettes in November 2005, a charge of racial incitement was filed with the police against the Stockholm mosque.
The Swedish Chancellor of Justice responded by closing the pre-trial investigation on the grounds that “the lecture did admittedly feature statements that are highly degrading to Jews (among other things, they are consistently referred to as the brothers of apes and pigs)†but pointing out that such statements “should be judged differently – and therefore be regarded as permissible – because they were used by one side in an ongoing and far-reaching conflict where calls to arms and insults are part of the everyday climate in the rhetoric that surrounds this conflictâ€.
You're right, they are offering up their Jews, and now Prodi in Italy is talking to Hamas. (BTW, I posted about that Sweden story two weeks ago. Sorry, had to mention it as I consider it a scoop to get something up ahead of Charles. Doesn't get me the hit count, but hey... :)
I hope we Jews in Europe are better armed this time around. I believe you're right about America, though I have my doubts, especially after the advertisement in the NYT the other day.
I tend to think that it is only a matter of time before Jews outside of Israel are targeted more frequently by Palestinian terrorists or their sympathizers (They have been targeted before. Remember Ilan Halimi? How about Leon Klinghoffer?). Really, when you think about it, how difficult would it be for a homicide bomber to walk into a local Jewish Community Center or a shopping mall in a Jewish area and blow himself up? The scary answer is, "not very difficult at all".
isirota,
The question is what American response will there be to an attack on an American Jewish target.
The British response to the killing of Israel's ambassador (that led to Israel's Lebanese action in 1982) and attempted bombings of the Israeli consulate and a British community centre was on a par with Jack Straw's latest hot air waffling:
"Straw calls for normalized relations with Hamas"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/011102.php
Going by this statement: "... saying that he would be satisfied with the group "accepting" the existence of the Jewish state, and would not insist that Hamas make a formal statement recognizing Israel. "
one knows exactly what that portends.
Now with this LGF post
"State Department’s flirting with the Muslim Brotherhood."
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=20181_Somethings_Rotten_in_the_State_Department&only
and the recent flirting of the FBI with CAIR need one expect anything different from the Administration with regard to Jewish casulties? Apart from blaming The Lobby" for bringing the violence to America's shores what will most Americans believe? That is the question.
Cynic, your comments suggest that you don't seem to hold out much hope for us. If so, I agree with you........
Cynic and Isirota
I think the majority of Americans would react very strongly if any of the terrorist factions attacked Jews in America, if they know it happened. My despair comes from a lack of faith in the media to report events accurately. Have any of you seen a report in the MSM on the newest homicide bombing in Israel that mentions that one of the severly wounded is an American? Are Americans even aware that our citizens have been killed and maimed in these attacks since the beginning of the use of homicide bombers? Based on the type of reporting I see in the Des Moines Register, an attack on a Jewish gathering in New York by a Moslem would be reported as a bombing by a disaffected youth carried out against some party goers.
Tom, sadly, you are probably correct. One of my buddies who lives down in South Florida, where the U.S. teen who was injured lived with his family, sent me a local article which covered what had happened, but that was it. You did NOT see anything about it in the New York "We LOVE the Palestinians" Times, the Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, let alone the major news organizations. Did CNN cover it? Of course not. Even Fox News and MSNBC have ignored the fact that Americans were seriously wounded in the homicide bombing, obsessed as they are with the Duke Lacrosse story and the Natalee Holloway arrest (Question: What, if anything, did Greta van Susteren do BEFORE this story hit the airwaves?). And, of course, there is the underlying issue of not wanting to make the Religion of Peace look bad...........