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Bus bombing in Jerusalem

Oh my god.

bus_jerusalem

A suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus has killed at least 20 people – including small children – and wounded over 80 others:

The bomb exploded aboard a double-length city bus in the crowded, largely ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Shearim near the border between east and west Jerusalem. The explosion damaged a second bus, Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said. The bus was mainly filled with religious Jews on their way home from praying at the Kotel.

Ambulance services said at least 30 people had been carried away from the scene. An Israeli spokesman said 26 people were seriously and critically injured in the bombing. Another 43 people sustained minor injuries.

Fifteen children between 2 weeks and 15 years old were taken to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital, according to Mor Yosef, the hospital’s director-general.

They’re killing our children again. And gloating about it. Hamas and Islamic Jihad were falling all over each other to claim “responsibility” for this attack.

The news media are all focusing on the death of the (fictional) truce. But a lot more died than an agreement that was never honoured in the first place. Innocent men, women, and children had their lives stolen.

The world was feeling pretty relaxed lately – quiet on the Mideast front and all that. The Israelis knew better. Their news media was warning people to expect the worst in the coming days. The Israelis knew that this so-called cease-fire was just an excuse for these guys to regroup and plan their next attack.

I almost don’t know what to say anymore. All the screaming about how bad an idea it is to keep making “concessions” that will encourage terror fall on deaf ears. I can’t say I’m disappointed, either.

Just saddened. And angry as hell.

{ 9 comments… add one }
  • Jonny 08.20.03, 12:12 AM

    So much for the road map.

  • segacs 08.20.03, 12:21 AM

    The only road map the Islamic Jihad will ever follow is the one giving them directions to the site of their next terrorist attack.

  • Jonny 08.20.03, 11:33 AM

    Well, we tried.

  • Hanthala 08.21.03, 5:17 AM

    Yeah, gotta agree Segacs. Sad, horrible, useless waste of innocent human lives. Same goes for the upcoming Israeli “retaliation.” Fucking depressing.

  • David H 08.21.03, 3:56 PM

    Of course, while one side just killed 20 innocent civilians, the other side killed a senior military leader in a terrorist organization and no innocent civilians.

    One side filled their bomb with ball bearings to kill as many people as possible, the other side sought to minimize casualties.

    Its like I insult you, so you hack my leg off, I insult you some more so you gouge out my eye, and then you try and blame me for our “cycle of violence”.

  • Hanthala 08.21.03, 4:30 PM

    Just wait David. I can already hear the tanks rolling in. Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time. Israel uses collective punishment (aka war crime) on a daily basis and this is responsible for many, too many, losses of innocent lives.

  • David H 08.21.03, 5:44 PM

    An interesting question, how can you tell if a given victim is truly “innocent”. I remember thinking a while ago that most of the main combatants on both sides are male, so it can be said with some degree of certainty that most female victims are innocent.

    (Now, obviously there are non-innocent female suicide bombers, just as there are active female members of the Israeli army… they don’t serve much in the West Bank/Gaza though).

    Anyhow, I looked it up, and there were approximately equal numbers of female casualties on both sides of the conflict, despite the higher overall palestinian death toll.

    The question then is… why is that? My hypothesis is that Israel obviously targets civilians at a substantially lower rate than the Palestinian side, but I’d like to hear alternate explanations for the phenomena of greater female Israeli deaths as a percentage of the whole.

    (Oh, and before someone mentions anything, I don’t consider a female death or a child’s death for that matter to be any more tragic than the death of an adult male. All innocents killed represent an equally tragic death, I make the male/female comparison purely for statistical interest’s sake)

  • Wadi 08.22.03, 4:57 AM

    You’re right Hanthala, Israel shouldn’t defend itself; it should let blood thirsty Palestinian killers slaughter babies. The “war crime(s)” are being committed by terrorists and their western apologists (i.e. you, Hanthala) not by soldiers trying to defend their people. People like you make me sick.

  • Hanthala 08.23.03, 2:59 AM

    Likewise Wadi.

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