A Jerusalem synagogue turned from
peaceful sanctuary to house of horrors within moments Tuesday, after two
Palestinian cousins wielding a gun and butcher knives attacked during morning
prayers -- a terror attack that Israel's leader characterized as "blood
libel" fanned by Palestinian leaders.
Addressing reporters Tuesday night, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for national unity against "those human
animals who committed this massacre" and against those -- singling out
Hamas, the Islamic movement and the Palestinian Authority -- who he claims
"disseminate libels against the state of Israel."
"There are those who wish to uproot us
from the capital, from our land," he said, referring to Jerusalem.
"They will not be successful... We have to unify forces."
Netanyahu spoke hours after the latest act of
violence to afflict the region, this time at a synagogue in West Jerusalem's neighbourhoodeaction
to synagogue attack
Photos taken inside the Jewish house of
worship, and released by Israeli officials, painted a grim scene -- from
lifeless bodies sprawled on a floor to a shattered pair of glasses to blood
seemingly everywhere, drenching holy books, prayer shawls and walls.
Three dual U.S.-Israeli citizens and a
British-Israeli citizen died in the attack before police shot and killed the
two assailants.
The terror attack -- the deadliest in
Jerusalem since a man with an automatic weapon killed eight seminary students in
March 2008 -- came at a particularly tense time in that city,
and the region at large. It follows a series of recent deadly stabbings and
vehicle incidents that, while not the large-scale suicide bombings that defined
last decade's second intifada or the rocket attacks from Gaza earlier this
year, have left Jerusalem on edge.
"While Israelis are a tough breed,
repeated, totally unpredictable attacks are bound to take their toll,"
said David Harris, an expert with The Israel Project. "Is a mother going
to allow her child to walk to school, to catch a bus to a movie theater or
(ride a train) to visit a friend?"
Netanyahu blasts
'incitement' by Palestinian leaders
The answer to what's next came quickly, as
Israeli authorities moved into the slain attackers' East Jerusalem neighborhood
of Jabel Mukaber to demolish their homes on Netanyahu's order. The
Palestinians' official WAFA news agency reported 13 people were arrested,
including an al-Aqsa Mosque guard.
Mark Regev, Netanyahu's spokesman, said that
authorities were also "beefing up the security presence" around
Jerusalem.
"The goal is to make sure that there are
not copycat attacks," Regev said.
The war of words between the two sides,
meanwhile, continued.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
condemned the attack, something that Netanyahu said he was "glad" for
but insisted "is not enough."
"(Abbas) does not send out terrorists,
he doesn't directly encourage acts of terror, and this is good," the Prime
Minister said, echoing an assessment by an Israeli security chief. "On the
other hand, the incitement of the Palestinian Authority -- and he heads the
Palestinian Authority -- and even some things he says ... encourage terrorism,
in terms of incitement (of) tensions that run high."
There was no such equivocation about Hamas,
the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza. It's been at odds with
Israel and also with Abbas' Fatah movement, which controls the West Bank.
Hamas did not claim responsibility for the
synagogue attack, though it didn't back away from it either. Sami Abu Zuhri, a
spokesman for the group, instead linked the attack to the discovery Sunday of
anPalestinian bus driver hanged in his bus not far from
where Tuesday's attack occurred. (For his part, Netanyahu said that claims the
bus driver was killed were lies and that his death was ruled a suicide.)
Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad predicted
to Al Jazeera International that "there will be more revolution in
Jerusalem, and more uprising."
"Hamas in general supports action
against the occupation," Hamad said. "Hamas supports any military
action against the occupation anywhere it can be carried out."
Four rabbis killed
The latest example of such an action came at
7 a.m. Tuesday, when two Palestinian men entered a synagogue in an
ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, where about 30 worshipers in prayer shawls and
phylacteries were doing their morning prayers.
"They began attacking worshipers,
stabbing them before opening fire," Israel's foreign ministry said.
The four killed were all rabbis: Avraham
Shmuel Goldberg, 58; Aryeh Kupinsky, 43; Moshe Twersky, 59; and Kalman Levine,
55. Goldberg was a dual British-Israeli citizen, and the other three were
U.S.-Israeli citizens -- which is why the FBI is investigating the attack,
according to a U.S. law enforcement official.
"When four great men, wonderful men,
wise in Torah study, are slaughtered while praying in public, there is no public
grieving greater than that," said a rabbi who eulogized the men later
Tuesday, before their burial.
Eight others were wounded -- including three
who were seriously hurt and a policeman who was critically wounded, according
to the foreign ministry.
Officials overseas such as British Foreign
Secretary Philip Hammond strongly condemned the killings, and U.S. Ambassador
to Israel Dan Shapiro called them "a barbaric new low in the sad and
outrageous history of such attacks."
"Tragically, this is not the first loss
of life that we have seen in recent months," U.S. President Barack Obama
said after condemning "in the strongest terms" attacks he said were
"a tragedy" for both Israel and the United States. "Too many
Israelis have died, too many Palestinians have died. And at this difficult
time, I think it's important for both Palestinians and Israelis to work
together to lower tensions and reject violence."
Israelis attacked in Tel Aviv, West Bank Stopping violence in Jerusalem 19 precious
monuments destroyed by war
No group has claimed responsibility for the
attack. But Israeli officials say the attackers came from East Jerusalem, where
Palestinians can move more freely about the city than those living in Gaza, who
must pass through stringent checkpoints.
Ma'an, a semi-official Palestinian news
agency, identified the two men as Ghassan Abu Jamal and his cousin, Udayy.
Whether their actions were part of a
coordinated campaign or a spontaneous reprisal, Tuesday's attack raises the
specter of yet more violence against civilians.
The latest wave began earlier this year with
the kidnapping of three Israeli teens, who were later found dead. Reprisal
attacks, rocket fire and retaliatory airstrikes followed that incident, with
more than 2,000 Palestinians and 67 Israelis reportedly killed after weeks of
heavy fighting.
Much of the most recent unrest has been
centered around Jerusalem. That includes the discovery of the body of
Palestinian bus driver Yousuf al-Ramouni on Sunday, the same day an Israeli was stabbed with a screwdriver near central Jerusalem.
'There is no
organization'
Last week, a 20-year-old was stabbed and killed in Tel Aviv,
and three people were stabbed -- one fatally -- near the entrance to a
settlement in the West Bank, the same spot where the three Israeli teens were
kidnapped.
Analysts point out that large-scale violence has decreased in Jerusalem in recent years,
partly because of increased security but also because Palestinian and Israeli
leaders are cooperating behind the scenes.
But former Israeli National Security Adviser Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror said
the recent acts of violence may be more difficult to stop than in the past
because they seem to be carried out by individuals and not planned out and
executed by a group.
"There is no organization behind
it," he said, noting that all someone has to do is take a knife from their
kitchen and attack. "... I don't see any measures that can be taken to
stop an individual (like that)."
Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian legislator, told
CNN that incidents such as the "lynching" of the bus driver
"have provoked the Palestinians to the point where many of them are
retaliating individually by resorting to violence."
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat -- whose city is
about two-thirds Jewish and one-third Arab -- said attacks like the one at the
synagogue are "not just an Israeli problem."
"If the world doesn't unite against
terrorism and give zero excuses for terrorism, this will haunt he world,"
he said. "This will happen everywhere in the world.
Culled from CNN
Culled from CNN
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