The IDF’s Focus security checkpoint near Beit El, scene of last night’s shooting attack [Image Source] |
When prominent voices in the Palestinian Authority regime go public with extravagant praise of murderous violence directed at Israelis and Jews, it’s hardly surprising that the rank-and-file take note and respond.
Armed attacks on Israelis by members of the various PA security apparatuses, though very rarely reported in that way by the mainstream news media, are a growing reality around here.
Back in January, a Palestinian Arab who was employed by the PA as a security officer (here he is in official uniform) and armed bodyguard for the Ramallah District Attorney, opened fire at an IDF checkpoint near Beit El in the West Bank. As Times of Israel recounted at the time, he drove up to an IDF security checkpoint (called “Focus”) by car and got out, opening fire with his handgun. His targets, all of them IDF service personnel, suffered serious gun-fire injuries before one of them shot the assailant, Amjad Sakari, 35, dead. Two of the victims were described as being in serious condition with bullet wounds to the neck and thigh. All were rushed to Jerusalem hospitals for emergency care.
“It is time for the machine gun, to shoot 500 people… Muhammad’s army will return”
The policeman and his companion, carrying automatic weapons, shot at a group of Border Police officers who were receiving their nightly briefing before beginning patrols in the Old City’s Damascus Gate area. The Israeli officers fired back, hitting one assailant instantly and setting off in pursuit of the second, who was still shooting at the officers, police said. The second attacker was soon hit and killed by police fire as well. There were no injuries among the Israeli officers or bystanders. Both attackers were residents of the West Bank, police said. The Palestinian policeman was named as Omar Ahmed Amru, and the other as Mansur Yasser Shawamra. [“One of shooters at Damascus Gate was Palestinian policeman“, Times of Israel, February 15, 2016]
“We welcome the heroic operation carried out by the martyr officer Muhammad Turkman. We consider [the attack] a strong message in the face of Israeli crimes.” [Times of Israel, October 31, 2016]
Three Israeli soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously, in a shooting attack when a Palestinian police officer opened fire on them at a checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday, officials said. The gunman approached the Focus checkpoint, near the Jewish settlement of Beit El, and opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle at the troops stationed there, the army said… The gunman was named as Muhammad Turkman, a police officer from Qabatiya… [The PA says] Turkman served in a “special forces unit… In a statement, the Hamas terrorist organization lauded the attack and encouraged other members of the Palestinian security services to carry out similar attacks [“Palestinian cop wounds 3 IDF soldiers in a shooting attack“, October 31, 2016 | Judah Ari Gross in Times of Israel]
All of the injured IDF soldiers are around 20. All suffered gunshot injuries. One remains in serious condition at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Mount Scopus hospital. And since Ma’an News Agency gets lavish financial backing from several European countries, allow us to mention that its Arabic report of the attack at the Focus checkpoint (but not the English-language version) says Turkman, the shooter, was executed by the Israelis in cold blood.
Chief Palestinian “peace” negotiator Saeb Erekat illustrating “the distance between the Israeli and Palestinian sides” without, as far as we know, taking actual credit for how wide and growing it is [Image Source: Abir Sultan / Flash90] |
If anyone’s wondering how the highest-level PA insiders view wanton violence of the sort in which its security people engage, consider how the PA’s chief negotiator for “peace”, Saeb Erekat, quoted [here] in the PA’s official mouthpiece news channel, a week and a half ago called the murderous actions of terrorists “sacrifices… acts of heroism, [an] ongoing battle with the occupation“.
This is the same peace-hunting Erekat who last year published recommendations for how the PA ought to go about achieving its strategic goals. They’re outlined in an excellent but little-noticed analysis by Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi, a respected Israeli commentator [“The Palestinian Leadership’s Regression in the Peace Process“]. Erekat called for
- Strategic cooperation with Hamas and Islamic Jihad by integrating them into the PLO’s institutions
- The waging of an all-out “peaceful popular struggle” against Israel (defined by Palestinian leadership as local terror attacks
- Rejection of any proposals for a temporary or partial settlement with Israel
- A legal battle against Israel in the international arena aimed at constraining Israel’s ability to defend itself against Palestinian terror
For some of the terror-encouraging quotes and speeches of Erekat’s boss, PA president Mahmoud Abbas, we refer you to Palestinian Media Watch [here] which devotes several departments to his public acts of incitement.
And in case anyone out there believes Palestinian Arab public opinion is somehow immune to such exhortations to violence, bigotry and murder, we urge you to take a close look at what ordinary Palestinian Arabs say to pollsters from their own Palestinian Arab community. Here’s a good, recent starting point: “18-Oct-16: What do the Palestinian Arabs think and feel now?“
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