RUTHFULLY YOURS

A Palestinian terrorist rammed a flatbed truck into a group of Israeli soldiers who had just disembarked from a bus adjacent to a popular promenade in southern Jerusalem on Sunday. They were on a sightseeing tour at the time. The massacre, a copy of the vehicular terrorist attacks in Nice and Berlin last year, resulted in the deaths of four Israelis, including three women, and the wounding of at least fifteen others. The terrorist driver was shot dead before he could inflict even more mayhem. Even so, his attack was one of the deadliest in Israel over the last year.

The terrorist, identified as Fadi al-Qanbar, was believed to have lived in an Arab area of east Jerusalem. He had previously served time in an Israeli jail, but nevertheless reportedly managed to buy the truck he used as a killing machine, which even carried Israeli license plates.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We know the identity of the attacker, and according to all the signs, he is a supporter of Islamic State. We will overcome this terror, just as we overcame other attacks.” Linking this attack to the ones in Nice and Berlin, he added, “We know there is a succession of attacks, and it could well be that there is a connection between those in France and Berlin — and now in Jerusalem.”

As of the writing of this article, ISIS has not claimed responsibility for the attack. Regardless, the Palestinian terrorist could well have been inspired by an Islamic State magazine, which instructed jihadists how to use large trucks to target “large numbers of kuffar” congregating on streets and at public markets. “The target should be on a road that offers the ability to accelerate to a high speed, which allows for inflicting maximum damage on those in the vehicle’s path,” the magazine advised. “It is imperative that one does not exit his vehicle during the attack. Rather he should remain inside, driving over the already harvested kuffar, and continue crushing their remains until it becomes physically impossible to continue by vehicle.”  That is precisely what the terrorist driving the truck into the group of Israeli soldiers did. After running some of them over, he put his truck in reverse to crush them even further.

According to a report on Debkafile, some Palestinians standing nearby “clapped and shouted encouragement to the truck driver.”

Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanou described the latest terrorist slaughter as a “heroic” act which other Palestinians should emulate, although Hamas did not immediately claim responsibility.  Palestinian social media were full of congratulations to the terrorist driver for the “feat” he had accomplished. The following is from an official Fatah Twitter account: “perpetrator of the ramming operation in occupied Jerusalem is the martyr Fadi Qunbar.”

Many hours have gone by since Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon called upon the UN Security Council and new Secretary General “to condemn this terror attack immediately.” Whatever statements they may end up issuing will be little more than hollow boilerplate.

The White House condemned the attack. National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price said “we call on all to send a clear and unequivocal message that terrorism must never be tolerated.”

Israel is on the front line fighting jihadist terrorists who share the ideology of ISIS and other jihadist terrorist groups that the United States is fighting. There is no room for genuine negotiations or compromise in the Islamic supremacist ideology that drives Palestinian and non-Palestinian jihadists alike. Nevertheless, Obama has acted as if Israel is to blame for the failure to come to terms with an enemy determined to destroy it.

Thanks to the anti-Israel United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which the Obama administration shamefully permitted to pass without a veto, the Palestinians have now been given the cover of so-called international law to justify their actions. In their twisted minds, since the UN resolution claimed the establishment of settlements by Israel, including in east Jerusalem, has “no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law,” the Palestinians should have the “right” to kill any Israeli residents and soldiers who are present where they do not belong. That is not terrorism, according to this perverted logic. It is “heroic” resistance against an international law breaker. And calling for such resistance is not the incitement to commit acts of terror that the resolution condemned in general terms.

The upcoming “international peace” conference to set parameters for an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, scheduled to take place in Paris on January 15th, can do even more damage to Israel. The Palestinians intend to participate in the conference, where they are likely to receive more “international” support. The conference may well be used as a forum to further solidify the Palestinians’ bogus claim to all of east Jerusalem, including the areas encompassing Judaism’s holiest sites, as part of an imposed final peace plan that the UN Security Council may then incorporate into another resolution before Obama leaves office. Israel, which does not intend to send a representative to the Paris conference, is pushing back against the prospect of such a resolution on top of the one already passed.

The so-called “international community” is rewarding terrorism by blessing the Palestinians’ maximalist demands. As the Daily Wire so succinctly put it: “As the blood of Israelis spills across the sacred grounds of Jerusalem, Palestinians leap for joy, hoping that the Obama-backed United Nations demonizes the Jewish State for housing construction.”