Terrorism In Jerusalem Yesterday: You Compare The Four Accounts

UPDATES 

9:00 am Israel time, Saturday, March 7 2015

10 Days Until The Election

**As the polls seem stuck in position with the two leading parties “Herzog/Livni” and Likud in a virtual dead heat, there were two extremely significant developments yesterday on the election front:

1. The Herzog/Livni party abandoned all pretense of being a centrist party by entering into a “vote surplus” agreement with Meretz–Israel’s ultra left wing party. Why did the party do this? Because Meretz is on the 3.25% threshold, and Herzog/Livni said it does not want to “lose” all of Meretz’s left wing votes should Meretz fall below the requisite 3.25%.

2. Even more important, Moshe Kahlon, the head of the Koolanu party which is currently polling at about 8 seats, stated that he would not join a coalition with parties that are not Zionist. Specifically, he will not join a coalition whose members include the United Arab List.  There is not even a guarantee that he would join a coalition with Meretz.

However, the point is that without any question, Herzog/Livni were counting on Koolanu to get them over 61 seats. As unlikely as it seemed even with Koolanu, it now seems virtually impossible. 

**Hamas carried out a large-scale exercise within a stone’s throw of the Gaza border fence yesterday. Thousands of Izz al-Din al-Qassen terrorists practiced the use of weapons and tunnel attacks in the ruins of two Israeli communities of northern Gaza, Alei Sinai and Nissan, that were forcibly evacuated by Ariel Sharon back in 2005.

Hamas commanders took reporters into new tunnels that they have built in the last six months:

The clock is ticking, and it won’t be long now before Hamas begins another war with Israel.

TODAY’S BLOG:

An “incident” happened yesterday in Jerusalem. As to the details of what happened, your humble servant encourages you to read the four accounts that follow. Perhaps in doing so, you can begin to get a sense of the frustration that we Israelis feel with the international media, and a sense of how some our own media (especially the Jerusalem Post) has become internationalized.

Account 1: CNN

Driver hits Israeli border police, authorities call it terror attack

Driver runs down people in Jerusalem

By Ed Payne, CNN

                                                                                           Story highlights

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A Palestinian man rammed into a cyclist and four Israeli border police while he was driving in Jerusalem on Friday, authorities and first responders said. Witnesses said the man drove off the side of the road to hit his victims. They were taken to the hospital with light to moderate injuries.

Authorities are treating the incident as a terror attack, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. 

The suspect tried to escape, but was shot by a security guard and severely wounded before being taken into custody, police said. Israeli police identified the attacker as a Palestinian man in his early 20s from East Jerusalem.

Hamas applauded the attack. “Hamas movement blesses this heroic act and considers it a natural response to the Occupations crimes, Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, posted on Facebook.

Regional tensions

Tensions over the killings of Israeli teens and Palestinian boys marked the run-up to the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas this summer, which took dozens of Israeli lives and more than 2,100 Palestinian lives.

CNN’s Oren Liebermann, Amir Tal and Michael Schwartz contributed to this report.

Account 2: Jerusalem Post

5 injured in car ramming attack in Jerusalem

Vehicular attack near east Jerusalem injures five border police women; attacker shot.

At least five people, including four female border police officers, were injured on Friday morning when a car rammed into a group of pedestrians standing at a light rail station in east Jerusalem. 

Police are treating the incident as a suspected terror attack.

Two of the injured policewomen were in moderate condition and three were lightly wounded. They were evacuated to local hospitals in the city.

Police said the driver veered from the road onto the sidewalk, before getting out of the vehicle with a weapon, attempting to stab passersby. He was shot and wounded by a security guard.

Account 3: Israel Hayom 

7 hurt in terror attack in Jerusalem

Six border policewomen, cyclist moderately wounded in vehicular attack in northern Jerusalem • Terrorist attempts to attack pedestrians, neutralized by police before harming anyone • Jerusalem mayor: We will not allow terrorism to disrupt our lives.

Six border policewomen and a female cyclist were moderately wounded Friday when a Palestinian terrorist ran them over near a light rail station in northern Jerusalem. The station, located on the capital’s Shimon Hatzadik Street, is adjacent to a local Border Police facility.

The vehicular attack took place at around 10:20 a.m. According to eyewitnesses, the terrorist, driving through the street, sped up as he was approaching the station and hit the policewomen and a cyclist. He then stopped the car, got out wielding a large cleaver, and attempted to attack pedestrians in the area but was shot by a policeman before he was able to harm anyone else. 

The terrorist was later identified as Uday Salaymeh, a resident of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud.

Magen David Adom paramedics who arrived at the scene treated the wounded on site before evacuating them to local hospitals for further treatment. Four policewomen were taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, and the two others as well as Salaymeh — who sustained serious back injuries — were taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center. The cyclist was taken to Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital, also in the capital.

Police presence in Jerusalem has been bolstered ahead of the Purim holiday, and security forces arrived at the scene of the attack immediately. According to a police source, this was the fifth vehicular attack in the area in the past 12 months.

Jerusalem District Police Commander Maj. Gen. Moshe Edri lauded the security forces’ response. “The rapid response by security forces prevented this event from escalating and prevented any harm from coming to more innocent people,” he told reporters.

Edri said the police had no intelligence indicating a terrorist attack was imminent, leading them to believe Salaymeh acted alone.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said Friday, “We will not allow terrorism to disrupt our lives and we will continue to fight it. I would like to commend the security forces and the alert citizens who were able to bring this incident to a rapid end and prevent any other injuries.

“Our response to terrorism it to go on with our daily routine, therefore all Purim events will take place as scheduled, and security across the city will be increased. I invite everyone in Israel to come celebrate Purim in Jerusalem,” he said.

Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman said, “Unfortunately, the vehicular attack in Jerusalem is further proof that only if terrorist know that any attack carries the death penalty, and that there is no way they will be released from prison as part of a prisoner exchange deal, only then will we be able to significantly reduce the number of terrorist attacks.”

Hamas issued a statement lauding the terrorist and calling the attack “a natural response to the occupation.”

Acccount 4: YNET News

Terror attack in Jerusalem: Five officers, Israeli hurt

Roy Yanovski

Vehicular terror attack hits Border Police base in Jerusalem, wounding five female officers; terrorist shot, currently in critical condition.

Jerusalem was hit by a suspected vehicular terror attack Friday morning, police and paramedics said. A Palestinian man from East Jerusalem rammed his car into a light rail train station after plowing into a group of female officers in northern Jerusalem, wounding five officers and an Israeli. 

MDA paramedics administered first aid to six people, five female officers, three of which were in light to moderate condition while two were lightly hurt; and an Israeli man in his 50s who was hurt at the rail station. MDA spokesman Zaki Heller said that paramedics immediately arrived on scene and treated the five who were injured. All five were in their 20s and another female officer suffered anxiety. 

The attack took place outside a Border Police base in northern Jerusalem on Shimon HaTzadik street, which was also the site of a November 5 hit and run terror attack that killed one border police offer and injured 13 people. The area has seen no less than 5 terror attacks in the past year.

After hitting the group of officers, who were outside the base, the Palestinian continued 200-300 meters to the light rail station, where he hit a bicyclist – a 51-year-old Israeli man.

The terrorist, Udaayi Salayma from Ras al-Amud in East Jerusalem, was shot by a Border Guard who was present at the scene as part of a training exercise going on at in the base – ending the incident by seriously wounding him.  A large cleaver was found on the Palestinian’s body after the attack, which he reportedly attempted to use on the forces after crashing his car. 

Police identified the attacker as a Palestinian man in his twenties from east Jerusalem. Police say it is difficult to prevent such attacks, which appear to be carried out by “lone wolf” assailants who are not thought to be dispatched by a militant organization.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat responded to the attack, saying: “We will not let terror disrupt our daily lives and we will continue to fight it without compromise. I would like to commend the security personnel, the municipal guards, the police and alert citizens who quickly brought the event to an end and prevented further injuries.

“Our response to terror is to continue on with our routine, and as such all Purim events in the capital will continue as planned and the security throughout the entire city will be increased, including the main event to be held at Safra Square in a closed and secure location. I invite all the residents of the country to celebrate Purim in Jerusalem and strengthen us.”

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So what are we to make of these four accounts?

In your humble servant’s opinion, the CNN article blatantly attempts to whitewash as much as possible what happened. The Jerusalem Post article presents much the same perspective as the CNN one. It is only in Israel Hayom and YNET  that we get an accurate depiction of the terrorist attack that took place and its context.

For example, any international reader of the CNN article would not know:

*the actual number of people hit by the terrorist

*the fact that the terrorist hit the Border Policewomen and then traveled further before hitting the cyclist

*what the terrorist did after exiting his car–and what weapon he was carrying

*how many times this same type of terrorism has happened recently

Also note that the CNN article describes the “suspect” (it refuses to call him a “terrorist”) as a “Palestinian” when in fact, the terrorist was an Israeli resident of eastern Jerusalem. And finally note how the article ends with 2100 Palestinian lives lost. In essence the CNN article ends with the victims becoming the victimizers.