Palestinian Attacks

I

In recent weeks,
Arabs have been
killing Israeli
Jews at a faster
) clip than at any
time since the
intifada began.

LARRY DERFNER

ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

el Aviv — Monday,
March 15, 10 a.m.: I've
been listening to the ra-
dio news for the last
two hours, and here's what's
happened in Israel this morn-
ing:
• A West Bank Palestinian
stabbed an American tourist
in downtown Afula, once in
the shoulder, once in the
back. Three Israelis who were
carrying pistols and who hap-
pened to be nearby, including
right-wing Rnesset member
Gonen Segev, caught the ter-
rorist. They took some wild
punches trying to protect the
Palestinian from a crowd of
Jews that was trying to tear
him apart, and managed to
get him to the police. The
tourist is in fair condition.
• A Jew, evidently drunk,
shot and critically wounded
a Druze resident in Katzrin,
the "capital" of the Golan
Heights. The Jew says he
mistook the Druze for a ter-
rorist.
• A Mercedes with blue li-
cense plates (blue is for Pales-
tinians, yellow for Israelis)
ran down two Jewish men
standing on the shoulder of a
road near Ramallah in the
West Bank. They are in crit-
ical condition. Police are try-
ing to determine if this was a
deliberate, "nationalistic"
crime or a simple hit-and-
run.
My first thought is that
this is an unusually violent
morning — three attacks al-
ready, by knife, by gun, by
car. My second thought is
that compared to what's been
going on in Israel over the
last two weeks, it's not so bad
— nobody's died yet.
"Every day," that's the
phrase being used, it's hap 7
pening every day. Not since
the intifada started over five
years ago has it been this
bad. Six Jews murdered, 17
wounded in the two weeks
prior to these latest attacks,
mainly by Palestinians with
knives, some with guns. You
see a picture in the newspa-
pers of one of the murder
weapons — a heavy, curved,
double-tipped commando
knife with a serrated edge —
and you cringe.
Two Palestinians have
been shot to death by Jewish
civilians, one a Jewish truck
driver in east Jerusalem, the
other, a Gaza settler coming
back from the funeral of a
murdered friend.
The Jews say they were de-
fending their lives against

A wounded man is carried into a Jerusalem hospital.

crowds of stone-throwers, the
Palestinians say the Jews
just opened fire without
provocation. You wonder who
is telling the truth. You won-
der what you would have
done, if there really were
stones, in the current atmos-
phere.
"Are we at war?" my wife
asked last weekend. We were
taking a drive down to the
beach in Ashkelon, listening
to the news, and heard the
national police chief urging
Israelis with licensed guns to
carry them at all times, to de-
ter terrorists.
This is quite a mental pic-
ture — 300,000 Israelis (that's

Every other
consideration
comes second to
ending the killings.

the approximate number of
licensed gun-carriers) walk-
ing the streets of the cities
and towns, on the lookout for
terrorists.
The police chief, Ya'acov
Terner, was blasted by cabi-
net ministers, and by the
army chief of staff, for creat-
ing hysteria among the pub-
lic, and for trying to turn
Israel into the "Wild West."
But a radio station conducted
a call-in poll of 3,000 Israelis,
and found that 72 percent

thought Mr. Terner had the
workers in veils and robes
right idea.
weren't women at all, they
You know that things are
were men with axes and they
getting out of hand when you
went straight for her head.
can't keep track of the names
Uri Megidish? The Gazan
of those killed, even though
farmer stabbed to death in
their pictures, and the details
his greenhouse by a Pales-
of their lives and deaths, were
tinian who'd hired on a few
all over the news just a few
weeks before.
days ago. You start mixing up
Yehoshua Friedberg? The
the victims and the circum-
yeshiva student and soldier
stances of their murders be-
from Montreal, two weeks
cause the killings have been
shy of getting out of the army,
falling one on top of the oth-
kidnapped hitchhiking home
er.
from his base, found shot to
Yehoshua Weisbrod; which
death in a field • near
one was he? Right, he was the
Jerusalem.
gas company accountant who
Natan Azaria and Grigory
took a wrong turn in Gaza
Abramov? The barber and the
and ended up in the refugee
Russian immigrant, stabbed
camp, and the Palestinians
to death one morning on a
saw him and started stoning
busy street in Tel Aviv by a
his car, and the street filled
young Gazan worker who'd
up with stone-throwers, un-
pledged himself to Islamic Ji-
til there were about 200 of
had.
them, and Mr. Weisbrod tried
The traffic is thicker these
to make a U-turn and get out
mornings as police have set
of there but he lost control of
up roadblocks to check cars
his car and slammed it into a
with blue license plates, and
wall, and he was lying there
those with yellow plates that
unconscious and a couple of
are carrying workers from
terrorists, "Fatah Hawks"
Gaza into Israel.
they were, Arafat's boys,
Thousands more police are
came and shot him to death.
to be hired, and soldiers are co
That one was a real night-
being transferred from the
mare.
borders into the territories. —
Simcha Levy? The do-good-
Low-paid laborers from Gaza,
er, the one who'd lived for
loyal employees for years, are
years among the Palestinians
being fired en masse, for fear t
in Gaza, the one who was
of the few terrorists among cc
warned by her Arab friends
them.
to be careful. She was driving
But Israelis have proven
some Gazans to work one
themselves unwilling to do 53
morning, like she always did,
their filthy, strenuous, sub-
but three of the "women"
minimum-wage jobs, so it