Shattered Bliss
Palestinian terror reaches into Eilat's seaside idyll.
Photo by BPH Images
Israeli forensic police look for evidence and ZAKA volunteers prepare to collect
body parts in Eilat on Jan. 29.
Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tel Aviv
E
flat generally has escaped
the violence of the six-year
Palestinian intifada, but even
its remote setting couldn't forever insu-
late the Red Sea resort city from the
region's tensions.
A suicide bomber struck Monday
morning, Jan. 29, at a small bakery in
the usually serene city, killing three peo-
ple when he detonated his explosives
belt in a residential area. It was the first
suicide bombing in Israel's southern-
most city, built on the edge of the Red
Sea with views of Jordan and Egypt.
"It was awful. There was smoke,
pieces of flesh all over the place," Benny
Mazgini, 45, who ran to the bakery from
a building across the street, told Israel
Radio.
The scene was a foreign one in Eilat,
whose luxury hotels, restaurants and
nightclubs have made it popular with
foreign tourists and Israelis. "It's with-
out a doubt a terrible incident that the
town of Eilat is not accustomed to,"
Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevi said. "The
thought that infiltrators could enter
Eilat alive and disrupt the running of
the town is very worrying."
Israeli officials said the bomber was
believed to have entered Eilat from
Egypt and warned that accomplices
might still be at large.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz called
Monday for an end to Israel's policy
of restraint against Palestinian terror
organizations. Peretz ordered the Israel
Defense Forces to prepare to launch
operations inside the Gaza Strip and
against the infrastructure that enabled
the Eilat suicide bomber to cross from
Gaza into Israel.
"We will not make any discounts for
terror groups, and the cease-fire will not
prevent us from targeting them:' Peretz
said following a security assessment
with senior defense officials, including
outgoing IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-
Gen. Dan Halutz.
The suicide bombing came after a
relatively long stretch of calm inside
Israel and was the first successful
attack in nine months. Other attempted
attacks have been foiled by Israeli secu-
rity forces.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in
a Kadima party meeting that for "a long
time, Israel [had] enjoyed the illusion
of quiet." Olmert stressed that in recent
months, Israel had prevented numerous
terror attacks.
Eilat promotes itself as a resort city
where tourists weary of winter can find
comfort in sunny skies, sailing, snor-
keling and scuba diving, and jeep and
horse trips into the surrounding desert
mountains. Eilat was just beginning to
recover from the wave of tourist cancel-
lations that followed Israel's war with
Lebanon last summer, but some fear the
attack could again scare off foreigners.
Miri Eisin, Olmert's spokeswoman to
the foreign press, tried to calm the fears.
"In 2006, we prevented many suicide
attacks, and we will continue to do so,"
Eisin said. "It's safe to come to Israel as
it was in the past."
Several Palestinian groups claimed
responsibility for the bombing, but
Islamic Jihad said the bomber was
Mohammed Faisal al-Saqsaq, 21, from
Gaza City.
Fatah officials condemned the attack,
saying they were against any violence
against civilians; the Al Aksa Brigades,
Fatah's terrorist arm, was one of the
groups claiming responsibility.
Officials from the Palestinian
Authority's ruling Hamas movement
welcomed the bombing and said Israel
had brought such attacks upon itself
because of its policies in the West Bank
and Gaza.
The Hat area has seen at least one
other terror attack. In November 2003,
a Jordanian armed with a Kalashnikov
rifle crossed the border near Eilat and
opened fire on a group of Christian pil-
grims from Ecuador, killing one woman
and injuring five others. Al Qaida
claimed responsibility at the time.
Answering
Israel's Critics
The Charge
Last week, Iran's President
Ahmadinejad charged that in the
Middle East and Persian Gulf the
"sparking [of] discord among Muslims,
especially between the Shiites and
Sunnis, is a plot hatched by the
Zionists."
The Answer
Contrary to Ahmadinejad's rantings,
the reality is that Israel is a nation of
diverse religions protected by law and
with a foreign policy that cultivates
good relations with the Muslim world
as well as with the Vatican, Protestant
leadership and the Eastern religions.
In the Muslim world, Israel had
good relations with Iran prior to the
Khomeini revolution and currently has
good relations Egypt, Jordan, Turkey,
Mauritania and Senegal.
271 WEST MAPLE
DOWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM
248.258.0212
SUNDAY 12-5
MONDAY—SATURDAY 10-6
THURSDAY 10-9
- Allan Gale, Jewish Community Council of
Metropolitan Detroit
February 10 2007
25