ISRAELI GIRL MURDERED IN JERUSALEM
Lack Of Israeli Security Forces May Have Invited Attack

Jerusalem---February 9........A young Israeli couple was attacked by four masked Arab terrorists yesterday in Jerusalem. The terrorists repeatedly stabbed a 25-year-old Israeli woman in the Forest of Peace in south Jerusalem before police arrived and shot at the attackers, officials said.
Hospital officials said that Moran Amit from Kibbutz Kfar Hanasi, later died from her wounds. The attack took place in what was once a popular Jerusalem tourist spot on Friday as 16 months of Arab terrorism spread to the city's Forest of Peace.

This editor was at the scene of the attack only 30 minutes before it took place ( the assault occurred at 1:15 p.m.).
I thought that on such a beautiful, warm and sunny day, it would be a waste not to have lunch there overlooking the Old City.

As I arrived to the Promenade - one could see that it was totally empty - maybe four people were there. Two couples were talking and taking photos.
I walked down to the restaurant to find that it was closed and gutted - lack of tourists and tour buses had turned this thriving restaurant into an empty shell. The small playground, where just a few months ago both Jewish and Arab children shared swings, was gone.

I took a few photos of the Old City and then asked one of the couples if they would be kind enough to photo me. It was Moran's companion who took the photos. I could not forget her red hair and youthful, shy face.
It was Moran who had been stabbed repeatedly and shortly before she died she called police for help from her mobile phone.

I heard a loud argument coming from one of the Arab homes below - perhaps it was a father telling his child not to go on a terror attack.
There was not one Israeli soldier, not one policeman guarding Jerusalem's only promenade!
This was an attack just waiting to happen!

We have an intelligent, powerful army and brave, highly alert policemen - but there were none to be found at the scene before this attack in Jerusalem.
The INA spoke with the Jerusalem police spokesperson who stated that there was a patrol car in the area.
The INA responded, that it is a large park but with a small entrance.
If we didn't see security personnel stationed by the entrance - neither did the terrorists. And perhaps if they had police stationed there who spoke and understood Arabic - they would have heard the arguments below.
The police spokesperson for Jerusalem confirmed that the terrorists had come from the homes directly below the promenade.
Another police spokesperson, Gil Kleiman, stated: "we try but we can't be everywhere, our men are working two shifts, we are doing our best." The INA understands and appreciates the very hard work performed by our men in uniform - but their is no excuse for not having at least two uniformed men positioned in a visible area by the main entrance of Jerusalem's only promenade.

Moran, who was a law student at Haifa University, worked for Yedioth Ahronoth's Internet news site, Ynet.
She is survived by her parents, two brothers and a sister.

One of the terrorists collapsed and died at the scene. A police spokesman said there were no signs of wounds on his body, although a witness told a wire agency that he collapsed after Israeli police shot him in his leg and shoulder as he tried to escape.

Family members identified the attacker as a 14-year-old Arab youth from Jerusalem. A second suspect was lightly wounded. Yasser Arafat's incitement for Arab youth to hate Jews and to use violence and terrorism created another funeral for yet another innocent Jewish civilian.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assault, near the Haas Promenade, a tourist site famous for its clear and spectacular view of Jerusalem's Old City.

Jerusalem has suffered by frequent gun, knife and bomb attacks by Palestinian terrorists.

Another Israeli woman was murdered by terrorists a few hours later. Atala Lipovsky, 79, was shot dead at about 9:45 p.m. while driving on the Trans-Samaria Highway with her son, Victor. Palestinian terrorists opened fire on the car between Ariel and the Tapuah Junction. She was hit in the head but managed to continue driving to Tapuah, where she died as medics began administering first aid. Her son, who was lightly injured, was taken to Beilinson Medical Center in Petah Tikva for treatment. The terrorists escaped.

Violence also erupted in the West Bank, where protesters battled police near Yasser Arafat's headquarters, one day after the United States renewed criticism of the Palestinian president for taking no action against terrorism.

In the West Bank, Palestinian witnesses said five stone-throwing protesters were wounded by rubber bullets in clashes with Israeli troops ringing Arafat's headquarters in the city of Ramallah.

The IDF also raided several Palestinian-ruled West Bank areas, arresting three suspected militants.

The raids followed an attack by a Palestinian terrorist which killed three Israelis at a Jewish farming community in the West Bank on Wednesday. Israel also retaliated for the attack by carrying out two air strikes on security targets in Nablus on Thursday.

Palestinians sit on Israeli, American and British flags before burning them during a Hamas Rally in Jabalya refugee camp
in Gaza Strip yesterday. More than 10,000 Hamas supporters attended the rally in which Hamas leaders vowed
to continue suicide attacks against Israel, America and Britan. Photo: Reuters

In Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, a Hamas leader, reaffirmed to a 10,000-strong crowd the group's terror suicide "martyrs-in-waiting" would continue attacks against Israel.

The terrorist group opposes any Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and has carried out a wave of recent suicide bombings that have killed scores of Israelis.

SHARON MEETS BUSH

Hours earlier, President Bush told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the White House that the United States would maintain pressure on Arafat to crack down on militants.

"I assured the prime minister that we will continue to keep pressure on Mr. Arafat to convince him that he must take serious, concrete, real steps to reduce terrorist activity in the Middle East," Bush told reporters at a joint appearance with Sharon.

He sidestepped a reporter's question on whether the United States, Israel's staunchest ally, would sever links with Arafat as Sharon had demanded ahead of his Washington visit.

Sharon said that as far as Israel was concerned Arafat could never again be someone with whom it could do business. "He's not a partner, he won't be a partner and he is irrelevant," Sharon said during his fourth visit to Washington in a year.

ARAFAT'S INCITEMENT TO TERROR
Thousands of Palestinians (notice the children) raise their hands to pledge their support during a rally for the terrorist Palestinian group Hamas in Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza strip, yesterday. Thousands of Palestinian residents turned out
for the Hamas rally which denounced Israel and the United States. Photo: AP

Arafat, in English, has called for an end to the violence, but has urged his own people in Arabic to continue terrorist activity in which at least 252 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began in September 2000.

Israel and the United States say he is not doing enough, and Israel has repeatedly raided Palestinian-ruled areas to carry out arrests that it says Arafat should be making.

In Gaza, Nizar Rayyan, a Hamas leader whose son died carrying out a suicide mission against a Jewish settlement in the coastal strip last October, told demonstrators "killing for the sake of God wipes out sins."

"Go and wipe out your sins as martyrs," he told the crowd.

IsraelNewsAgency.com