April 18, 2006
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Today’s Blogs
Tel Aviv Terror
By Darren Everson
Posted Monday, April 17, 2006, at 7:07 PM ET
Bloggers react with outrage to the suicide bombing in Israel on Monday. They also wonder why the Pentagon has war plans for everythingincluding invading Canadaand whether the White House tried to downplay the presence of gays at its annual Easter egg roll.
Tel Aviv terror: A Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least nine people and wounded doznes at a falafel restaurant outside a Tel Aviv bus station Monday, the first attack since Hamas took over the Palestinian government just more than two weeks ago. Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade both took responsibility for the attack, which Hamas defended, saying Palestinians were in “a state of self-defense.”
“Sure,” writes Jewish blogger Meryl Yourish. “Self-defense. In Tel Aviv. At a bus station. At a falafel shop. Those are dangerous people, falafel-eaters.” “Will this show the world their true faces?” writes Holly on The Moderate Voice of Hamas.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, reportedly condemned the bombing, but no one seems to be buying that. At Captain’s Quarters, Ed Morrissey has a name for this pattern of one group attacking while one or two others condemn: the triangle offense.
“As I have written before, this triangle offense allows the supposedly moderate Fatah and the political Hamas to deny any responsibility for attacks while the radical IJ carries them out,” he writes. “This strategy gives at least one and usually two factions deniability that is transparent to everyone except European diplomats, Russian autocrats, and the Middle Eastern kleptocrats that just pledged millions of dollars to keep the Palestinians in business against the Israelis.”
Captain Ed is referring to Iran’s pledge Sunday to give the Palestinian government $50 million in aid. Sister Toldjah explores the Hamas-Iran connection in detail, culling recent reports from the BBC and elsewhere.
As for the attack itself, Neo-Neocon links to a Jerusalem Post article and notes that a security guard may have saved lives by detaining the suicide bomber outside the restaurant: “The article doesn’t mention it, but it’s virtually certain that that guard was one of the victims. But he was also a hero; no doubt about that.”
Bloggers are also eager to see how Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister-elect, responds to the first attack of his tenure. “The real question,” writes New Jersey blogger Lawhawk at A Blog For All, “is whether he will carry through with what must be done – finish the security fence and go after the terrorists who perpetrated this latest attack. And that means doing more than firing artillery against empty buildings or fields.”
Read more about the bombing.
Iran tomorrow, Canada the next day? The initial reaction to Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker report of Iran war planning was largely outrage at the Bush administration. But as the debate continuesthe Washington Post and the New York Times ran op-ed contributions on the subject over the weekendbloggers wonder: Shouldn’t the Pentagon have plans for everything?
That was conservative Jonah Goldberg’s point when he debated liberal John Aravosis of AMERICAblog on Howard Kurtz’s Reliable Sources on CNN Sunday. “After all preventing states like Iran — indeed, specifically Iran — from getting nukes has been the core of American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War,” Goldberg writes at The Corner on National Review Online. “I should hope, I said, that the Pentagon has plans to attack Iran, North Korea etc. Heck, it’s their job.” To illustrate his point, Goldberg mentioned that the Pentagon even has plans to attack Canada.
That provoked surprise north of the border”I wonder if the US has plans for war with Mexico as well,” writes Canadian blogger Red Toryand a snarky response from Steve Young of the Huffington Post. “Perhaps it was a White House or Pentagon-inspired leak meant as a first salvo to warn Canada to keep Universal Healthcare north of the border,” Young cracks.
But there are Canadian invasion plans, although they’re a bit moldy, having been conceived in 1935. Goldberg links to a newspaper account of them here; the invasion plan itself can be found here. Read more about Iran war planning.
Easter Bunny controversy: About 100 gay and lesbian families attended the annual White House Easter egg roll Monday, seeking to show that they should be welcome. The Family Pride Coalition was behind the showing, which drew the ire of some conservatives for politicizing a family event.
Several couples reportedly said they encountered no interference once they obtained tickets. But some bloggers wrote about reports that the admittance procedure was curiously altered, causing those who camped out longest for ticketsincluding some of the gay couplesto be admitted later, after First Lady Laura Bush had left.
“Nice move, Bush Admin, to deep-six the visibility of the LGBT families,” writes Pam’s House Blend, an LGBT blog.
But Discarded Lies doesn’t see what the big deal is: “Since there were no invitations given to anyone, since the Bushes have made it known that they will not stop gay parents from attending, and since tickets are open to anyone willing to stand in line, how are gay parents ‘crashing’ this party?”
Read more about the Easter egg roll.
Darren Everson is a sportswriter in New York City.
Today’s Papers
Breast Defense
By Eric Umansky
Posted Tuesday, April 18, 2006, at 3:15 AM ET
The New York Times leads with yesterday’s bombing at a Tel Aviv falafel restaurant that killed nine, wounded 60, and was met with approval by Hamas. The Washington Post and USA Today lead with a government study concluding that an osteoporosis drug appears to reduce the risk of breast cancer as much as the one drug already approved for that and does so with fewer side-effects. But while the results look good, it’s not a slam dunk. For example, women who took the drug, raloxifene, actually had a higher risk of pre-cancerous tumors. “The outcome of the study is not as clear-cut as we might have hoped for,” said one analyst.
The Los Angeles Times leads with oil hitting just above $70 a barrel, about 60 cents more than the (non-inflation-adjusted) record set just after Katrina. The Wall Street Journal has a more sophisticated Page One oil piece, noting that prices are being puffed by speculation. Oil inventories in the U.S. are at their highest levels in eight years. “More and more people are going to recognize that the fundamentals just aren’t there to support these prices,” said one industry watcher.
“The Israeli occupation bears the responsibility for this attack,” said a Hamas spokesman of the Tel Aviv explosion. Responsibility for the bombing was claimed by Islamic Jihad, which operates independently of Hamas.
Most of the papers play up Hamas’ response. But the LAT takes a pause from the taunting talk and notices that Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeha Hamas man and known as a relative moderate”was silent” about the attack. The paper suggests it’s the latest evidence of a “growing split” in Hamas. “On the one hand they want to govern, and on the other hand they cannot abandon the ideology of terror, or they risk losing the support of the street and outside support,” said one Israeli analyst. “At some point they have to make a decision, but I don’t know if they have a leader strong enough to do that.”
Everybody mentionsand only the NYT frontsnewbie White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten’s very public staff meeting yesterday where he announced it’s time to (nudge nudge) “refresh and re-energize” things. At a press conference later, White House spokesman Scott McClellan brought up the meeting, unprompted.
The NYT‘s Iraq round-up says U.S. and Iraqi troops “sealed off” (whatever that means) one of Baghdad’s Sunni neighborhoods. The move came after a murky gun battle that, according to one resident, involved police commandosthe kind often made up of Shiite militia and associated with death squads.
The Post‘s off-lead points out that Mississippi’s two senatorsTrent Lott and Thad Cochranhave stuffed $700 million into a war-spending bill in order to relocate a rail line that was destroyed by Katrina. The only catch: The rail line has already been rebuilt, at a cost of $250 million.
The NYT off-leads a study concluding that families, and in particular kids, displaced by Katrina have worse health and less access to insurance than they did before the storm. One thing: The study was sponsored by the Children’s Health Fund, whichthough Times doesn’t say it until well after the foldis an advocacy group that pushes for more health-care coverage for kids.
The WP alone fronts the Pulitzers. Coincidentally, the WP won the most of them: four, including one for its coverage of the CIA secret prisons and one for uncovering Jack Abramoff’s work habits. The NYT won for its scoop on warrantless spying and for Nicholas Kristof’s Darfur writing. And the New Orleans’ Times-Picayune and the Sun Herald of Gulfport, Miss., won, deservedly, for their Katrina coverage.
The nuclear option …
Yesterday’s LAT noticed that a principal at an elementary school in Inglewood was so worried her students might attend pro-immigration rallies that she barred some from even going to the bathroom, forcing them to use buckets in class.
Now the odd part: The school district defended the principal. They explained that the super-lockdown, bucket routine is indeed allowed, albeit only in a slightly more extreme scenario, namely nuclear Armageddon. “When there’s a nuclear attack, that’s when buckets are used,” said a district official. “She made a decision to follow the handbook. She just misread it.”
Eric Umansky (www.ericumansky.com) writes “Today’s Papers” for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@slate.com.
Bombing in Israel
Raanan Cohen/Associated Press
It was the first suicide attack in Israel since the Hamas militant group took over the Palestinian government 2 1/2 weeks ago
18, 2006
Suicide Bombing in Israel Kills 9; Hamas Approves
By GREG MYRE and DINA KRAFT
TEL AVIV, April 17 A Palestinian suicide bomber carried out the deadliest attack on Israel in almost two years on Monday when he detonated his explosives at a falafel restaurant in Tel Aviv an act that Hamas, which leads the new Palestinian government, called legitimate.
Nine people and the bomber were killed and dozens wounded in the blast, at a small restaurant that was hit by a suicide bomber just three months ago, on Jan. 19. In that attack, 20 Israelis were injured.
Though the bombing was carried out by Islamic Jihad, a particularly radical faction that is not part of the government, spokesmen for Hamas and the Palestinian Interior Ministry said the blast was a legitimate response to what they called Israeli aggression.
Similarly, Islamic Jihad released a video in which Sami Hammad, 21, from outside Jenin, on the West Bank, said his bombing was dedicated to the thousands of Palestinians jailed by Israel. “There will be more such operations,” he said.
Even so, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the attack, reflecting a split in the Palestinian leadership.
Israel said it held the Hamas-led government ultimately responsible. “They are responsible because their leaders are encouraging these attacks,” said Gideon Meir, a senior official at the Israeli Foreign Ministry. “It doesn’t matter which group did this; it all comes from the same school of terrorism.”
Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, urged the Palestinian Authority to condemn the attack, while the White House reiterated that it would have “no contact” with “a Palestinian government that encourages or tolerates terrorism.”
Israel did not say how it would respond. But near midnight, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a metal workshop in Gaza City, causing damage but no injuries. The military said the shop was used to manufacture rockets that are fired at Israel.
The bombing is also likely to intensify the almost daily exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.
The explosion ripped through the restaurant just hours before Israel’s new Parliament was sworn in, and Ehud Olmert, prime minister-designate, told the legislators meeting in Jerusalem, “We had hoped to celebrate the Israeli democracy today in a different atmosphere, and now we are again forced to cope with murderous terror.”
At the restaurant, tiles and wires dangled from the ceiling. The street was covered with shards of glass. Blood pooled on the sidewalk and speckled the sides of parked cars.
About 60 people were wounded, including two cousins, David Manshirov, 17, and Jahoun Ismilov, 17, who worked in the kitchen and were also hurt in the January bombing.
Mr. Manshirov said his family, which emigrated three years ago from Georgia, the former Soviet republic, was poor, so he had no choice but to keep working at the restaurant.
The restaurant is on a busy corner in a gritty section of Tel Aviv where many foreign workers now live. It is considered easier for a bomber to blend in with the crowd in this neighborhood than in other parts of the city. The street where the bombing took place, Neve Shaanan, has been hit by six suicide bombings in the past four years.
The restaurant called The Mayor’s Falafel had placed a security guard at its entrance after the January attack. According to witnesses, the guard stopped the bomber on Monday and asked to see his bag. At that moment, the bomber detonated his explosives, the witnesses said. The guard was believed to be among those killed.
Islamic Jihad, which has rejected an informal truce observed by some Palestinian groups, has carried out eight of the nine Palestinian suicide bombings since the beginning of 2005.
Abu Ahmed, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, called the bombing “part of the national resistance against the Israeli crimes.”
The blast was the deadliest in Israel since a double suicide bombing on Aug. 31, 2004. That explosion killed 16 people in Beersheba, in the south.
The Palestinian response to the latest bombing once again underscored the tension between Mr. Abbas, who opposes such attacks and seeks negotiations with Israel, and Hamas, which now controls the cabinet and the legislature, and has carried out the largest number of suicide bombings against Israel and rejects negotiations.
Hamas took control of the Palestinian Authority government last month after winning elections in January, and has largely abided by an informal truce for more than a year. But the group says it will not lay down its weapons and has not called on other factions to stop attacks.
Asked about the bombing, a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said, “The resistance is a legal and natural reaction to the Israeli crimes, and the Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves.”
But Mr. Abbas said, “These kinds of attacks harm the Palestinian interest, and we as an authority and government must move to stop it.”
The Palestinian ministries, controlled by Hamas, issued no such denunciations.
The new Palestinian government has been in office less than three weeks, but it faces urgent problems. The United States and the European Union regard Hamas as a terrorist group and are refusing to deal with any of its members, inside or outside the government.
The new Palestinian government is also struggling with a major financial crisis, which has been made worse by this isolation, and has been unable to pay last month’s wages to its 140,000 employees.
The bombing brought a new round of Western criticism directed at Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
“The burden of responsibility for preventing terrorist attacks such as this one rests with the Palestinian Authority,” said the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan. “We have noted reactions by several Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, that defend or even applaud the barbaric act of terror committed in Tel Aviv today, as we have noted President Abbas’s quick denunciation of it.”
The Israeli security forces have barred Palestinians from entering Israel since March 11, according to the military. But Palestinian bombers have managed to slip into Israel despite such bans in the past and have frequently struck during holiday periods.
In northern Gaza, a 19-year-old Palestinian, Mamdouh Obeid, was killed Monday by an Israeli artillery shell, according to Palestinian medical workers, who said two other young men were wounded.
Qatar Funds for Palestinians
By The New York Times
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 17 Qatar pledged $50 million in aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government on Monday, a day after Iran promised the same, a campaign by Palestinian officials to make up for the shortfall caused when the United States and the European Union suspended financial aid.
Arab governments have failed to meet earlier commitments.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
