Thomas. One morning we will all wake up to the news that an all out massive attack on the arab/palestinians has begun.
This long time in coming and well deserved attack appears to be the only kind of negotiation these people understand.
They will lose, so what will they have gained with all their terror attacks???
Palestinian gunmen kill U.S. citizen
2nd Israeli also shot to death
Published January 16, 2002
JERUSALEM -- Palestinian militants shot to death two Israelis on Tuesday, including an elderly and disabled American citizen who was seized from a Palestinian checkpoint, driven off in his car and riddled with at least 20 bullets, authorities said.
The killings were the first of civilians by Palestinian militants since Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat called last month for a halt to all attacks. The same shadowy group of gunmen that claimed responsibility for Tuesday's killings vowed more acts of violence.
"The days of quiet are over," news analyst Alex Fishman wrote in the daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot.
At the same time, however, Palestinian officials met a key Israeli demand by arresting the head of the Palestinian faction that Israel blames for assassinating Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in October, according to news reports.
Israeli officials were skeptical about the arrest of Ahmed Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
"Until I see him behind bars, I won't believe it," said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "We've been disappointed so many times and fed up with so many announcements that they've arrested someone."
Gissin said news of Saadat's arrest probably was meant to impress two groups of visiting American lawmakers. He predicted the Palestinians would soon free Saadat, who got the top job after a Popular Front leader was killed in August, allegedly at the hands of Israelis.
A top-ranking Palestinian security official was quoted as saying that the Popular Front leader would not be turned over to the Israelis for trial.
In a statement sent to the news media, militants from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for the slaying of Avi Boaz, 72.
The militants, linked to Arafat's Fatah faction, said the killing was "another, but not the last response," to the death on Monday of Raed Karmi. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade leader, who boasted of killing Israelis, was killed by a bomb that Palestinians blame on the Israelis.
Karmi's killing and the deaths Tuesday followed one of the quietest three-week periods since the latest intifada erupted in Israel in September 2000.
"The two leaders, Arafat and Sharon, have decided to continue moving along two parallel lines that will never meet," Fishman wrote.
"Things are getting worse," said Jabr Wishah, deputy director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which is in the Gaza Strip. "And with confidence I can say that the worst has not yet come."
Arafat's Palestinian Authority issued a statement condemning the killings and affirming its commitment to a cease-fire.
Boaz, who was born in Israel but held a U.S. passport, was an engineer and contractor who served a mainly Arab clientele. Boaz had driven to Beit Jala, an Arab community on the edge of Jerusalem, with a Palestinian friend. Boaz wanted to buy some furniture for his house, according to Israeli army officials and Israeli news reports.
He was stopped at a checkpoint staffed by four members of the Palestinian naval forces and four others in civilian clothes, the Israeli army said. When the Arab companion refused to leave the car, the four unidentified men beat him and threw him out of the car. They then drove off with Boaz, who was blind in one eye and had a wooden leg.
His body was found several hours later in his car near a playground in Beit Sahour. Palestinian officials notified the Israelis of Boaz's death only after his American passport was found, the Israelis said. The details of the attack were pieced together with the help of Boaz's Arab companion, they said.
There were no details on the U.S. citizenship of Boaz, who lived in Maale Adumim, a large settlement outside Jerusalem.
"He worked with them [Arabs]. They were his friends. He was a man who trusted everyone. He trusted the world," said Boaz's daughter Idit.
In the other killing, Yoela Chen, 45, was shot to death by two men who fired at her vehicle at close range, army officials said. Her car had been parked at a gas station in Givat Zeev, another large settlement on Jerusalem's edge. Chen's 70-year-old aunt, who also was wounded, was listed in moderate to serious condition, the army said.
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