HaShem yinkom damam.

Well, if this was a bet you kind of lose it.

The actual New York Times story (online so far) is headlined:

Suicide Bomb Kills 3 in Bakery in Israel

In the entire article I think the attacker is not given any sort of description at all, except "Palestinian" and "bomber" and his name is used. (Of course the New York times is careful to get his name right and, after the first use, to use the title Mr. and his last name.)

They totally avoid the issue.. They don't use the word terrorist or terrorism or militant - or anything. Except they quote Ehud Olmert as using the word terrorism and indirectly source the word terror to the United States. The New York Times itself simply calls it an "attack." It says the "town" was "targeted."

Deep in the story, "militants" is uaed to describe the people in Abbas's movement who won't listen to him [Militants = people in Fatah who won't listen to Abbas] and continue "violence against civilians."

The article mentions an Islamic Jihad press conference where a masked man said this was retaliation, but note Islamic Jihad said something different on its web site: that the aim was to encourage Palestinians to stop fighting each other and instead kill Israelis.

Indirectly the article seems to hint that it was people the attacker's knew dying that got him to do it. His baby daughter died of an illness and as friend was killed i na clash with Israeli forces. They may be right - this makes it easier.

The article is also careful to note how this might hurt some sort of diplomacy. I don't know if it is still annoying to read that.You;d think that after 50 ior 60 years they'd stop it with this diplomacy. It didn't work with the Soviet Union either.

Published: January 29, 2007

JERUSALEM, Jan. 29 — After nine months without a suicide bombing in Israel, a Palestinian walked from Egypt across the open desert border, hitched a ride from a suspicious Israeli motorist and then blew himself up today inside a bakery in the Red Sea resort town of Eilat, Israeli officials said.

Security officers investigating the scene of a suicide attack in Eilat, Israel.

Three Israelis who worked in the bakery were killed by the blast, the first time that Eilat, isolated at the very southern tip of Israel, was ever hit by a suicide bombing.

The town was apparently targeted because Israel’s web of defenses and travel restrictions on Palestinians have made it extremely difficult for bombers to reach Israel from the West Bank, the source of virtually all such bombings in recent years.

The attack also complicated the latest effort to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which have languished for six years. The United States, which is holding talks on Friday that will include European, Russian and United Nations officials, said that if the Palestinian government failed to prevent terror, it would “undermine the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a state of their own.”

Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, did not say what action, if any, Israel might take. “We shall draw the conclusions and learn the lessons and instruct our security people to continue their ongoing and never-ending struggle against terrorists and those who send them,” he said.

In recent weeks, most of the violence in the region has involved internal Palestinian street battles in the Gaza Strip. That violence continued today, with at least three Palestinians killed in Gaza, bringing the toll to about 30 since last Thursday.

The Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades and Islamic Jihad claimed joint responsibility for today’s suicide attack and identified the bomber as Muhammad Faisal al-Siksik, 21, from northern Gaza.

Mr. Siksik’s family and relatives said he left home three days ago and was upset because he had no job and his baby daughter recently died of an illness, The Associated Press reported. Also, a friend was killed in a clash with Israeli forces, they said.

Islamic Jihad said the bomber reached Israel from Jordan. But both Jordan and Israeli security officials denied this.

Mr. Siksik left Gaza and entered Egypt, said Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Israeli police. The bomber then walked across Egypt’s desert border with Israel, which is aggressively patrolled, but has no fence or other barrier for most of its length.

After entering Israel, Mr. Siksik reached a road north of Eilat this morning, and hitched a ride from an Israeli driver, Mr. Rosenfeld said. Mr. Siksik, who was wearing a black coat and carrying a black bag, was acting suspiciously, and the Israeli driver called the police immediately after dropping Mr. Siksik on the northern edge of Eilat, Mr. Rosenfeld said.

The police were immediately dispatched to the scene, but before they could arrive, Mr. Siksik reached the bakery, a few hundred yards from where he got out of the car, Mr. Rosenfeld said.

Benny Mazgini, an Israeli who witnessed the attack, told Israeli radio that he said he saw a man wearing a black jacket and carrying a black bag on the street outside the bakery. “I thought it was odd because it was very hot and I told myself, ‘Why is that idiot dressed that way?’ ”

Seconds later, the bomber detonated his explosive in the Lechamim bakery, tearing the inside apart, shattering windows and leaving the pavement outside covered with blood and body parts.

In a Gaza City news conference following the blast, a masked spokesman for Islamic Jihad said the bombing came in retaliation for Israeli raids against Palestinian groups. On its Web site, Islamic Jihad also said the bombing was aimed at redirecting the world’s focus away from the internal Palestinian fighting in Gaza.

“The operation has a clear message to the Palestinian rivals,” Islamic Jihad said on its Web site. “It is necessary to end the infighting and point the guns toward the occupation that has hurt the Palestinian people.”

Hamas, the radical Islamic group that leads the Palestinian government, did not claim involvement in the bombing. But Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, described the attack as a “natural response” to Israeli military operations against the Palestinians. “So long as there is occupation, resistance is legitimate,” he said.

The Sinai peninsula of Egypt, which is largely empty aside from beachfront hotels and fishing villages, has been rocked by a number of bombings in the past two years that were directed at Israeli and Western tourists.

Both Israel and Egypt have expressed concern that the vast, hilly terrain of Sinai offers a natural haven for radical Islamic groups to plan and carry out attacks.

Islamic Jihad has been involved in almost all of the suicide bombings against Israel in the past two years. The Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, meanwhile, is linked to the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Mr. Abbas and other Fatah leaders say they oppose violence against civilians. But the Al Aksa militants say they act on their own. At minimum, today’s bombing is an embarrassment for Mr. Abbas, again showing his inability to control factions that claim loyalty to his movement.

The last suicide bombing in Israel was an Islamic Jihad attack on April 17, 2006, when 11 people were killed at a small restaurant in Tel Aviv.

While attacks in Eilat are rare, three rockets were fired from the Jordanian side of the border in August 2005. The apparent targets were two United States Navy vessels, which were not hit. In Jordan, one soldier was killed, and in Eilat, a taxi driver was wounded.

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By the way, attack in Pakistan - the near miss at the marriott Hiotel in Islamabad where a security guard stopped the bomber, did not make the New York Times at all on Sunday. It rated only a small 4 line mention in the Wall Street Journal what;s news section. The next day, they tried to kill many people at a what was going to be a large Shiite (There are no Jews to kill in Pakistan and almost no Hindus and very fee Christians - besides they've already done them)

The bomber attempted to go in, but police wer already setting up or had set up security so he exploded killing about 15 police including the Chief of Police (In Israel I think we have mostly gotten past that stage and succeed often in stopping suicide bombers without the people manning the checkpoints getting killed)

It would be interesting to see what words Al Jazeera uses for the attackers in Pakistan.

The Marriott Hotel is in what is considerd the safest part of Islambabad. Foreigners use that hotel.. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was scheduled to meet Mushareff theer - maybe some kind of a photo op. The bomb in Pesahwar exploded at a market location everyone passes through and stiops and buys things.

Sammy:

It was a "terror attack." That the NY Times cannot even bring themselves to use this simple common sense language demonstrates their moral vacuity. Believe me, the jihadists recognize and appreciate what the NY Times does for their murderous cause.