Jerusalem braced for attacks:people destined to die sometime soon

[krsna]

Jerusalem braced for attacks

 

By James Shaw

BBC, Jerusalem

 

 

Hard-faced men with metal detectors stand at the entrances to shops and cafes in the centre of west Jerusalem.

 

Jerusalem looks like a besieged city

Scores of soldiers with automatic weapons patrol the pavements; security guards man the buses.

 

As the people in the city speculate anxiously about what might happen next after the killing of the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the authorities are not taking any chances.

 

It seems that that the cafes are a little emptier than normal on a weekday afternoon, but there are still street performers and musicians attracting small crowds on Ben Yehuda street in a warm spring sunshine.

 

'Walking dead'

 

Israel's popular daily Yediot Ahronot carries an opinion poll suggesting most people approve of the assassination of a man believed to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israeli civilians.

 

 

Jerusalem's buses are now virtually empty

 

But an opinion column warns it is not a question of whether Hamas will strike back - only where and when.

 

The writer says there are now walking dead on the streets of the city - they are destined to die in a terrorist attack sometime soon and yet no-one asked their permission for the actions of the Israeli Defence Force.

 

Jennifer Flam - a young student originally from the United States - is waiting to meet a friend near a bus stop on Gaza Street.

 

No sympathy

 

But she doesn't use buses anymore, she says, since narrowly avoiding two bombings in the past.

 

At one time, she says, she took part in dialogue group with Palestinians.

 

Now the feeling that her life and the lives of her friends are threatened in a regular and random way makes it hard for her to feel sympathy with them.

 

When you spend hours in a hospital with a friend who was on a bus that was blown up it changes your opinion

 

Jennifer Flam, Israeli student

 

 

Gaza eyes brewing storm

Once, she says, she would have opposed the assassinations by the Israeli army; now she is not so sure.

 

Jennifer - like so many Israelis - has direct and bitter experience of terrorism.

 

"When you spend hours in a hospital with a friend who was on a bus that was blown up," she says, "it changes your opinion."

 

Other citizens of Jerusalem are just as desperate for peace and just as unsure how to achieve it.

 

One man says it can only happen when all the terrorists in the world have been wiped out. Another believes there has been a failure to tackle the causes of terrorism.

 

The US-sponsored "roadmap" to achieve a settlement of the conflict failed last summer.

 

Perhaps worse than that, there seems to be no roadmap in the minds of Israelis and Palestinians to find a way to end more than half a century of bloodshed.

 

 

[Kulapavana]

primitive people with their primitive religions make disturbance all over the world.

 

it is amazing how little difference is there between these two sides in both actions and attitudes, and how deep is their hate for each other.

 

these people certainly deserve what they have

[Guest guest]

As long as there is intolerance, peace cannot be achieved.

But Muslims have long been known for their attack on NON muslims, their intelorance and Bigotry is well known.

They kill innocent civilians.

And they are the worst terrorists.

 

They carry trouble wherever they go.

 

Look at Afganistan, Chechnya, Kashmir, they just mean trouble.

 

But Jews have settled in India, and they call themselves Indians. So are Parsees. They have mingled very well with Indian people.

[theist]

I don't equate the two at all. This guy Yassin and his Hamas have repeated said they will never negotiate with the Jews and have as a goal to kill them all or at least drive them from the region. Pure racial hatred.