I had an uneasy feeling something like this was coming, and I was dreading it– just when the relative calm was allowing Israelis and Palestinians to enjoy some semblance of normal life. And this was when there had been no major Israeli assaults on Palestinian targets for several days, and Israel was negotiating to return two West Bank towns to Palestinian control.
You know the routine by now: the Palestinian authorities will make their usual excuses or promises and then do nothing, the rest of the world will tell the Palestinians they must-do-more-to-rein-in-terror, the Israelis may launch a legitimate attack in retaliation which might inadvertently kill innocent civilians, people will accuse Israel of murdering Palestinians but not the other way round…
Along with what happened in Baghdad, a depressing day.
Update: Abbas will probably deny it, but this is interesting.
Update: Death toll in Jerusalem is now up to 20, with at least 74 wounded. At the time of the bombing, Abbas was meeting with representatives of Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Update: Kol Yisrael now is identifying the suicide murderer as a Hamas member. A lot of the dead and wounded are children.
