Posted: 7/2/2008 12:36:50 PM EDT
www.truveo.com/Live-Footage-From-Scene-Shows-Off-Duty-Soldier/id/3350830267
Today in Israel. By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer 46 minutes ago JERUSALEM - A Palestinian man plowed an enormous construction vehicle into cars, buses and pedestrians on a busy street Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding at least 45 before he was shot dead by security officers. ADVERTISEMENT Israeli police referred to the man as a "terrorist" acting on his own. He repeatedly smashed vehicle after vehicle with the huge shovel on his machine, throwing cars into the air and overturning a bus. The first major attack in Jerusalem since March wreaked havoc in the heart of downtown. Hundreds of people fled in panic through the streets as medics treated the wounded. Three Palestinian militant groups took responsibility for the attack, but the claims could not be independently verified. The attack took place in front of a building housing the offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets. British Broadcasting Corp. footage captured the huge front loader crushing a vehicle and an off-duty soldier shooting the perpetrator in the head several times at point-blank range as onlookers screamed. Israel's national rescue service confirmed three deaths, and the bodies lay motionless on the ground covered in plastic. Hen Shimon, a 19-year-old soldier, said the whole scene was a "nightmare." "I just got off the bus and I saw the tractor driving and knocking everything down in his path," she said. "Everything he saw he rammed." Yosef Spielman said the construction vehicle picked up a car "like a toy." "I was shocked. I saw a guy going crazy," he said. "All the people were running. They had no chance." Eyal Lang Ben-Hur, 16, was in a bus when the driver yelled "Get out of the vehicle! Everyone out!" People fled in a panic, he said, and the bus was hit an instant later. Eli Mizrahi, an officer in a special anti-terror unit, said he and his partner sped to the scene on a motorcycle from the nearby Mahane Yehuda market in downtown Jerusalem. An off-duty soldier had just shot the attacker, but not killed him. "I ran up the stairs (of the vehicle) and, when he was still driving like crazy and trying to harm civilians, I fired at him twice more and, that's it, he was liquidated," Mizrahi told reporters. The attack occurred in an area where Jerusalem is building a new train system. The project has turned many parts of the city into a big construction zone. Israeli police said the attacker was a bulldozer operator who worked in the area for a construction firm. During the second Palestinian uprising, which erupted in late 2000, Jerusalem experienced dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks. The city has been largely quiet in the past three years, though sporadic attacks have persisted. In March, a Palestinian gunman entered a Jerusalem seminary and killed eight young students. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev called Wednesday's attack a "senseless act of murderous violence." President Bush called Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to express condolences about the attack and planned to call Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as well, White House press secretary Dana Perino said. The three organizations that took responsibility for the attack included the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, which is affiliated with Abbas. Abbas aide Saeb Erekat condemned the violence. The other two are the Galilee Freedom Battalion, which is suspected of being affiliated with Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a fringe left-wing militant group. The Hamas militant group, which runs the Gaza Strip and is currently maintaining a fragile cease-fire with Israel, said it did not carry out the attack but nevertheless praised it. "We consider it as a natural reaction to the daily aggression and crimes committed against our people in the West Bank and all over the occupied lands," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. Despite the Palestinian claims of responsibility, Israeli police chief Dudi Cohen said the attacker appeared to be acting alone. "It looks as if it was a spontaneous act," he said. Major Israeli retaliation appeared unlikely given the police chief's claim that the attacker acted alone and the Jewish state's desire to maintain the Gaza cease-fire and to support Abbas' security forces in the West Bank. Israeli police said the man, a father of two children, was an Arab in his 30s from east Jerusalem and had a criminal background. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said he had worked as a construction worker on the railway project. Later Wednesday, five military vehicles gathered outside the man's two-story home in east Jerusalem. Police entered the house, took pictures and questioned relatives for an hour before leaving without making arrests. Friends of the family identified the attacker as Hussam Dwikat. They said the 29-year-old was a devout Muslim, but had no known ties to any militant groups. "Everybody is in shock. When I was told what happened I started to curse Hussam because this is the first time he has done something like this," said Salayan Weyed, a friend of the attacker's wife. In contrast to West Bank Palestinians, Arab residents of Jerusalem have full freedom to work and travel throughout Israel. About two-thirds of Jerusalem's 700,000 residents are Jews, and the rest are Palestinians who came under Israeli control when Israel captured their part of the city in 1967. Israel's national rescue service said at least 45 people were wounded in Wednesday's attack. Wounded people sat dazed on the ground amid piles of broken glass and blood stains on the street. A half-dozen cars were flattened and others were overturned by the Caterpillar vehicle. A bus was overturned and another bus was heavily damaged. A woman sprinkled water over a baby's bloodied face, a rescue worker stroked the hair of a dazed elderly pedestrian and a loved one raised the bleeding leg of a woman sitting outside the overturned bus. Esther Valencia, a 52-year-old pedestrian, said she barely escaped the carnage. "He almost hit me. Someone pushed me out of the way at the last moment. It was a miracle that I got out of there." Cassia Pereira, office manager for AP's Jerusalem bureau, watched the attack unfold outside her window. "I saw him but it was too late and there was nothing to do," she said, with tears in her eyes. "I was in panic I couldn't say a word ... I realized something was not normal, something was wrong." The mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, said his daughter was on one of the buses rammed by the attacker, but she was not injured. "To our regret the attackers do not cease coming up with new ways to strike at the heart of the Jewish people here in Jerusalem," Lupolianski said. ___ Associated Press Writer Aron Heller contributed to this report. |
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a buddy of mine dropped out of school (he was an Artificial Intelligence major) halfway through his senior year of college and left for Israel. Lived in a Kibbutz (sp?) for 6 months to get his hebrew up to snuff, then joined the IDF. He's an interesting kid- but now a bad-ass soldier... crazy Jews... eta: i used to throw him around all the time... i'd like to think i could still kick his ass. i'm probably sorely mistaken |
| there is a reason they know how to take care of business. Theocracy is a wonderful thing. Allegiance to the state is united by religion an loyalty to ones people which is something we Americans by our very nature cannot understand. I'm glad there are different ways to get to the same goal though. I like our country better even if it does have warts. |
Doug Maybe I missing some thing because my internet connection is too slow to view the video but from what I read, cop or citizen (a reservist too) the shooting seems legit. In theory, I understand and agree with your point about .gov folks having a greater need to preserve human life than a civ. In this case, Any cop, solider, or citizen was 100% in the right to "liquidate" the bad guy. Can you expand on your reasoning in this case? The Bald Monk |
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First point Israeli soldiers are different from U.S. soldiers because of universal conscription. Unless they were on active duty and on an assigned mission, I count all of them as citizens. Second, soldiers are different from police officers because soldiers are created for the purpose of sanctioned killing. Only recently have our soldiers been seen as "peacekeepers" which is a strange concept for a soldier. The reason I hold police to a much higher standard is because of the probability of abuse. Police enjoy immunities and prerogatives that we as mere citizens are not privy to. Likewise our government and its agents are held to a much higher standard in their burden of proof for their actions. The government cannot take arbitrary actions. The police's role is to investigate crime and apprehend criminals. They do not owe me a duty of protection, as the Supreme Court has told us. Every person apprehended by the government is innocent until convicted by a jury of their peers. So by definition, every person shot by police officers have had their constitutional rights infringed. Does that mean a police officer cannot have a "good shoot"? Of course not. But I'm extremely nervous of police shootings. The officer had better be able to describe the reason there was no other option in great specificity. The department should be accountable to devise ways that such force could be prevented in future similar situations. Sometimes the death sentence is the only option, I'm not advocating removing it as a possibility. BUT Katheryn Johnson would be alive today if it wasn't a governmental option. I don't believe if I broke into the wrong persons home and shot them to death I'd still be walking free. If the police are the agents of the government and the government derives it's just powers from the consent of the governed, why do they have any more protection then we do? So if the bulldozer being steered towards to crowed market took place in America and the only person who stopped it was a police officer who decided to use deadly force, I'd want an investigation as to what went wrong and what if anything could have been done to apprehend the person to stand trial. Otherwise let's just turn in our rights and let the government take care of us as best its able. 
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Doug I disagree with you on your comments above. I am on active duty and on an assigned mission am I not a citizen?  Soldiers are made to win wars not to conduct state sanctioned killings. True enough, soldiers use killing (Marines do it better) to win some battles during a war. Other battles just require soldiers to be ready to kill. The American Army in Europe did not kill many Russians from 1945 to 1989 but they sure as hell won the battle. Armies have been used as peace keepers for centuries. The Roman Legions first brought war, then the Pax Romana, and finally civilization to the lands they conquered. The British Empire carried on for years due the peace keeping efforts of her Navy and her Army. The US Army have been effective peace keepers since the first forts were built on the plains in the 1840's. Saying soldiers are created for the purpose of killing is the same as saying guns are manufactured only for killing. Yes they both can kill and kill effectively but they are created for many purposes. Soldiers are made to win wars nothing more and nothing less. The Bald Monk |
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Soldiers keep the peace through threat of force. The analogy of the cold war is very fitting because it was never a police action but a constant threat to use the sanctioned force of killing which held both sides in check. Roman legion operated the same way in the constant threat of overwhelming force. And while the British used the terror of their troops for a season all of their occupied lands were able with time to shed the colonial rule and assert self determination. I think we be near the point where the police forces are the same thing, the constant threat of force to prevent and subdue their targets. But we are not there yet and I sincerely hope we never do get to that point. That we have citizen control of the military shows that we as a society draw a distinction between the people and the standing army. I fully realize the army is made up of citizens and there is constant debate as to whether a soldier will follow certain orders if they should lever be issued against the citizenry of the U.S., BUT we recognize that the military as an entity is separate and distinct from the citizenry and is expected to behave in a different manner. As far as whether soldiers are made to win wars or to kill is more of a semantical difference then a real disagreement. I simply cut to the chase that wars cannot be won without death. We acknowledge, accept, and endorse that in preservation of our style of life. But rhetoric like the war on terror and the war on drugs have distorted that view point. The fact that we no longer declare war, but just operate outside the limits of the constitution is the root of this confusion. Just because it is expedient or easy does not mean it is right. Congress should have declared war on Iraq, and I mean the first time in 1991. We'd have the situation under control now if we had done the job right and committed to it all the way 17 years ago. But this is a different role then the police. The police should not exist to exercise terror over their enemies. The police's role is to aid the criminal justice system. They are the investigators and first responders for the prosecutors whose role it is to seek justice. If the police become the fort guards of the urban frontier I'm afraid we've lost something very dear to our American identity. |
Yes, please answer this. You have set up your standards, but you have not said at all why, after viewing this video, "If the police did it," and I assume by "it" you mean what you saw in the video, "I'd be flaming them now." Why? |
Yes, please answer this. You have set up your standards, but you have not said at all why, after viewing this video, "If the police did it," and I assume by "it" you mean what you saw in the video, "I'd be flaming them now." Why? |
I checked with my Commander on this one... he said we were fresh out of unlimited resources AND unlimited power. I guess the mailman was held up and the delivery was late.  As for articulating the need to use deadly force on a man who was actively mowing down hordes of people with a bazillion-pound piece of construction equipment; I think I could pretty well 'splain that one. Really now, Doug, you make it sound as if my being a LEO precludes my ability to be a citizen. We are all citizens first, regardless of employment! |
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I think that part of what Doug is saying is that he is affraid that we are moving towards a police state. Or maybe I am wrong. There are parts of what Doug is saying that I agree with and parts that I don't. I think that the federal government has been givin too much power wo be used in the name of counter terrorism. I think that we have not really seen this on the state or local level to any real extent. Make no mistake though, if the legislation and the executive orders continueto trend as they have since 9/11, the table will be set for someone to abuse them to a level that a people that thought themselves to be free would have never imagined. Or maybe I am just a wackoo? 
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I don't know if we are all citizens first though. Some people may see life that way, but when you have greater power and immunity it separates you. I see that mentality drilled home in my limited exposure to law enforcement training as well. The whole "thin blue line" concept that separates police from the "other" (Frame of reference) in an attempt to instill an espirt de corps. However, this same distancing creates conflict because every person is then viewed as different and differences rather than being uniting tend to divide. Some is due to the nature of the job. Anyone who works in the criminal justice system becomes cynical after awhile. But I believe that we are on the first steps to a much darker period and the only way to hold back the flood is to fight not the people but the mentality. Also though I'm sounding prejudiced against all police officers, the reality is that stereotypes exist for a reason and that is a plurality of problems what reinforce the belief. The system breeds contempt, both ways. The days of the friendly beat cop are long gone. I see more and more officers who walk around in every day life dressed like I do when I play war games at creekside. The militarization of the police force has crossed a very important line in the name of security. |
Well, it is Israel, so I guess they could have employed rockets from a helicopter, but there probably was not time. Somehow I am not sure that is what you meant. |
Dking While I still disagree with the you on why we have soldiers and Marines  I agree with you on the hyper militarization of the the police. Security may be the latest buzz word used to cover it but it is all about the $$$$$ Police Departments always like to have more operating funds hence the increased use of terms such as improved security, terrorism response units, and anti drug squads. The Feds pay locals lots of money for waging the "war on drugs" and beefing up SWAT teams. I am not LEO bashing. I am LEO Brass and Politician bashing Back to your comment on about good shoot for .civ but not a good shoot for a cop. For the record, in our AO, the military currently conducts an investigation every time a weapon is discharged any where but the range. Given the circumstances of the shooting in Israel, any one, .civ, .mil, or police, there should have been an investigation to determine the facts. If facts make it a good shoot for a .civ or .mil then it should be a good shot for a cop. This was a response shooting to a bad guy with a weapon (big ole bulldozer). It was not a raid on some old lady's house using a bogus search warrant.. The guy need killing and the killing needed to be done quickly. Lies and actions of bad cops acting under BS rules for the War on Drugs killed Mrs. Johnson. |
Police, IDF, a citizen, who cares who did it as long as he was stopped. Israeli's take care of business. Its a way of life for tens of thousands. They don't wait, they get it done, now. It's open season 247/365. Good job, and well done. Me? I'd of emptied the mag in his head and thrown the body into the street.  Shalom Y'all! 1/2 Jew All Ranger! Congrats on your new Baby eagle, they rock. 
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