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September 19: Palestinian Terrorism
lawrencebush
September 19, 2014
A suicide bombing in Tel Aviv destroyed a bus and killed six on this date in 2002. It was one of dozens of such attacks over a four-year period from the eruption of the Second Intifada in October, 2000 until the death of Yasser Arafat in November, 2004, including: August 9, 2001, a suicide bombing of a Tel Aviv nightclub kills 21; December 1, 2001, 15 killed in a Jerusalem pizzeria; December 2, 2001, 11 killed along a Jerusalem pedestrian mall; January 4, 2002, 15 killed on a bus in Haifa; March 9, 2002, 11 killed at a Jerusalem bar mitsve party; March 12, 2002, 11 killed in a Jerusalem cafe; March 29, 2002, 30 killed at a Netanya hotel during a Passover seder; etc. The Second Intifada, coming on the heels of the failed Camp David Summit during the final days of the Clinton Presidency, destroyed the credibility of the Israeli peace movement and set in motion the tragic ascendancy of the Israeli right to this very day.
“[T]here is plenty of evidence that Arafat opposed the intifada but felt powerless to stop it. As in the 1991 Gulf War, Arafat chose to ride the tiger of public opinion, even to disaster.” —Glenn E. Robinson, Foreign Policy