A sharp spike in Palestinian terror attacks coincided with an official visit to Israel by United States Vice President Joe Biden, who attended a meeting Tuesday about a mile from a deadly attack in Jaffa.
In the span of three hours, three terror attacks hit Jaffa, Petah Tikva, and Jerusalem, with at least two other attempted attacks foiled. For Biden, the nearby terrorist stabbing spree in Jaffa hit close to home, as 22-year-old Bashar Massalha from Auja in the Qalqilya area stabbed and killed Taylor Force, an American tourist, US Army veteran, and West Point graduate.
Taylor Force was killed by a Palestinian on a murderous rampage. Force, who was a graduate student at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management, was visiting Israel with his classmates in order to learn about global entrepreneurship and also to share his expertise with start-ups in Israel.
Massalha also critically injured Force’s wife, moderately-to-seriously injured a pregnant woman, and wounded between 8 and 11 others, including two Arab men, based on varied reports.
Massalha’s attack began at the Jaffa Port where he stabbed several pedestrians before running northward to Jaffa’s clock tower, where he stabbed two more.
He then ran on toward the Manta Ray beachfront restaurant, where he stabbed four others. He tried, without success, to attack a driver sitting in his car and, at some point, was hit over the head with a guitar when he tried stabbing the musician, Yishai Montgomery, who continued to chase him until police arrived on scene.
In Petah Tikva, earlier in the day, another Qalqilya terrorist came up behind a 39-year-old Jewish man and stabbed him repeatedly, including in the neck. Both the victim and the owner of the store where the attack took place subdued the attacker, mortally wounding him with his own knife.
Just outside the Jerusalem Old City, after 5 pm on Tuesday, two Border Police officers were shot and seriously injured by a male motorcyclist with an improvised submachine gun, according to police. According to The Jerusalem Post, “hundreds of curious Palestinians passively watched the chaotic scene unfold.” Earlier Tuesday, in Jerusalem, a female terrorist pulled a knife from her bag and tried to stab a Border Police officer in the Old City, being shot and killed in the process.
“They’re targeting innocent civilians, mothers, pregnant women, teenagers, grandfathers, American citizens,” Biden said after Tuesday’s attacks. “There can be no justification for this hateful violence, and the United States stands firmly behind Israel’s right to defend itself as we are defending ourselves at this moment as well.”
Vice President Joe Biden (pictured with his wife, Jill, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara) has criticized Palestinian officials after they praised the terrorist who killed an American tourist in Tel Aviv, calling the terrorist a ‘martyr’ and a ‘hero’ student.
Biden called on the Palestinian Authority to condemn the attacks, but Abbas refused, merely expressing condolences to Biden for Force’s death, quickly dropping in a reference to Palestinian casualty numbers — many of whom were terrorists killed amid their murderous attacks. Meanwhile, Abbas’ party, Fatah, posted on their official Facebook page a drawing of a hand gripping a knife with the name of Force’s murderer and the words “The Heroic Martyr” written in Arabic. (Facebook)
Earlier this week, as well, Abbas wrote a letter to the family of a young Arab Palestinian woman who was shot and killed while running over an Israeli soldier with her car. Abbas wrote to her parents, “We see in her a martyr who watered the pure earth of Palestine with her blood.” (Times of Israel)
On Wednesday, Biden stated in a joint press conference with Netanyahu, “Let me say in no uncertain terms: the United States of America condemns these acts and condemns the failure to condemn these acts.”
Fatah Facebook glorifies terrorism against Jewish Israelis. (Source: Netanyahu Facebook)
