The Israeli Arab community is threatening violence.
Sheikh Kamel Hatib – deputy head of the Northern Islamic Movement – told The Jerusalem Post while he hoped riots would not erupt, he did not believe the Israeli-Arabs would let the attack pass by quietly.
"I hope there will not be violence," Hatib said. "But the massacre that happened today will not pass quietly and with the entire Israeli-Arab sector upset things might develop."
Mayor of Umm el Fahm, Hashem Al Rahman, who in October 2000 was deputy mayor of the city, said the mood was not the same now as it was five years ago.
"The people are very upset," Al Rahman said. "Anyone who is sane would be upset by this attack and the people here will need to be allowed to express their anger."
Express their anger against whom? How many horrific attacks by Arab terrorists have Israelis suffered? And how many of them have rioted in response? Al Rahman is correct that anyone who is sane would be upset by this attack. And they are. The Jewish neighbors and countrymen of the victims are, almost without exception, vocally outraged.
MKs from across the political spectrum condemned Thursday's murders in Shfaram, especially Arab MKs, who blamed the government and security officials for allowing the attack to happen.
Hadash leader Mohammed Barakei, who lives in Shfaram, tried to calm down the angry mob that surrounded the bus where the attack took place and tried to mediate between soldiers and the residents of the town. Barakei said the attacker should have been prevented from coming armed to Shfaram.
I don't know. That doesn't sound so much like someone trying to calm down an angry mob to me. It sounds more like someone trying to justify, if not incite, an "expression of anger" against "the government and security officials."
