Wednesday, July 17, 2002

albawaba.com: Two suicide bombers hit Tel Aviv; several people killed, likely foreign workers

Both Islamic Jihad and Hamas have claimed responsibility. The explosion (which reportedly killed three innocents) was in a bar "crowded with Romanian workers". The AP story is less clear that the dead were probably foreign workers, but reports of a Romanian saying he plans to take his family back to Romania.

Disgusting as it is, this bombing may have some strategic value. Instead of killing Israelis, they're killing foreign workers, people who have no real ties to Israel. Those people can be driven away, and while it won't satisfy the Islamokaze's Jew-hatred, it will at the least damage the Israeli economy. Assuming that they can repeat it, of course.

Now, the danger is that they might anger foreign powers and turn them to the side of Israel. What if they had been Russian workers rather than Romanian? Or any country that's powerful itself or has a powerful patron? The superpower is more or less on Israel's side, but the lesser powers are (de facto, at the least) with the Arabs. They really don't want to change that, or if they do it's a serious mistake.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment


<< Home