Highway 443
Highway 443Israel news photo: Flash 90

Arab terrorists lightly wounded a father and his nine-month-old baby boy on Saturday night with a firebomb (Molotov cocktail) on “terror highway 443," which connects Jerusalem with the city of Modi’in. The terrorists escaped. Medics treated the father and baby at the scene.

The IDF had closed the road to Palestinian Authority Arabs several years ago because of deadly attacks at the beginning of the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War, but the High Court ruled two months ago that the order violated the basic human rights of the Arab population.

The army is preparing plans to satisfy the court order, but since the ruling, the number of attacks has increased dramatically. Ten days ago, terrorists from a PA vehicle shot at an IDF checkpost on the key highway.

In 2009, there were 299 firebomb attacks and 22,450 stoning attacks on Israeli roads, all of which are designed to cause fatal accidents. The father and baby in Saturday night's incident were injured after the driver crashed into a guardrail following the firebombing.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not comment on the attack, which was one of thousands of violations of the PA commitment to halt its violence and incitement against Israel. She sharply reprimanded Israel on Friday for last week’s announcement that Israel is continuing to build new housing units for Jews in the Jewish neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, a part of the capital which was restored to the country in the Six-Day War in 1967 and is surrounded on all sides by other Jewish neighborhoods.

Her unprecedented bitter criticism of Israel followed the departure of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden from the region, who felt insulted by the announcement of new building for Jews at the same time he was trying to encourage indirect talks between Israel and the PA.

As Vice President Biden was preparing to leave Israel after his first official visit to the Jewish State, PA media continued to violate the American-mediated agreement with Israel to halt incitement. PA television praised the perpetrator of the “Coastal Road massacre” in 1978, when a female terrorist hijacked a bus and murdered 37 people.

PA television called the attack "a glorious chapter in the history of the Palestinian people...in the heart of the occupation state.” PA officials said the delay was due to “technical reasons,” but the Palestinian Note website reported that the dedication took place.