Jer Pzipokatsatakis, 35, a member of the Greek Catholic community who lived in a Wadi Kelt monastery, was murdered by Palestinian terrorists last night in a drive-by shooting on the well-traveled Jerusalem- Maaleh Adumim highway. Emergency medical service personnel pronounced the victim dead on the scene, only about 100 meters from an IDF checkpoint. The murderers are believed to have fled to the Area B areas [Palestinian civil control] of Abu Dis or Azariya. The targeted vehicle\'s yellow Israeli license plates led the killers to believe they were firing on a Jewish driver.
Bentzy Lazerovitch, a long-time local resident familiar with the monasteries in the area, told Arutz-7 today that the murdered monk lived in the St. George Monastery, \"which is about 1,500 years old - with some long recesses in between... Most of the monks there are from Greece, but a few of them are actually Israeli citizens, as was the man who was killed last night.... The attack occurred not as close to Maaleh Adumim as is being reported; it was closer to Jerusalem and Mt. Scopus than to Maaleh Adumim, only about five kilometers from the French Hill junction. It is unbelievable that the soldiers, only dozens of meters away, did not catch them. This is a major highway traveled by anyone who goes from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea or to the Jordan Valley and the north...\"
What does the Arab murder of a monk mean from a political point of view? \"For one thing, it\'s not true that the monks are pro-Arab; in private conversation they are actually very supportive of Israel, but they cannot express this view very loudly... Maybe now the world will realize that the terrorists don\'t care who they hit; they simply take aim, and it doesn\'t matter if the target is a five-month old baby, or a Christian monk who has nothing whatsoever to do with the dispute. Maybe finally the world will wake up and begin to fight the war against this global Islamic threat - a war in which Israel finds itself in the forefront; we are actually protecting the Belgians and the Americans and everyone else…\"
In addition to the murder, the Palestinians managed to get in some other attacks before Arafat informed Tenet late last night of his agreement to the ceasefire: Fire was opened on an IDF outpost at Rafiach… A soldier south of Shavei Shomron was injured by shrapnel in a shooting attack... A military jeep was attacked by gunfire east of Shechem, near Itamar…
Bentzy Lazerovitch, a long-time local resident familiar with the monasteries in the area, told Arutz-7 today that the murdered monk lived in the St. George Monastery, \"which is about 1,500 years old - with some long recesses in between... Most of the monks there are from Greece, but a few of them are actually Israeli citizens, as was the man who was killed last night.... The attack occurred not as close to Maaleh Adumim as is being reported; it was closer to Jerusalem and Mt. Scopus than to Maaleh Adumim, only about five kilometers from the French Hill junction. It is unbelievable that the soldiers, only dozens of meters away, did not catch them. This is a major highway traveled by anyone who goes from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea or to the Jordan Valley and the north...\"
What does the Arab murder of a monk mean from a political point of view? \"For one thing, it\'s not true that the monks are pro-Arab; in private conversation they are actually very supportive of Israel, but they cannot express this view very loudly... Maybe now the world will realize that the terrorists don\'t care who they hit; they simply take aim, and it doesn\'t matter if the target is a five-month old baby, or a Christian monk who has nothing whatsoever to do with the dispute. Maybe finally the world will wake up and begin to fight the war against this global Islamic threat - a war in which Israel finds itself in the forefront; we are actually protecting the Belgians and the Americans and everyone else…\"
In addition to the murder, the Palestinians managed to get in some other attacks before Arafat informed Tenet late last night of his agreement to the ceasefire: Fire was opened on an IDF outpost at Rafiach… A soldier south of Shavei Shomron was injured by shrapnel in a shooting attack... A military jeep was attacked by gunfire east of Shechem, near Itamar…