The Egyptian Gazette implied that the attack was the result of "hurt feelings." The paper wrote that the bombing "followed the Jewish passengers' pilgrimage to the Wailing Wall in the Holy City, where non-Muslim visitors are allowed by the Israeli authorities to go into al-Haram al-Sharif [the Temple Mount], a move which hurts the Muslims' feelings."
The English-language Gazette columnist implies that such attacks help defend the Temple Mount: "Al-Aqsa mosque is the Muslims' third holiest site, a fact which makes it imperative to defend it and regain it from the occupiers. The Israelis keep defiling this mosque. In September 2000, Sharon, Israel's then opposition leader, provocatively visited the site under heavy guard provided by the then-government of Ehud Barak."
A third explanation provided by the Gazette is, "Israeli officials' statements add to the Palestinians' frustrations and fuel their vindictiveness to demonstrate their unpreparedness to give up their inalienable rights under all circumstances."
Another Egyptian publication, the weekly magazine Akher Sa'a, says that Israel "forces" the terrorists to murder Jews. Commenting on the US-backed Road Map, which the magazine praises for envisioning a Palestinian state, Akher Sa'a editorializes, "The Sharon government clearly rejects the plan and seeks to undermine it. [But] they cannot openly declare this, and thus resort to provoking the Palestinians and force them to commit suicide bombings. Unfortunately Hamas has fallen in this trap..."
After the Jerusalem attack, Israel retaliated. The most high-profile target eliminated in Israeli counter-terror operations in the days following the suicide bombing was senior Hamas leader Ismail Abu-Shanab. Al-Quds al-Arabi, an Arabic-language Jerusalem-based newspaper, saw the assassination of Abu-Shanab not as retaliation for the death of 21 innocent civilians, but as part of an Israeli plan to sabotage the ceasefire. However, the newspaper declares, "The operation that killed Abu-Shanab will not weaken the Hamas movement and will not succeed in putting pressure on its leaders. It will rather make them more radical in aspiring to even more martyrdom."
Sunday's Al-Akhbar al-Yom in Egypt declared, following the Israeli actions against Hamas, "Israel started a comprehensive war against Palestinians...." It was the assassination of Abu-Shanab, and not the mass murder of Jews in Israel's capital, that "enkindled violence again," the paper wrote, concluding, "Israel destroyed the truce that was declared by the Palestinian factions [with its] barbarian raid."
Similarly ignoring the preceding mass murder in Jerusalem, the Cairo newspaper al-Ahram al-Messai on Monday called the Israeli assassination of the Hamas leader "nothing short of a final blow leveled against the truce, the Road Map, and the entire Middle East peace process." Israel, the newspaper editorialized, "has failed the test of self-restraint. It could not contain its rage after the Palestinian suicide operation in West Jerusalem." The retaliation by Israel, the Egyptian newspaper declared, "can only be endorsed by a narrow-minded, short-sighted and aggressive person, who relishes the smell and color of blood, and the whizzing of bullets and airplanes."
The English-language Gazette columnist implies that such attacks help defend the Temple Mount: "Al-Aqsa mosque is the Muslims' third holiest site, a fact which makes it imperative to defend it and regain it from the occupiers. The Israelis keep defiling this mosque. In September 2000, Sharon, Israel's then opposition leader, provocatively visited the site under heavy guard provided by the then-government of Ehud Barak."
A third explanation provided by the Gazette is, "Israeli officials' statements add to the Palestinians' frustrations and fuel their vindictiveness to demonstrate their unpreparedness to give up their inalienable rights under all circumstances."
Another Egyptian publication, the weekly magazine Akher Sa'a, says that Israel "forces" the terrorists to murder Jews. Commenting on the US-backed Road Map, which the magazine praises for envisioning a Palestinian state, Akher Sa'a editorializes, "The Sharon government clearly rejects the plan and seeks to undermine it. [But] they cannot openly declare this, and thus resort to provoking the Palestinians and force them to commit suicide bombings. Unfortunately Hamas has fallen in this trap..."
After the Jerusalem attack, Israel retaliated. The most high-profile target eliminated in Israeli counter-terror operations in the days following the suicide bombing was senior Hamas leader Ismail Abu-Shanab. Al-Quds al-Arabi, an Arabic-language Jerusalem-based newspaper, saw the assassination of Abu-Shanab not as retaliation for the death of 21 innocent civilians, but as part of an Israeli plan to sabotage the ceasefire. However, the newspaper declares, "The operation that killed Abu-Shanab will not weaken the Hamas movement and will not succeed in putting pressure on its leaders. It will rather make them more radical in aspiring to even more martyrdom."
Sunday's Al-Akhbar al-Yom in Egypt declared, following the Israeli actions against Hamas, "Israel started a comprehensive war against Palestinians...." It was the assassination of Abu-Shanab, and not the mass murder of Jews in Israel's capital, that "enkindled violence again," the paper wrote, concluding, "Israel destroyed the truce that was declared by the Palestinian factions [with its] barbarian raid."
Similarly ignoring the preceding mass murder in Jerusalem, the Cairo newspaper al-Ahram al-Messai on Monday called the Israeli assassination of the Hamas leader "nothing short of a final blow leveled against the truce, the Road Map, and the entire Middle East peace process." Israel, the newspaper editorialized, "has failed the test of self-restraint. It could not contain its rage after the Palestinian suicide operation in West Jerusalem." The retaliation by Israel, the Egyptian newspaper declared, "can only be endorsed by a narrow-minded, short-sighted and aggressive person, who relishes the smell and color of blood, and the whizzing of bullets and airplanes."