08/06/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10050

AMERICANS KILLED BY TERRORISTS

Marla Bennett. Benjamin Blutstein. Janis Ruth Coulter. David Gritz. Dina Carter. These five Americans were killed in the July 31^st attack by Palestinian terrorists at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The terrorist bomb also killed two Israelis -- Lavina Shapira and David Ludovisky. About eighty people were wounded, some of them Arabs.

Daniel Kurtzer, United States Ambassador to Israel, went to the university to lay a wreath for the victims. "The people of America," he said, "have grieved with the people of Israel over the loss of life and horrible acts committed by Palestinian terrorists. [Now], we share that grief in even more poignant terms."

Like many Americans and people from other countries, Ambassador Kurtzer himself studied at Hebrew University. "The terrorist murderers, those who sent them, and those whose action and inaction contributed to this despicable act, have descended to a new depth of depravity," he said. "They have violated the sanctuary of a university in which Israelis and Arabs, Jews, Muslims, and Christians studied together."

In fact, Hebrew University is a school with students from about seventy nations. About ten percent are Arabs. As one former student from the U.S. told the Washington Post newspaper, "I learned to respect culture different from mine. This attack targeted those ideals."

The terrorist group Hamas claimed responsibility for the July 31^st attack. Among other attacks, Hamas terrorists killed twenty-nine people in the Israeli city of Netanya in March as they were gathering to observe the Passover holiday. As President George W. Bush has pointed out, "Hamas is an extremist group that calls for the total destruction of Israel. It is one of the deadliest terrorist organizations in the world today."

President Bush said the U.S. has responded to the murder of Americans across the globe -- in Afghanistan, in the Philippines. In this case, he said, "we’re responding by working with our Arab friends and Israel. . .to track these people down." Mr. Bush said the U.S. is committed "to fighting the war on terror and to winning the war on terror."

"I’m furious that innocent life is lost," said President Bush. "However, through my fury. . .I still believe peace is possible. And. . .I know that we can improve the conditions of everybody in the [Middle East] by working toward a vision that is hopeful and optimistic -- and not letting the terrorists destroy the possibility for peace."