A truck driven by an Israeli-Arab man hit a bus filled with Palestinian school children at the Adam Square, a major intersection north of Jerusalem between highway 60 and highway 437, on Thursday, killing several children and one of their teachers. “They had very little time to escape the bus from the moment of impact. A fire broke out very soon afterward,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Jerusalem Post. “The bus is completely burned-out on the inside.” Driving rains and low visibility were blamed for the accident, but the driver of the truck is scheduled to be questioned by police as soon as he recovers from the injuries he sustained. Israeli and PA medics cooperated in treating the victims, who were taken to hospitals in Jerusalem and Ramallah. Israeli officials offered their condolences and full support to the families of victims, but some PA officials tried to blame Israel for the accident, saying that the IDF did not respond quickly enough and/or prevented Palestinian rescuers from reaching the scene of the accident.
New Dehli bombing investigation points to Iran
Intelligence and security personnel involved in the investigation of Monday’s ‘sticky bomb’ attack against on the vehicle of Tal Yehoshua-Koren, wife of the Israel defense attaché, in New Delhi, told government officials on Thursday that the attack was definitely carried out by a “foreign bomber” who could be “an Iranian affiliated to a Shi’ite terrorist group.” Police are investigating students and tourists in New Dehli from Iran and Lebanon, as well as Palestinians. Indian officials have been slow to point a finger at Iran, saying it is still too early to make a determination. Elsewhere, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian proxy terror militia Hezbollah gave a televised interview on Thursday in which he vehemently denied involvement in the attacks, despite the fact that his group has been threatening to carry out such attacks for years.
Israel art museum receives prestigious award
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art has won Best Museum Award in the prestigious Travel and Leisure Magazine Award 2012 for their new Herta and Paul Amir Building, which opened last November 2. "In contrast to many dramatically shaped new art museums, it succeeds in being at once breathtaking and deferential to the art on display," said Travel and Leisure’s citation. "The Tel Aviv museum is quite a piece of sculpture, but it is a sculpture that accepts art," agreed architect Billie Tsien, who was on the committee that judged different museums for the magazine.
Snow forecast for the weekend in Jerusalem
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat visited the city’s Snow Preparedness site at the Municipal Center in Givat Shaul on Thursday afternoon, part of light hearted preparations for the possibility of heavy snowfall in the capital over the weekend. The predictions were supported throughout the week by heavy rains in several areas, as well as snow on Mount Hermon in the north. The Sea of Galilee, which has been in a crisis for years, is 17 centimeters above the bottom red line. “The city is longing for a storm and for snow,” Barkat told The Jerusalem Post. “The kids in Jerusalem love snow and pray and long for snow, and the challenge is what can we do to convince the weather to have snow? That’s the biggest challenge.”
Australian groups accused of aiding terrorists
The Israel Law Center, a civil rights group, sent legal warnings on Wednesday to two Australian organizations, World Vision Australia and AusAID, accusing them of providing financial aid to the Gaza-based Palestinian organization, Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) which is, in fact, a front for the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP.) The UAWC lists World Vision, a Christian relief, development and advocacy group, and AusAID, the Australian government agency for managing the country’s overseas aid program, as its supporters. “The Union of Agricultural Work Committees is an integral part of the proscribed terror organization, the PFLP, that Australian citizens and corporations are prohibited from providing support to,” said Australian solicitor Andrew Hamilton on Wednesday. “By providing aid to the UAWC, organizations such as World Vision and AusAID are in fact aiding and abetting Palestinian terrorism, and thereby violating Australian and United States anti-terrorism laws.”
