The twin bus bombing in Bir as-Sabe’ (Beersheva) marked the first suicide attack carried out in six months, and came in retaliation for extra judicial killings that claimed the lives of the two top Hamas leaders. The bombers were also retaliating against Israeli incursions, as they had announced prior, which left more than 270 Palestinians killed in six months, many of them women and children. It averages out at roughly 45 Palestinians being killed by Israeli troops each month of the past ‘relatively calm’ six months.

Since the suicide attack Israel has had some breathing room. In many ways this attack came as a gift to Sharon who desperately needed something to unite his government and divert attention from his failure to secure backing for his ‘unilateral disengagement plan.’ This Israeli government is leaving the old school extremist hawk, Ariel Sharon, seemingly looking like a harmless lovebird as they continue to strongly back ideologically fanatic settlers in their quest to abolish the roadmap while expanding illegal settlements making more obstacles in the way of a possible peace through Palestinian independence.

In the past ten days, the Israeli army has escalated attacks on all fronts. Threatening to oust Arafat and effectively distracting the media attention, as they continue to destroy and murder more Palestinian homes and lives, demolishing more than ten homes and killing 30 Palestinians including children. 10-year-old Mounir Deqqes was shot from a tank-mounted machine gun while he played outside his home; 12-year-old Mouneer AlKidis was killed during an Israeli missile attack on Rafah; 15-year-old Mohammad AlHaq was knocked down and ran over several times by an Israeli jeep as he was hurling stones at the intruding army vehicle; 16-year-old Munir Sha'ban al-Sindi was killed when hit by several live bullets throughout the body as he played with two friends near an orchard in Gaza; 16-year-old Yousef Ahmed Abu Lebda was pronounced dead after being shot twice by Israeli forces invading Gaza. 13 children were seriously wounded amongst them 3 10-year-olds, two boys and a girl.

One should note that fourteen Palestinians met their fate when an Israeli missile attack targeted a sports field which left many scattered body parts all over the sports ground, witnesses reported. The attack was against a Hamas camp and claimed the lives of 14 youths between the ages of 20-24, all sentenced and killed by the occupying foe. Two extra judicial killing was also carried out against a Palestinian member of the AlAqsa Brigades, Amer Aydiyeh, from West Bank and a Hamas member from Gaza. The west banker was captured at an internet café and cold bloodedly assassinated by Israeli ‘death squads’ as they proudly call themselves. The Gazan was targeted by an Israeli tank missile wounding four others in the process.

All in all, there have been 30 Palestinians killed in just the past ten days, five of them children with 13 children seriously wounded by the occupation military machine.

As America remains concerned with ‘Israel’s security,’ in other words, their right to kill and destroy without ever being held responsible for their war crimes, Israel continues to undermine the Americans and the rest of the world through settlement expansion, wall construction, ruthless killings, destruction, tree uprooting and espionage. Meanwhile the US candidates continue to appease the Zionist entity which has expanded its influence to reach American politics and politicians while damaging the US image and the American credibility and well being world wide.