The Sarona Terrorist Attack (June 8), Written by Tal Greber.

Last night at 10 pm (Israel time), my aunt called my mother. “There are terrorists in Sarona,” she told her. This was not the first time I was in Israel during a terrorist attack, but this one hit me hard. Sarona, a restored Templar colony that is today a popular open-air market in the heart of Tel Aviv, is one of the first places my mother and I always want to visit when we stay with my aunt in Tel Aviv. It was just by chance that we had decided to go to Tel Aviv later in the week, and it was just by chance that it wasn’t us there that night.

The current report is that four people were murdered in the attack, three were seriously wounded, and thirteen more were injured. The two gunmen were 21 year old Palestinian cousins from the Hebron area in the West Bank.
Here is a video, in which at 0:09 you can see the terrorist shoot an elderly man in the stomach/back from point blank range, followed by an article about the incident.
https://www.facebook.com/StandWithUs/videos/10153751436612689/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/shooting-reported-in-central-…/

But sadly, we cannot treat this as an isolated incident. Since September 13th, 2015 (the Jewish New Year), not including last night, 34 people have been killed in terrorist attacks and 460 people (including 4 Palestinians) injured.
There have been 151 stabbing attacks (including 66 attempted attacks), 92 shootings, 43 vehicular (ramming) attacks and one vehicle (bus) bombing.
This link includes a list describing many of those attacks: http://mfa.gov.il/…/…/Pages/Wave-of-terror-October-2015.aspx

These attacks are a product of Palestinian incitement.
(Videos and an article about Palestinian incitement:
https://www.facebook.com/StandWithUs/videos/10153721667372689/
http://www.algemeiner.com/…/palestinian-children-kill-isra…/#
https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/watch-o-barbaric-apes-net…/
http://www.jpost.com/…/JPost-Editorial-Peace-education-4560… )

The videos and articles say it better than I can, but in summary, from a young age Palestinian children are taught lies about Israel and its people, are shown how to stab, shoot, or use vehicles to kill Israeli citizens and encouraged that this makes them fighters for their people, participate in plays in which they murder Israelis, and more.

What people often forget, or fail to accept, is that Hamas, the PA, and the PLO are recognized *by the United States!!!* as terrorist organizations. Palestinian citizens in their hands are raised by their ideals, and families of these “freedom fighters” are often financially rewarded for their actions (even Iran offers these rewards). It is not just to be cute that Israel supporters say “Free Gaza from Hamas” in response to anti-Israel protestors.

It is also so much easier than people think to overlook very real media bias. While many of my friends who regularly keep up with Israel messaged me to ask if I was okay, most of my friends back in the US hadn’t heard anything about the terrorist attack. Many of you reading this may have heard very little, if anything at all, about what happened until this post. However, the second Israel strikes back at Gaza, as it did in 2014, Facebook becomes flooded with articles about what’s going on and how many Palestinians are being killed. We think that we are too wise to fall for media bias, but it becomes so easy when renowned sources such as New York Times and AP participate in it (http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/…/media-foul-on-new-yor…/…), and how are we to know information we are not given?

When people of the international community fail to recognize and properly react to these facts and instead give in to sensationalized news reports that talk about the murder of Palestinian children and rocket fire by Israel (which is never offensive, only defensive), the actions of the international community only serve to exacerbate the situation, demonizing Israel and bolstering the Palestinian incitement to continue committing acts of terror and murder more and more Israelis, shattering any progress towards peace.

Please, take the time to research the situation, from both sides, to better understand what is going on before picking sides and posting fervently about something you know biased facts about. Look into the situation, and begin to fight for what will help both sides, what will help the region reach peace. What will help rid the region from terrorist ruling, and so many senseless deaths on both sides.

Written from the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, where I comfortably sit between an Arab woman in a hijab, and an Israeli woman wearing a Magen David necklace, who just asked the Arab woman why she is not eating, to which she responded “I am not hungry, here, you take it, get well,” handing her an apple as she returns to her bed.

(First photo - a photo I took last year in Sarona. My aunt can be seen at the bottom right, talking to my mom to the right of her out of the frame.

Second photo - security forces in Sarona on scene after the attack.)