Private Pays Price of Jewish Racism

love thy neighbour as thyself—Leviticus 19:18

Private Idan Atias
Food in the American Military: A History

In the morning of November 13, 2013, Private Idan Atias was killed in Afula's Bus Terminal by a 16 year-old Palestinian from Arabe, near Jenin in the West Bank. The event reads like a Shakespearean tragedy of errors.

Tragedy of Errors

The killed lived in Nazareth Illit, a Jewish settlement near Nazareth. He left his home heading towards Base 80, near Hedera with bus 823. The trip is not long and features a snacks stop at Afula, the largest town in the Jezreel Valley. Base 80 is a training base for general soldiers. Idan was recruited just two weeks before his killing and was passing a basic course; apparently he was to be a cook or a hairdresser. Against all odds, he fell asleep in the way to the military base. Usually, soldiers sleeping in a bus are in the way back home tired after a period of activity. As said, a tragedy of errors. His nap was so powerful that he didn't have a coffee in Afula, a place famous for the drink. His nap was so powerful that only the first stab in his neckwoke him up.

The Palestinian boy was awake. He, Idan, and a female soldier were the only ones that remained in the bus while the other passengers run to buy a cup of black elixir. The boy was thinking of his brother and his cousin, both jailed in Israel.

Arrested Suspect A Midsummer Night's Dream

Only 16 and from the West Bank, he couldn't decipher the clear signs of a "jobnik." The soldier he decided to attack when the opportunity appeared was an unworthy target for his goal. He stabbed him in the neck, the heart and several other parts. The female soldier ran out of the bus screaming in sheer terror. A soldier and a border police soldier run into the bus and detained the aggressor.

Idan Atias, who meanwhile woke up and was hysteric, died soon afterwards in the Afula hospital. The aggressor was injured by the soldiers who detained him and is now under custody in the Tiberias hospital.

The final incredible touch to this tragedy was given by the female soldier who was in the bus during the event. She serves as a guard in an undisclosed base. In the third error shaping the event, she forgot her weapon at home and could not react to the aggression. "Now I am sorry about that, I would prefer to be in jail and not to see him killed," the shocked girl declared inexplicably.

Egged Bus where Idan was killed Shanghai Refuge

Thinking Warrior Statue in Afula, by Asaf Lifschitz, 2005 Related: Palestinians Take Weapon from IDF Soldier in Guard Did you know? IDF Soldiers Desert Mt. Hermon Stronghold

Racist's Boomerang

Tragic as it is, the event did not justify mentioning in international media, even if considering the unlikely chain of errors in it. What convinced me to spend time on the issue was a background detail. The killed soldier was from Nazareth Illit;*veteran readers may remember the place from recent racist events commented here. In the October municipal elections, Shimon Gafsou was reelected as mayor.

Mayor Shimon Gafsou—Nazareth Illit The Nazareth Jesus Knew

In 2010, Gafsou ordered the municipality to confiscate Christmas trees from Christian houses. In January 2013, after publishing a racist bombshell ("There would be no Arabic schools!"), I thought that Mr. Gafsou was like a rotten leaf floating atop a stream of sewage. Moving downwards into the deep waters of eternal oblivion, he was unlikely to be heard again.

I was wrong. He returned with one of the most awesome racist texts ever published. In mid-April, Nazareth-Illit Mayor Shimon Gafsou published a pamphlet entitled "Report to the Citizen. What we have done. Nazareth Illit Jewish Forever!"

Mr. Gafsou's text was so extreme that Member of the Knesset Ilan Gilon complained to the Attorney General of Israel.^** This happened just one day afterNetanyahu prolonged a law banning mixed marriages, which has already led to legal processes against the Zionist regime by Jewish Members of the Knesset defining the law as racist.

Something is rotten in Zion. To those who missed it, I recommend reading Jewish Mayor: I've been called "Fascist, Thug, Racist", where Gafsou's indefatigable racism is presented in its full uglyness. Here is one racist pearl: "I have been called fascist, thug, and racist, but all these condemnations and insults, even the threats and pressures will not scare me away and will not weaken my hands. I receive my strength from you, denizens of Nazareth Illit, that chose me to stand at the front of this righteous struggle, and that are not ready anymore, for the sake of beautifying our souls and the sanctification of democracy, to put the Jewish identity of the city in jeopardy."

Racism Boomerang Hitting Thrower Glacier Wooden Boomerang

Of course, this is nothing but a racist's boomerang

Back to Afula

The arrested suspect was quickly interrogated. He crossed from the West Bank without being detected by the army or the police. He claimed that he wanted to go to Tel Aviv, the big city to the south, but without hesitation he moved northwards towards Nazareth, the largest city in the north, where he could speak Arabic inconspicuously.

He was unlikely to make such a navigational error; he had already proved his capability to move accuratey and undetected across army posts. It is unthinkable that he was not aware of the racist remarks of the Jewish mayor. They have been on the news all along the last year, and we are just a couple of weeks after the municipal elections. The reelection of the racist mayor was certainly noted.

Once there, he went to the bus terminal and took bus 823, a fast line leading to Tel Aviv. When the bus crossed the Jewish town, Nazareth Illit, the boy noted the boarding soldiers.

Laboriously, the bus descended hilly Nazareth and reached the Jezreel Valley. Minutes later, the driver stopped for a well-earned Turkish coffee at Afula's bus terminal.

Seconds later, the racist's boomerang it back his deliverer.